Baltimore marinas are also a landing place for transient boaters traveling up and down the East Coast and to the Midwest. Easton said Anchorage Marina often hosts snowbirds headed north from Florida, as well as “Loopers,” who gather provisions in Baltimore before setting out for a trip through the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and on to Florida.

“Of course, we won’t be able to accept those reservations” without access to the harbor, he said. “Everybody wants to know when it will open, and we have no ideas.”

The Army Corps of Engineers hopes to restore access to the port by the end of May. Sanett, the chief commercial officer at Oasis Marinas, said the Coast Guard has been sympathetic to the strain on marinas in the meantime. He estimated the local marina industry would lose $1 million a month under the current conditions, a figure that doesn’t include the ancillary effects of reduced traffic at waterfront bars, restaurants and shops.

“This is not just a bunch of wealthy people wanting to play with their yachts in Baltimore harbor,” Sanett said. “When the bridge came down, there was a huge impact.”

Oasis, a management company for some 50 marinas across the United States, operates about half of the approximately 2,300 slips in Baltimore, including those at Lighthouse Point in Canton, Harbor East Marina, Baltimore Inner Harbor Marina, Port Covington Marina, Baltimore Yacht Basin, The Crescent Marina and Living Classrooms in Fells Point.

Baltimore marinas stand to lose out on longer term business the longer it takes to restore access to the harbor. Sanett said he’s heard of other marinas asking stranded Baltimore boaters to sign annual contracts rather than allowing short-term storage and slip extensions.

That was the experience of Brian Ward, who hired a Coast Guard captain to pilot his yacht through the channel Tuesday and to a slip at Lighthouse Point. He stores the boat in Dundalk, east of the Key Bridge, and called marinas on the Chesapeake Bay to inquire about temporary options after the collapse.

“I was thinking I could rent a slip in a marina for maybe a month or two months, but I didn’t have any luck,” he said. “Their prices are really high, or they wanted a longer term commitment, so I didn’t pursue that anymore.”

Ward will have to cancel a planned trip to St. Michaels for a wine festival in late April because of uncertainty about whether he will be able to leave the harbor again in the near term. But the Frederick resident said he’s glad to have his boat back in Baltimore, where he enjoys spending weekends on the water.

“July and August are the heights of the season, and I’m just hoping they’ll get something worked out by then,” he said.

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