An Easy Ride to Reedville, Virginia

posted by Ardys

We pulled anchor at 0700 this morning, motoring south at 7.19 kt (knots) or about 8.27 mph toward the Potomac.  When we got into the current coming out of the Potomac, our speed increased to 7.7 without changing the RPM.  Gotta like that.  Yes, we are motoring.  No wind to speak of, but again, a beautiful day on the water.  Jax is particularly happy when the boat is level.  He’s less happy when we’re heeling so this is just the right kind of “sailing” for him.  

Solomon’s Island is across the Rappahannock from a military base called the Naval Air Warfare Center:  Aircraft Division.  Several fighter jets were flying as we arrived two days ago, and we also heard a Naval Warship broadcasting “All mariners are required to keep a 5 nm distance.” No problem there, but kinda makes me wonder what they were planning on doing out there.  I spent some hours today studying and learning how to use the electronic charts on our new Garmin chart plotter as we were underway; something which my husband has already spent hours doing.  The chart plotter identifies any vessels that are broadcasting AIS, plus we see all vessels around us on the radar overlay which is very handy.  

 I’m noticing lots of notations on the charts in this area— “Hazard,” Obstruction”, “Wreck”, “Foul Area” and there are “Restricted Fish Trap Areas and Structures” extending out into the Bay up and down both the Eastern and the western shores of the Chesapeake.  I was surprised however, to find one teeny, little, rectangular area near the navy base marked “Fish Haven.”  Really?  Has anyone told the fish?  The area surrounding the naval base is marked “Prohibited Area” of course, no surprise there.  But some of the areas demarcated I was surprised to see. There's a  "Danger Zone” which extends from the Naval Base on the Western shore and aims in an ever widening swath across to the Eastern shore, terminating at a little island called Barren Island.  To me, it looks for all the world like a trajectory.  Hmmmmm. But the best of all the notations that I was surprised to see were: “DANGER UNEXPLODED BOMBS AND SHELLS” (presumably they want to keep them that way), “BOMBING AREA” (no one told me we were bombing the Chesapeake) and the one I found the most curious was “LOWER DANGER ZONE.”  Lower than what?  Do they mean, "No unexploded bombs here--as far as we KNOW!" Is that supposed to put us at ease?  Is it like a challenge--"you can go through here if you WANT to, but I wouldn't do it."

Other than these multiple, mostly unseen things to maneuver around, our trip to Reedville Virginia was uneventful.  We read on Active Captain* that there was a floating dinghy dock at the Reedville Fisherman’s Museum (I’m seeing a theme here for small towns on the Chesapeake Bay) and one at a restaurant on the water’s edge.  Neither was open and the dock at the museum was actually not floating.  It appeared to be stuck in the mud at the shoreline presumably due to the low tide.  We managed to climb up onto a dock belonging to the museum—it was not pretty.  There were no ladders.  It was no problem for Jax, however.  

Sunset in Great Wicomico River

Reedville is one of those places that apparently has an on and an off season.  We arrived during the off season.  It has an historical district which made for a nice walk down the main street.  There is an oyster and seafood market with none of the artificial panache that some tourist towns seem to have.  I liked that.  It is also a home to several large fishing vessels and associated fish (menhaden) processing plants. The towns’ occupants obviously are dependent upon their livelihood from the Bay.  An enormous smoke stack from a defunct fish processing factory has been rescued from certain decay and is proudly lit by spotlights all through the night.  It was a little town with some charm and a visit during the summer would be fun.  The part of our stay there that made me smile was a house dressed for Halloween—probably the best I have ever seen.  

*Active Captain is a crowd sourced app that marries up with the Garmin Blue Charts which is loaded on our chart plotter.  Sailors can add their own information onto the Active Captain site, which is a great way to learn about an anchorage and local information, such as fuel docks, laundry, shower facilities, dinghy docks, dog friendly places, etc.  Some anchorages have none of those things, but they may be desirable for their protection during heavy weather.  Now that we’re moving, we may add our information to Active Captain as well. 

