When 37-year-old Jeff Andrews left home for college nearly two decades ago, he just wanted to get out of the small waterfront town where he grew up.

But after 4 1/2 years of living near Washington, he returned home to Havre de Grace and discovered there is no place he'd rather be. Andrews now manages the marina two doors away from his childhood home - the same marina he worked at when he was 15.

"It's the only job I've had that I never got bored with," he said. As manager of Tidewater Marina, which has 158 slips for powerboats and sailboats, Andrews stays busy. His little waterfront hometown has grown into an active hub for the region's boating community.

At the confluence of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, Havre de Grace forms a point of land that offers everything from prime fishing and ideal sailing to waterfowl watching and hunting at its best.

Central to the cultural and business centers of the mid-Atlantic, Havre de Grace is 35 miles from Baltimore, 70 miles from Washington, and 60 miles from Philadelphia. It is connected to the Northeast corridor by Interstate 95 and U.S. 40, which passes through the north end of town.

With two international airports and an Amtrak station nearby, it's an ideal place for cruisers on their way up or down the coast to stop and change crews. It's also an ideal place for mid-Atlantic boaters to play.

"We get people coming in on their boats to come to a festival, for the weekend, or just to go to lunch," Andrews said. "People seem to be using their boats more to do that kind of stuff."

That's been good for business in a town of 4.2 square miles that boasts four major marinas, five waterfront parks, four waterfront museums and a half-mile-long walkway called The Promenade that winds along the banks of the Susquehanna Flats, offering sweeping views of the water.

Incorporated in 1785, Havre de Grace has always been a town that owes its existence to the water. The fabric of the place is interwoven with a rich maritime history and a modern tourist and recreational marine industry.

On just about any summer day, there's a steady flow of pedestrian traffic along the 2 1/2 miles of shoreline south of U.S. 40 that characterize the town.

On the southern end of town, children chase each other through Tydings Park while parents set up picnics before an expansive view of the bay. Tourists stroll along the promenade, making stops at the Decoy Museum, the Maritime Museum and the restored Concord Point Lighthouse. Built in 1827, the lighthouse once guided merchant mariners into the river through the shallow Susquehanna Flats of the upper bay.

Turning north at the lighthouse, the shoreline heads up the Susquehanna, where restaurants and shops pepper the route to the other end of town. Midway, fishermen dangle lines off the public pier at Frank J. Hutchins Memorial Park, and the skipjack Martha Lewis - the last Chesapeake Bay oyster boat to fish commercially under sail in the United States - boards another load of passengers.

At the north end of town, where the low truss bridges of Interstate 95 and Route 40 cross the river and lend a distinctive look to the city, the Susquehanna Lockhouse Museum offers a glimpse of life in Havre de Grace in the 1800s when the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal connected cargo ships of the bay with the interior.

Today, the canal locks remain as relics of the city's commercial past. Now, the water is plied by scores of recreational boaters. An active sailboat racing fleet converges on the town every Thursday evening from late April through the first week in September.

"We've got about 65 boats registered, and we can get close to 60 on the water on a good Thursday night," said Martin Hoover, the commodore of Havre de Grace Yacht Club. The first start features small day sailers. Then there's a J-24 class start, two spinnaker starts, and two nonspinnaker starts.

The fleet has been active for 24 years, but has grown in recent years.

"Probably, people are discovering Havre de Grace as another St. Michaels or Annapolis," Hoover said, "and for people coming down from the north, it's the first access they have to the Chesapeake Bay."

According to Andrews, the whole marine industry has picked up in the past few years. Tidewater Marina, which is host to the yacht club, also is a dealer in sailboats. "The last few years we've done really well in sales," Andrews said.

For Brad Nelson, owner of Starrk Moon Kayaks, Havre de Grace was an ideal location to open one of his kayak stores in 1998. Look out on the water on any given day and you'll likely see folks paddling along in one of Starrk Moon's rental boats or giving a new boat a test run before deciding on a purchase.

"I've always admired Havre de Grace," said Nelson, who lives in Delta, Pa., and who has stores there and in West Virginia. "It reminds me of Ocean City without the waves. God's not making new waterfront, so you should appreciate what you have. It's so pretty and quaint there."

With its waterfront location, the Havre de Grace Starrk Moon caters to those paddlers who want to take a closer look at the scenery. The store holds several guided nature trips each year where paddlers can spot eagles, herons and other wildlife indigenous to the Chesapeake region.

