Our first stop after leaving Kent Island was St. Michael’s,
MD. We had been here many times before and, in fact, had anchored in almost
exactly the same spot before. Now,
imagine sitting on the aft deck with a cocktail just enjoying the hell out of
the wonderful weather and calm seas. What could be better than this? I’ll tell
you what … sitting on the aft deck with a cocktail and a baited hook in the
water just waiting for a decent-sized spot or even a croaker. Now THAT is
heaven.
The day after I enjoyed a little o this heavenly bliss, we
decided we would go into St. Michaels to see what was new. We deployed the
dinghy, pulled the cord to start the outboard and … nothing. Nothing. The $%#%
thing wouldn’t start. As high as I had been the day before while fishing off
the aft deck, I was now just as low sitting in the non-functional dinghy. I
know what was wrong, of course. The brilliant legislators who mandated the use
of ethanol in our gasoline either did not know – or did not care – that it
would have a tremendously negative impact on marine outboards. AAARGH!!!
Since we couldn’t get
to shore, we called around and found a marina/boatyard in Oxford, MD that could
take us and repair our dinghy expeditiously. Campbell’s was not only fast (they
had us ready to go by 3:30 that afternoon), they were also relatively inexpensive.
(We paid for one hour of a mechanics time, $85.) We went ahead and spent the
night at the marina, then anchored the following night at our favorite
anchoring spot in Oxford, Flatty Cove. Since we were there, we deployed our
dinghy (this time it worked!) and went into town. Some of you may remember that
Ann and I have a love affair with the Robert Morris Inn as it has some of the
best food – and perhaps the best crab cakes – on the Bay. Well, this time we
didn’t go for dinner, but we did go for lunch. Ann had a Reuben AND she
actually ate cold slaw with APPLES in it. (Some of you will understand the
significance of Ann eating a salad with fruit in it. If not, take my word for
it; this is an event!) As for me, I have my specialty: beer and French fries
with rosemary and parmesan. MMMMMMMM!!
We had decided to go to some new places on the Chesapeake this
year, so after Oxford we headed for Crisfield Maryland. Crisfield is on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland. According to Wikipedia:
The site of today's Crisfield was
initially a small fishing village called Annemessex Neck. During European colonization, it was
renamed Somer's Cove after Benjamin Summers. When the business potential
for seafood was discovered, John W. Crisfield decided to bring the Pennsylvania Railroad to Crisfield, and
the quiet fishing town grew. Crisfield is now known as the "Seafood
Capital of the World.” The city's success was so great that the train soot and oyster shells
prompted the extension of the city's land into the marshes. City residents
often claim that the downtown area is literally built atop oyster shells.
But the key to Wikipedia’s discussion is in subsequent
paragraphs.
·
“Crisfield
began to slip into decline along with the declining health of the Chesapeake
Bay …”
· By 1904, Crisfield was the second largest city
in Maryland, after Baltimore, with the population topping off at
about 25,000 at that time. In 2010, the population was a little over 2,000.
Whether you are an environmentalist, a seafood lover or
simply a lover of the Eastern Shore and what it represents, it is sad to
realize that Crisfield (and many other cities in both Maryland and Virginia)
destroyed themselves by overfishing. First, they overfished oysters and now
they are destroying the crab fishery. The numbers of the blue crab catch has
decreased by 70% since the 1990s. Downtown Crisfield is now a shadow of its
former self. I have seen a repurposing of buildings before, but when a large
community bank building (you know, one of those that looks like it is made of
granite?) has been made into a curtain shop and when hardware stores have been
converted to churches, you know that things are not going well for the town.
Okay, so you get the idea that Crisfield is not what it once
was. We, moreover, got there on a cold, wet, windy day. So, while there
wouldn’t have been much to do anyway, the weather put a real damper on things.
Not to despair, however, because the next day the marina sponsored what they
called an “Outdoor Expo” for the community; Ann preferred to call it an “All
Things Duck” day. Yes, they had duck decoys for sale, duck calls, duck hats, duck
this and duck that. They even had – wait for it – one of the personalities from
the TV show “Duck Dynasty!!!” We are so very, very sorry though, we did not get
his autograph.
We did partake, and enjoy, two parts of the “All Things
Duck” Fest. They had a demonstration of dogs retrieving the duck that their
masters shot. Imagine this: the dog and his hunter on the platform, the
officials would make a sound like a shotgun firing and then send one or two
targets in to the water. On command, the dog would take a flying leap into the
water towards the targets, swim out, pick up the decoy and bring them back to the hunter. The water
was c-c-c-cold and those dogs were amazingly well trained. The second part of the event that we especially
enjoyed was lunch. We had a meal consisting of crawdads, gator and frog’s legs.