Solomon's Island is NOT an Island

posted by Ardys

Yesterday we motored 51 nm (“nautical miles”, for my non-salty friends and family) from St. Michael’s to Solomon’s Island; a beautiful day, but without any wind.   Since fall is here, we’ll  make headway south by motor when there’s not enough wind to sail.  I’d heard several people talk about going to “the Solomon Islands” which is technically, not an accurate term. The town of Solomon’s Island WAS originally on an island until a causeway was built to connect it to the mainland in 1870.  It is a now a long narrow peninsula with the southern border along the Patuxent River and the hook-like north shore forming a well disguised entrance to an inlet with two creeks feeding into it.  I thought that Annapolis had a market on the number of sailboats and powerboats per capita, but I was wrong. There seemed to be more boats than there are people living in Solomon’s Island.  NORTHERN STAR was right at home.  Several working oyster boats came in and out of the inlet at all hours of the day and evening—I like seeing the working boats.   These men provide us with oysters.  I really appreciate them.

The Calvert Marine Museum was a short dinghy ride from our anchored boat and was our first stop with Jax, eager to conduct some dog business on shore.   Unfortunately, as it was already late afternoon, we did not have time to visit the museum.  The floating dinghy dock is well marked “Dinghy Dock for Use of Museum Visitors,” however, we had a desperate canine looking longingly at the land, and it seemed cruel to not indulge him.  Thus, our co-conspirator threesome tied up at the dinghy dock, Jax made a few brief transactions and we couldn’t help but notice the outdoor part of the museum in the process.  It looks like a really interesting museum.

Oysters—mmmmmm, oysters.  There was no question about needing to find a place to have some oysters and we had several restaurants to choose from.  The most expensive one was closest to us by dinghy (naturally) and we chose to walk to the other side of the peninsula and eat at a restaurant that is built on a pier over the Rappahannock River, called Solomon’s Pier.  Aptly named.  We shared a half-dozen raw oysters.  Carl had an cod po’boy and I had an incredibly huge bowl of what they called Chesapeake Bay Stew—oysters and crab in a creamy broth and served over a mound of mashed potatoes.  Where has this dish been all my life?  Can’t wait to try making this myself.

This morning, as previously arranged, we met with a young marine researcher by the name of Nicole Trenholm of the Ocean Research Project (oceanresearchproject.org), who entrusted us with a piece of hydroacoustic fish tag monitoring equipment which we have agreed to deploy each time we anchor as we go down the Coast and into the Bahamas (more about that to follow later).  

From Solomon’s Island, we head off to cross over the mouth of the Potomac River and on to our next anchorage on our journey south.  Still looking for enough wind to sail.  Surely one of these days it’s bound to happen. 

Halloween in St. Michael's

posted by Ardys

Our first night out from Annapolis on our voyage down the East Coast, was a short hop to a charming little town, St. Michael’s on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  The plan was to meet up with old sailing friends from Duluth, MN who coincidentally, were in the Chesapeake and planned to sail to St. Michael’s with another couple of our mutual friends to spend Halloween.  A delightfully charming little town, and if it’s possible, even more so on Halloween weekend.

 We sailed to St. Michael’s earlier this summer, and, one evening while at anchor in the Miles River, our boat was surrounded by a large group of dolphins who swam around our boat.  They parted at our bow, swam the length of our boat and then slowly moved beyond our stern.   Splashing and moving so slowly, we had to assume they were feeding on the fish schools we’d seen earlier.  There was a full moon, and although not bright enough for photography, at least not with my equipment, we were able to visually follow at least 5 small groups of dolphins at the surface, enjoying their banquet, no doubt.  It was marvelous!  

While we were in Annapolis last summer to buy our boat, we drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to explore the Eastern Shore.  We followed a road to the end of one of the Eastern Shore peninsulas and happened upon St. Michael’s quite serendipitously.  We didn’t know at that time that St. Michael’s is a very popular sailing destination for Annapolitans.  It’s an easy 5 hour sail, give or take, across the Bay.  Houses from the 1800’s, brick sidewalks, picket fences, narrow streets, art galleries, and of course, the tourist trap boutiques which are all very nice, albeit expensive. 

I would recommend the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to anyone.  The history of the Chesapeake Bay and the watermen who have worked on it for decades is very well presented.  There are craftsmen demonstrating wooden ship building on site.  There is an array of historic boats such as the skipjack (a long, narrow sailboat with an incredibly long boom) used for oystering before the oyster population was fairly decimated, and one of the remaining log canoe sailboats which still competes in sailboat races on the Bay. There’s a screw-pile lighthouse that’s been transplanted onto museum land for guests to tour and so much more.  Allow plenty of time to see it all.  