However, Nelson would like to bring a little bit of whitewater excitement to Havre de Grace. The Susquehanna will never have Class 5 rapids, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be a place for whitewater adventure.

Nelson has met with local officials on several occasions to pitch the idea of constructing a whitewater arena. The area is ready for such a facility, and it would be a boon to the town, he said. "People come for miles to use these," he said.

But sailing and paddling aren't the only draw here. Just look out from The Promenade at the wide and shallow Susquehanna Flats, and it's clear that fishing is a major thread in the fabric of Havre de Grace.

Gere Frailey, dock master for the town of Havre de Grace, is the supervisor of waterfront facilities. Frailey said more than 5,000 trailered boats a year are launched at the City Yacht Basin's free boat ramp. Some are small sailboats; most are fishing boats.

The catch-and-release rockfish season, from early April to mid-May, draws the biggest crowd, Frailey said. "We get more traffic during that month to six weeks than our busiest weekends during the summer," Frailey said.

But the town is a hub for fishermen all year long. Bass fishing and rockfish tournaments draw large crowds in the spring and fall, and on just about any day of the week, you can find fishermen ticking away hours on the piers with lines in the water.

With its miles of natural shoreline, the area also remains popular among duck hunters. Its history as a prime location for waterfowling has made it a place of distinction among waterfront towns.

Hoover related a conversation he had while visiting Alabama a few years ago, in which he told someone he was from a little town in Maryland they'd probably never heard of. "When I said Havre de Grace, the guy's eyes lit up and he said, 'Oh, the decoy capital of the world!'"

Decoys, those carved figures that lure ducks into a hunter's sights, have been a central element of Chesapeake culture for centuries. Many of the finest carvers hail from this region.

In 1986 the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum was established to preserve the historical and cultural legacy of waterfowling and the American folk art of decoy making on the Chesapeake Bay. With displays of 1,200 decoys and decorative carvings by some of the finest masters, the museum attracts visitors from all over the world, and even draws a few people to settle in Havre de Grace.

Jeanne Hiss and her husband, Warren, moved to the town from Reisterstown in Baltimore County a year and a half ago, in large part because of their love of decoys and the museum. Both are volunteers at the museum. Jeanne is an accomplished decorative carver who began showing her work in Havre de Grace more than 17 years ago.

"We just liked Havre de Grace so much that when it came time for us to retire, this is where we wanted to go," said Warren Hiss. "Some of the architecture here is really fantastic. It's very charming."

Despite its charm, its renown for fine decoys and tremendous fishing, its active sailing community and great freshwater swimming spots, Havre de Grace still feels to many like an undiscovered gem.

"I look at Havre de Grace as what a lot of the touristy places on the bay were," said Anderson. "St. Mike's has grown a lot. Annapolis has grown a lot, and in growing so much, a lot of these places can lose their charm. Havre de Grace hasn't lost that yet."

Waterfront attractions

Bay Cruises

Skipjack Martha Lewis 1-800-406-0766; 410-939-4078

The Martha Lewis is a V-bottom, two-sail skipjack and is one of the few remaining dredge boats that make up the Chesapeake Bay oyster fleet. This 49-foot oyster dredger was built in 1955 and restored in Havre de Grace in 1994.

The 32-passenger vessel is available for environmental trips for schools and groups April through October. Most trips are 1 1/2 hours and feature the Susquehanna Flats and the Upper Chesapeake Bay. Public cruises are featured mid-May through October on weekends.

Lantern Queen 1-888-937-3740; 410-287-7217 www.lanternqueen.com

The 140-passenger Lantern Queen is a replica of the Mississippi River boats. The air-conditioned and heated salon has a full-service bar and full catering capabilities.

The boat is available for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and business meetings. Public sunset dinner cruises run Thursday and Friday, May through October.

Applegarth Cruises 410-879-6941

The miniature skipjack Applegarth is one of few remaining examples of a small Chesapeake Bay commercial sailing vessel. Also known as two-sail bateau, crabbing bateau and hand scrapper, these vessels were used for oystering, crabbing, fishing, hunting and general transportation. Applegarth can accommodate six passengers and is available for day and evening charters.

Sailing, charter and instruction

BaySail 410-939-2869 Located at Tidewater Marine at the foot of Bourbon Street in Havre de Grace

Starrk Moon Kayaks 410-939-9500 www.starrkmoon.com

Boat launching

Havre de Grace City Yacht Basin 410-939-0015 Adjacent to Tydings Park

Jean Roberts Park Water Street