For some reason, which I can’t recall, I quit posting for the last month we were on our boat in 2019. So now it’s time to post about that part of our journey so I can start posting about Part 2!
The weather was finally beginning to cool down so we left Tilghman Island and headed back to St. Michaels. It was so hot our first time there that we didn’t do much exploring then. It seemed like an interesting town – and it was!
This ship looks like the hull is barely in the water!Hard to read, but it explains how these lighthouses were able to survive tides and storms.Being a lighthouse keeper wasn’t an easy job.The remnants of a Maryland crab dinner…note the flags on the flagpole. I wonder how old the people are who live in that house.The Four Seasons Hotel is the tall building on the left as seen from our boat. The upper floors are “apartments”.We had a late lunch at this bar – The Horse You Came In On – which claims to be America’s oldest continuously operated saloon, since 1775.the Baltimore aquariumI decided to take a picture of Rich standing behind the megalodon jaw at the aquarium to get some perspective of just how big it is. If it had swallowed him, he would have been just a tiny snack.From Baltimore we went to Bowley’s Marina in Middle River MD. Unfortunately it was just after Labor Day and the restaurant and pool were closed, there was no courtesy car, and nothing within walking distance. At least we had great sunsets there.Our last stop before heading back to Annapolis for haul out was Rock Hall MD. The white areas indicate water that’s deep enough for most boats. Blue areas are the places you will most likely be calling for someone to tow you off. Note how there is a large blue area in the middle of the harbor!We had dinner one night at a nearby restaurant and couldn’t resist taking pictures of these two signs outside the entrance.one last sunset
I think it would take a BIG lottery check to own this boat, which was anchored just outside St. Michaels.This is part of an original screw.and a good shandy to go with it!From St. Michaels we traveled to a marina in North Beach MD where we stayed for 3 nights. There was a resort connected with the marina so there were restaurants, a pool, and a beach! Rich wasn’t feeling well, so we had a couple of quiet days there. We then headed to Baltimore where we stayed for 4 nights at the Inner Harbor Marina. The marina was right next door to the Four Seasons Hotel, a short walk to the aquarium, and many good restaurants nearby. We were there over Labor Day weekend and the marina was packed with both seasonal and transient boaters – it was the place to be! Passing Fort McHenry on the way into Baltimore. ‘Oh say can you see”Very urban AND industrialWe saw this building as we were walking back from the aquarium – I half expected to see goats munching grass up there on the roof.There were lots of old things decorating the walls of the bar and hanging from the ceiling. I especially liked the sign in the lower left corner of this picture. 😂
While we were eating lunch at the bar, we met a couple who were on a boat just a few slips down from us. They invited us to go with them to the aquarium the next day. It was just a short walk away and we had heard it was something we shouldn’t miss, so we accepted their invitation.
The dolphin show was fun = and we only got a little wet from the dolphins jumping up and splashing.And we had plenty of food on board so we didn’t have to eat this little fish that found its way into the track that our dinghy slides out on.
Time for haul out. Our boat is to the left of the travel lift, just waiting for the slings to be lowered so she can be turned around and driven up onto the slings and lifted out of the water. I find that too nerve wracking to watch!
We left Cambridge Monday morning and made our way to Tilghman Island. It was a short trip which we did at a very leisurely speed with almost flat waters the whole way, blue skies, and really hot temps – we’re so ready for cooler weather.
As we were coming into the marina we noticed several crab boats headed our way. It turns out that across the channel from the marina are a couple of places for crabbers to drop off their catch. This is directly across from our boat.This was another place – note the refrigerated truck.
We’ve been having problems with one of our A/C units in the main salon and it decided to completely conk out Monday afternoon. Rich had unsuccessfully tried a variety of things, so we asked when we checked in if there was anyone at the marina who could take a look at it. With only one unit working (there are two) and two small fans going the temp never got below 84 in the daytime. It made us wonder how we got along without A/C growing up! Our A/C is zoned – one unit in each of the cabins and two units for the main salon, so at least we were able to close off our cabin and have a cool place to sleep.