 We tried out a few of the restaurants in St. Michael’s over the course of our three visits.  We really enjoyed Ava’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar, somewhat of a hole-in-the-wall kind of place from the front sidewalk, but with great food, delightful outdoor seating and dog friendly wait staff.  We also really liked a restaurant about 2 1/2 miles outside of St. Michaels’ called Chesapeake Landing Restaurant and Seafood Market where my husband and his nephew, Hayden, shared 2 dozen crabs.  I didn’t feel like putting that much effort into feeding myself that day, and ordered something that I didn’t have to smash with a mallet.  We got it on good authority from a volunteer at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum that that was where the locals went to eat crab and no wonder, it’s less expensive than some of the harbor front restaurants.  There are no fewer than three dog friendly ice cream shops (high on my list of what makes a good walking tour on a hot summer day) and the Eastern Shore Brewery serves patrons during daytime hours— also dog friendly.  It even has its’ own resident dog, an enormous St. Bernard puppy named Barley.  

There couldn’t have been a more beautiful, warm autumn day for Halloween in St. Michael’s.  The little town filled up with boats, many displaying their own Halloween decor, such as a 6’ diameter blow-up pumpkin, orange lights, cobwebs covering the bow and giant spiders climbing the sides of the boats.  One remote controlled bat hovered nearby while we enjoyed a happy hour on our friends’ boat.  There was, of course, the odd pirate or two strolling about, along with other festooned characters.   The main street shops were dressed in all their spooky best, and the entire little town seemed to be up for a “spirited” holiday.  I suspect that St. Michael’s tends to gear up well for other holidays, too.  In fact, I wouldn’t mind spending some other holidays in St. Michael’s just to see.

A Fond Farewell to Annapolis

posted by Ardys

Annapolis is a great place to hang out for a few months in order to get familiar with a new (to us) boat and make preparations to go south for the winter.  I had not anticipated that I would feel so sad to be leaving here.  Annapolis kinda got under my skin…..it’s funky and friendly and it seems that everyone here has some sort of relationship with the water.  With 7,719 miles of shoreline in Maryland, it’s no wonder.  

Here are some of the things I will miss about Annapolis.  

Sailing lessons on Spa Creek, St. Mary's Church behind

Enthusiastic sailors of all ages! There are several sailing schools here.  Little swarms of boats sailed by children and shepherded around by adults each claim a piece of the water for their group to learn, or to race against one another.  And then there are all of the other sailboat races that continue throughout the afternoon and into the evening on Wednesdays. We’ve counted well over 200 boats on the water within sight of the harbor.  A vibrant community of racers!  We met racers who are crew on huge race boats in more distant locations such as Newport, RI on a weekly basis.  We met people who chose their college based upon which school had the best sailing team.  We met people who are so comfortable on the water and skilled in sailing that it seems they are capable of sailing anything with a mast.  And have done so for most of their lives!  We became friends with a couple who also plan to sail to the Bahamas to winter there.  I was humbled to learn that they will be sailing a fairly small (30’) barebones racing boat.  In fact it is so spartan that they are able to clean out the cabin with a hose  And here we are, going on a sailboat with all kinds of electronics and comfort features.  I’m feeling a little embarrassed to be going in relative luxury.  

Maryland State House

The Maryland State House, the oldest operating state house in our 50 states is but one of the 350+ buildings on the National Registry of Historic Buildings in Annapolis—more than in any other city in the country.  The streets are narrow and charming and the sidewalks are brick.  I immediately thought about how I would not want to use a snow blower on them, but I guess they don’t have to worry about that so much.  We took a great walking tour with a very knowledgeable tour guide who verbally painted a picture of what it would have been like to live here in 1750.  For example, since the colonials did not believe in bathing more than once/year, and most owned only one set of clothing, it was common for two proper ladies meeting on the street to each pull out a little nosegay to hold in front of her nose and mouth as they talked.  That way neither of them would have to smell the offensive odor of the other.   This was astonishing to me when she pointed out the streets were the receptacle for everyone’s garbage and sewage in those days, so the notion that one would still have been able to detect the body odor of their companion is rather remarkable, is it not?  

Hermione, replica of French battle ship

Ego Alley is the slip that cuts into the shoreline in center city Annapolis where everybody and his uncle will at some time or other parade up and down there alongside the City Dock on their boat.  The slip is surrounded by restaurants and shops.  Ego Alley is the site of the Annapolis Boat Shows and hosts whatever tall ships come into port here.  The parade up and down Ego Alley reminds me of the practice in my adolescence of showing off your new driver’s license and vehicle by driving up and down Main Street, U.S. A.  It’s a rite of passage and something you just have to do.

