Chesapeake-Oxford MD in the Rain 6-11-09

Weather fronts are stalled over the Chesapeake and promise to bring even more rain. Cruising dreams always have fair weather and blue skies but the reality is often different so put on the rain slickers and explore.

We were surrounded this morning at anchor by waterman laying out their trap lines for crabs. I was a little worried that our anchor would get fouled, but then I focused on the positive—we were probably in the mother load area and would bring up a Maryland Blue Crab on our anchor/chain and have a succulent dinner. I was disappointed when we only brought up brown sludge.

We traveled a short 15 miles over to Oxford through the rain and fog along the beautiful Tred Avon River. As we neared Oxford, the Oxford Bellevue Ferry (America’s oldest privately owned ferry shuttle) pulled out quickly from shore right in our path. This was not as “up close and personal” as when Destroyer #58 pulled out of the Portsmouth Navy Yard right in front of us without so much as a horn signal but that’s a whole other story.

We have had an ongoing discussion about using a marina vs. anchoring and it came into play again today. We had hoped to anchor between Buoy 9/10, but we were already soaked and more thunderstorms were predicted, so we opted out and went to a marina. Here’s another example of where the dream and the reality separate. What would you do?

Oxford is another quaint eastern shore village undergoing a metamorphosis from fishing town to tourist mecca but the economic downturn has slowed this a bit. With its brick-paved sidewalks, picket fence yards, historic homes (Bay homes for sale for 2.5 million) and the Strand beach along the river complete with benches at the end of every street, Oxford is inviting even on a rainy day. These boys dove right in but watch out for those pesky jelly fish. Oxford is home to Cutts & Case, Inc., classic wood boat builders, and the harbor is filled with their beautiful works of art. As the rain poured down, I was able to duck under the awning of the Oxford Market and take a picture of flowers loving the rain. The town is sponsoring a picket fence art contest and here’s a picture of what Oxford looks like on a sunny day. It's always a sunny day at the fantastic Scottish Highland Creamery for home-made ice cream and truffles.

Kathy and Dean on Briar Patch joined us for an impromptu get-together. Here’s a picture of their beautiful hand-made wooden rowing dinghy.

Chesapeake-St. Michaels MD 6-10-09

So much of the wonder of exploring the Chesapeake is sneaking back into a small river or side channel and anchoring. We met with Mike and Pegge on Avalon and got a list of their favorite anchorages from their 20 year experience here and departed from Solomons this morning on a 68 degree perfect sunny morning for the eastern shore and St. Michaels, a trip of 40 miles with light winds and a ½ knot current against us. We passed the 5,000 mile mark of our current trip today and notice that we are in another state, Maryland.

We anchored in Domingo Creek by way of serpentining first through the Choptank River and Broad Creek. This is the back door access to St. Michaels and we took the dinghy to the public dock which we shared with day oyster boats. Heat, humidity and hazy skies descended and it isn’t even summer yet. St. Michaels is a charming, upscale, historic town with restored homes, antiques, boutiques, B&Bs, spas, bistros and all made vibrant by the bells from Christ Church.

This is quite a transformation from its past life as a waterman’s enclave of fishing for oysters, clams and crabs and the history of this dichotomy and friction is told in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and their exhibit, “Whose Bay Is This?” The museum also offers some amazing boat restorations and Bob was thinking of signing me up for their day apprenticeship program to learn more—always looking for varnishing tips. We continued our search for great crabcakes and the Crab Claw Restaurant had some good offerings but I like mine spicier, but it was a good place to watch the Wed. night sailboat races.

The area has some past and current claims to fame. During the War of 1812, the St. Michaels residents, forewarned of a British attack, hoisted lanterns into trees and ships masts, which tricked the British cannoniers and they overshot the town. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have both bought properties in the area, and according to locals, when they come to town, the streets are clogged with Secret Service and no one can get into a restaurant easily.

For us tonight, it was back to the boat and a quiet anchorage--heaven.

Chesapeake-Solomons Island MD 6-9-09

We left Dozier’s Regatta Point Marina on 6-7 bound for Solomons Island. I should mention that Dozier’s is a first rate stop at a very reasonable price ($1.25 per foot) with nice amenities (pool, laundry, boaters lounge, huge porch with rockers, 2 courtesy cars) and a chance to meet and thank Jack Dozier who writes all the Waterway Guides that we have been following since Mobile AL.