Tuesday morning one of the marina guys came over and spent over 3 hours cleaning out the compressors on three of the units and flushing out all the lines. We now have wonderful cool air!
Once the A/C was fixed, we borrowed the courtesy car (a 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport with only 150,000 miles on it) and headed to the general store to pick up some food. It had a little bit of everything, from food to OTC drugs, wine, liquor, ice cream, and a deli counter where we were able to get some great sandwiches to go.
A new way to describe eggs 😄The marina is connected with an Inn, which offers a continental breakfast to both inn and marina guests. Yesterday I met a fellow Hoosier at breakfast who’s a painter. When she found out we were on a boat she asked if she could paint our boat. She sent me a photo of the finished painting – we may have to see if she’ll sell it to us!There were storm clouds all around us tonight, but we had about 10 minutes of wind and that was it. We could see lightning around us, but no rain.This looks surreal, but it really did look like this from our stern.The evening ended with a beautiful sunset.
Tomorrow we head back to St. Michaels for four nights. The temps are supposed to be 80 in the day and 65 at night for Friday-Sunday so we hope to see more of the town this time. Last time there the heat index was 105 so we didn’t stay out very long.
Last Wednesday we headed to Oxford, Maryland, a small town on the Tred Avon River.
Rich uses electronic charts to navigate, but I still want paper charts. This is my “road map” for the last part of the trip into Oxford.We passed the town beach on our way up the river to the marina. Then we walked from the marina to a restaurant down the road that went along the river and beach.More Civil War history.The Oxford Wharf. There’s a car ferry that goes from here to Bellevue, across the river.We had a late lunch at this restaurant the day we got to Oxford. Can you see the problem with the name?The second night we had dinner at the restaurant at the Robert Morris Inn.Robert Morris InnOur dinners were great, but the desserts were amazing! Rich had this – Pavlova – meringue filled with whipped cream and drizzled with fresh blueberries and strawberries.I had Red Velvet Smith Island cake. Smith Island cakes are a specialty of that island, have 9-10 layers, come in a variety of flavors, and are incredibly good!Thursday night the full moon rose like a harvest moon. My iPhone camera didn’t do justice to how beautiful it was.
Friday we headed back down the Tred Avon and up the Choptank River to Cambridge. With a population of over 13,000, Cambridge is the largest town/city we’ve been in since D.C.
It seems that everywhere we’ve been on the East Coast has so much history from the 1600s on. And there are plaques and pamphlets to tell you all about it. We did a walking tour – here are some things we saw.
The county courthouse, built in 1854, to replace the previous one that had burned down. Harriet Tubman’s niece and her two children escaped from the slavery auction block here in 1850. A century later the building was damaged by a bomb during the trial of H. Rap Brown, who had been involved in racial violence in Cambridge.This is the oldest surviving office building, built in 1800. Lawyers weren’t allowed to practice from their homes, so Josiah Bayly built this small building on his property. The brick wall on the left is part of a long wall surrounding a cemetary.We had lunch at Snappers on Saturday and then went next door to J. M. Clayton Seafood Company to buy crab meat. The seafood company claims to be the oldest crab factory in the world and has been run by the same family since 1890. We bought 2 cans of pasteurized crab which they said will keep for several weeks in the fridge – we will eat well!This is where we picked up our crab – no fancy retail counters here!Crab boats docked next to the seafood company. All of the crab meat is picked by hand. Their website says a good picker can pick 25-40 pounds of crab meat each day.An interesting statue at the marinaThe Choptank River Lighthouse, which is at the Marina. This is a replica of the lighthouse that was at the mouth of the river, from 1921-1964. It was dismantled then and replaced by a spider buoy signal. This replica was built in 2012. The boat is the type the lighthouse keeper would use to get to the lighthouse, which was situated about 2 miles out.This lighthouse is a screw pile lighthouse. We have a few of them on the Bay, but this is the first one we’ve been able to visit.A Fresnel lensA few days ago we heard Julie Mason on Sirius POTUS talking about mixing ranch dressing with salsa. She thought it sounded too weird and we thought the same thing. So imagine our surprise tonight when we went to a Mexican restaurant and they gave us a bowl of ranch along with a bowl of salsa. Of course we had to try it – dip the chip in ranch and then in the salsa. Guess what? It’s really good! Has anyone else heard of this?