Annapolitan, Alex Haley reads to children.   At head of Ego Alley

Annapolis has got to be one of the most dog friendly places in the country.  Our dog has become accustomed to getting treats from marina staff and/or workmen who come onto the boat.  They all know his name.  When out walking him, Jax is often greeted by those we meet before greeting me although I have to say that it is very friendly place to two legged folks as well.  When I have asked at ice cream stores whether my husband might bring in the dog so that he could choose his own ice cream flavor,  I’ve been told,  “Oh, sure….no problem.”  Restaurants with outdoor seating provide ice water to dogs while the dogs attempt proper introductions to one another under the tables.  

Back side "Because We Like It That Way"

Maritime Republic of Eastport bumper

Eastport, one of the neighborhoods of Annapolis is a homey little peninsula which lies across Spa Creek from the City dock.  We heard the Eastport story from those who live there.  Several years ago, the bridge across Spa Creek was closed for renovations, making it a very long drive around the head of the creek to get from Eastport to center city Annapolis.  The plucky folks of Eastport (known as Eastportoricans) decided that perhaps they should “secede” from the City of Annapolis.  Thus, they renamed their neighborhood the “Maritime Republic of Eastport” (MRE) and designed a flag for themselves as well.  A pair of Labs proudly are shown on the flag, holding a banner with pictures of a sailboat, power boat, oyster boat, crab, etc.  Eastport folks are creative.  They love their dogs.  They are proud of their homes.  What used to be a blue-collar neighborhood of Annapolis has become a somewhat trendy place to live.  We spent three months claiming Eastport as our neighborhood. 

South Annapolis Yacht Center, from the water

The South Annapolis Yacht Center is where we spent those three months from June to Sept.  It is the oldest marina in Annapolis (Eastport) and admittedly does look careworn.  While we were residents at that marina NORTHERN STAR became part of the tour for the kayakers, canoes and paddle boarders who came by every day with their tour guides.  The story goes that the marina was once two separate marinas.  We heard repeatedly that “there was no love lost between the owners of the marinas, who built a tall wall between the marinas.”  Now the wall is gone and the two marinas are one.   This marina is a neighborhood gathering place.  Not many people live onboard here, but it is well used by the people who love the old place.  Dragon boat crews.  Paddle boarders.  Locals out picking up crabs out of the bay from alongside the pilings of the marina.  Old, old wooden boats, very well cared for and enjoyed respectfully.  The caretaker of the marina worked tirelessly by himself every day and was never cross.  Although he knew my name, he routinely called to me “Lady, how you doin’?” He was a gem.  And I am honored to have been able to experience this old marina before it is torn down and turned into something else entirely.  It’s bound to happen before long.

Naval cadet

The Naval Academy is the jewel of Annapolis, in my opinion.  It shares a tall wall with the city of Annapolis and visitors can walk in (after a security check) and explore a bit.  John Paul Jones’ body lies in state in a crypt within the enormous Academy Chapel.  There’s a fascinating miniature ship model museum on campus as well, which is a must see for tourists.  Sometimes I catch sight of those young naval cadets around town, looking all pressed and trim and handsome (the women too) and it makes me feel like I am living on the edge of something great and historically important.  I believe I am.

Chick & Ruth's Delly, an Annapolis institution

Sailing in the Bay while trying to avoid crab pot lines was NOT my favorite thing about Annapolis, but going out to eat crabs WAS.  There are crab houses all up and down the Bay. I discovered that I absolutely love Peruvian chicken, and some vegetables I had never before heard of, that I was served in El Salvadoran restaurants.  My favorite “American” food restaurants were “Chick and Ruth’s Delly” (yes, they do spell it that way) and “Davis’ Pub.”  Chick and Ruth’s is known for leading the patrons in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at 8:30 AM, 9:30 weekends, something they have done every day since 1989.  The tables are tiny and space is tight.  (A lot like a sailboat!) It’s noisy and the portions are huge.  I loved it immediately!  The dishes are named after the Maryland statehouse politicians who chose them as their favorites.  Brightly painted walls are covered with photographs of politicians and more well-known, famous people that have eaten there.  This morning, a new photo of Pope Francis blessing a woman graced the wall.  When I commented on that to my husband, the elderly (meaning, a little older than me) woman seated next to him said "That was me!"  She then gave me a silver angel talisman to carry with me for safety. Fascinating breakfast companions!  

Eating before standing for the Pledge of Allegiance

Farewell Annapolis.  Perhaps we’ll stop to pay a visit on our way north again next year.  Who knows?