Man those frog legs were good! I have had better gator as this was a little
tough (look at me – a gator connoisseur) and the crawdads, well, they were
really small. We only had one where you could get a mouthful of meat and it was
good. But fighting the shell for that little bite made the ‘dad my least
favorite. The organizers also had a “muskrat platter,” but we decided to forego
that one.
We also met some new cruisers at Crisfield. Waterford and My Dreams are two Kady Krogens (a very nice kind of trawler) that had just been to the Krogen
rendezvous at Solomons, MD. We asked them over for drinks and made some new friends.
That and a couple of 15 mile bike rides kind if rounded out our Crisfield
adventure.
Our initial plan was to go from Crisfield to Onancock
(pronounced O- NAN- cock), anchor out and check out the little town and its
environs. We heard, however, that the weather, which had improved a little
since we had arrived in Crisfield, was going to deteriorate again, so we
decided to head across the bay to Deltaville for a few days to get set for our
trip to Hampton. We have been in Deltaville a lot so we knew to use the marina’s
courtesy car to go to the grocery, the fresh fish store, the cute little
sandwich shop and to West Marine. I got in one bike ride, then the weather, as predicted, got yucky. As a
result, Ann organized a pizza party on the marina’s front porch. We invited all
the cruisers who were there, which included the crew of the two Krogens we had met
in Crisfield AND a boat that we originally met two years ago in March Harbor in
the Bahamas and have subsequently run into (figuratively, not literally) at
Kilkenny Marina in Georgia and at Ashley Marina in Charleston. The name of the
boat: Azure Skies. The captain and
sole crew member’s name: Bob (sorry, I don’t know Captain Bob’s last name).
Then we took off for Hampton for the great Hampton Snowbird
Rendezvous. It turned out that we had done the right thing by crossing from
Crisfield when we had the weather window. We ended up going south from
Deltaville to Hampton while some friends of ours got caught crossing the
Chesapeake, going kind of east to west, during quite a little bit of rough
weather. I think we have determined
there are three reasons to attend a rendezvous:
·
Meet new people and renew old acquaintances
·
Explore a new location (Hampton)
·
Go to classes and attend seminars
We met several new people in Hampton. Just as importantly,
we saw our good friends Tom and Christina from their boat Tadhana. Tom has been involved in the marine industry for years , he has a degree from Brown, has designed
boats, managed boatyards, and edited the Waterway
Guide. While Tom and Christina have cruised the Chesapeake extensively, they have not
spent much time on the ICW. THAT is one thing about which we actually know a
little more than they do! We also met Mark and Dianne Doyle, authors of a
different waterway guide – one that Ann likes a lot. Although Mark is very
knowledgeable about some things, we know more than he does about some things,
too (though he would never admit it – yes, he is one of those kinds of guys.)
Oh! And before I forget, Ann’s cousins Sally Koch, Ralph
Butler (and his wife, Mary) and Sandy Fisher came to visit. Ralph has a summer
house in Machipongo, VA (on Virginia’s eastern shore) where the cousins
congregated. It turns out Ralph is a dedicated fisherman! We may have to go see
him next year on our way up the Chesapeake J
We really didn’t take as much advantage of Hampton as we
probably should have. I was a bit too intimidated by the traffic and weird road
system to go bicycling, and everything we needed (like restaurants) were close
by. The Event offered a few trips to various attractions, we passed on most of
them.
We went several different lectures. Some were good and some
were … okay.
·
ICW 202: Beyond the Basics (I could have missed
it.)· Medicine Aboard (I did miss it, but Ann says it was really good.)
· Perfect Placed to Plunk It: 50 Frugal Favorites (Yawn)
· Five Things to Know About How Boats Are Built (Actually, much better than I thought it was going to be!)
· Caring For your Canvas (Pretty good, though I missed some of it)
· ICW Trouble Spots (I took notes, but I am not sure I agree with everything the speaker said.)
· What Really Sinks your Boat (Really very good – and scary)
· The Bahamas- Cuba Loop (Hello, Cuba is still off limits to Americans)
· Smartphones and Tablets Aboard (Pretty good, but some people have made an avocation of using the phone and tablet on board.)
ANN’S Notes: Well….since Michael has pretty much explain what we have been doing and did a
mighty fine job…I don’t have much to add.
Since the general election was just a few days ago, the one
statement the candidates make at the end of the add..I will modify for my use.
This blog has been approved and edited by Ann R. Brown
Fist mate on the motor vessel Traveling Soul
Traveling Soul…Out
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