We entered the 30 mile wide mouth of the Chesapeake a few days ago and are now in an estuary world where large and small rivers flow (the Susquehanna, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James, Severn, Bohemia etc.) and make their way to the Atlantic. The Bay is 200 miles long, but with all the tributaries, it covers 4,500 square miles—definitely enough boating territory here for a few lifetimes but we only have a month. No longer will be going from buoy to buoy like in the ICW but can plot our own course complete with waypoints. Weather in spring and early summer is supposed to be mild with moderate rainfall, but so far we’ve had 5 days of often heavy rain, hot humid weather but it does cool off at night which can create early morning fog.

There are so many choices but high on most cruisers list is a stop at Solomons Island located on the western shore up the Patuxent River. This is sailboat country and on this Sunday afternoon with great wind, the sails were flying proudly in the Bay. Solomons is only 1mile long but offers so many choices—stroll the Riverwalk, visit the Calvert Marine Museum and fully restored Drum Point Lighthouse and walk/bike about 1 ½ miles to the Annmarie Garden. We stayed 2 full days at Solomons Harbor Marina (Holiday Inn Select--$50 each for the first 2 nights; $32 for 3rd night) so that we could do all of this as well as visit with Mike and Pegge on Avalon and also catch up with Dean and Kathy on Briar Patch. Woodburn’s Grocery store is a great place to reprovision.

The Calvert Marine Museum offers a very informative and entertaining prehistoric view of the Bay complete with a skeleton of the 52 foot Megatooth shark that used to inhabit these waters over 2 million years ago—watch out Bob. The cliffs in this area have provided a treasure trove of fossils and you can watch staff gleaning through these. The museum also recreates human history-- Solomons is named after Isaac Solomon who started an oyster cannery business here in 1865 but the RR did not get built to transport his goods inland and his business failed. Other fishing, cannery and boat building endeavors took hold and their efforts are memorialized in the Waterman sculpture at Annmarie Gardens.

The Drum Point Lighthouse is a hexagonal, screwpile variety which was moved here in 1975 and restored inside and out and reopened for viewing in 1978. When winters were cold and severe in the Chesapeake in the 1800’s, screwpile lighthouses sometimes moved 5 miles with the keeper still on it! Check out the amazing array of restored boats here—skiffs, yawls, launches, jolly boat (can you see all of these in the boat barn picture above) and a replica of John Smith’s boat that was used to explore and initially chart the Chesapeake back in the 1600’s.

My favorite activity was walking through the Annmarie Sculpture Garden on a rainy ethereal day. It is an extraordinary place to explore both art and nature. You are greeted by porcelain gates which take you into a 30 acre park with 30 bronze statues on loan from the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The inside museum offered a Wild Things exhibit as well as a collection of vintage woolwork needle art created by sailors in the 1800s to record their travels, pay tribute to their ships and give as mementos to their families. Bob even mastered the chain stitch in the hands-on demonstration so I am going to give him the mending now.

Living History at VA Historic Triangle 6-6-09

One of the best parts of this trip is touring historical sites and understanding how modern America came to be. This area offers so much—Colonial Williamsburg, the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Battlefield. We rented a car with Dave and Peg from Sea Ya and toured this amazing area for 3 days. If you stay in Yorktown, there is a free shuttle bus to the sites and we would recommend staying 5-7 days to really appreciate all there is to see.

You can trace the beginnings of America to the Jamestown Settlement, and with their Powhatan Indian Village, replicas of colonial ships bringing settlers here, and James Fort with thatched roof houses and military defenses, the living museum brings this all to life with reenactors, hands-on demonstrations, galleries and films. We all learned about navigating with a traverse board, compass and chiplog but we’ll keep our GPS.

Colonial Williamsburg is the largest of the historic areas and recreates America just before the Revolution complete with all the drama, struggle and hope of that time. The story is told throughout the village by multi-cultural actors recreating the arguments for and against revolution from so many perspectives and asking we, the participating audience, what would you choose.

Yorktown Victory Center continues the saga into the Revolutionary War and captures the struggle and hardships through a thought-provoking timeline complete with 10 diverse witnesses to history telling their story as well as a Continental Army Encampment replica and film.

We had so much fun and learned so much. We had a lively discussion about Samuel Johnson's 1759 statement that "a man in jail has more room, better food and commonly better company" than a sailor. Could this be true on 32-foot Baby Grand?

Dave and Peg were here 43 years ago on their honeymoon and here’s a picture of them still having fun.