We left D.C. August 2, and headed back down the Potomac at a leisurely pace again. We stayed at the same three marinas. It’s nice to go back to places where you’ve been – much easier to navigate to them, dock, get fuel, pumpout.
About half an hour before we got to the second marina, it started to rain and was a real downpour when we were docking. Needless to say, we were soaked to the skin by the time we were tied up. At least it was a warm rain. The next night it was cloudy when we walked to dinner, but we didn’t think it would rain, so we didn’t take an umbrella. Big mistake! It started raining just before we finished dinner, but it seemed like a gentle rain so we headed back to the boat. Of course the sky opened up then and once again we got soaked to the skin. No end for a shower that night 😊
Looking off the right side of the boat, it looks like rain.Looking off the left side of the boat we had a nice sunset.This sunset isn’t quite as spectacular as the one I posted the first time we were at Point Lookout, but it’s still pretty.
We’re now back at Solomons MD – second time at Zahniser’s Yachting Center. This time the weather has been cooler, so we’ve been able to explore the town more and have dinner at several restaurants, as well as ice cream sundaes along the boardwalk last night. We’ve decided our boat travels on our stomachs!
We thought this was a very interesting plaque because of its mention of two boats built here which won the Chicago-Mackinac race several times. (Just noticed my finger in the picture – no need for professional photographers to feel threatened by my photo taking skills).This weekend there will be dragon boat races on the river here (Patuxent River). We saw these boats docked along the boardwalk last night.Another beautiful sunset
Tomorrow we head across the Bay for two nights in Oxford, followed by three night in Cambridge. Both are in Maryland, not jolly old England. I think it will be safe to assume they won’t be like their English counterparts.
We spent a couple of hours at the National Air and Space Museum late one afternoon – what an amazing place! I tried to take photos but they don’t do justice to all the exhibits. Some things you just couldn’t get far enough back to get the plane (Wright brothers original plane) or rocket (both American and Russian) in the shot. Space capsules are behind glass so there were reflections – seeing in person is best!
Gemini IVI struggled with getting equations punched in correctly when I took a programming class in 1971, but at least my mistakes didn’t cause a rocket to veer off course.Rich has been a fan of the Braves since they were the Milwaukee Braves, so when he found they were playing the Nationals we decided to get tickets. We had hot dogs, beer, peanuts, had seats just a few rows behind the Braves dugout along the third base line, and had a good time. Unfortunately the Braves lost.
One afternoon we went to the International Spy Museum, thinking we would only be there an hour or so. Instead, we were there 2 1/2 hours and would have stayed longer, but it was closing time. According to Wikipedia it’s “a private non-profit museum dedicated to the tradecraft, history and contemporary role of espionage, featuring the largest collection of international espionage artifacts currently on public display.” It was so fascinating and educational, well worth the price of admission. Speaking of the price of admission, they offer reduced rates for senior citizens, which we asked for. We got carded to make sure we were old enough to get the reduced rate! I guess we should take that as a compliment that we look too young to be senior citizens. 😂
We had many good meals at restaurants at the Wharf, but one place, directly across from the gate to our marina, was truly outstanding. We didn’t have a reservation so we found two seats at the bar and were immediately fascinated by the drinks the bartender was making. I took some video of the two drinks we ordered as they were being made but I can’t figure out how to get them into my blog, so you’ll have to take my word that they were real works of art and it was wonderful entertainment watching the bartender making them.
One of the tapas we had along with our cocktails was jamon Iberico, which was being carved right behind us. The man carving was so skilled – every piece was sliced perfectly . We wondered how long it took him to be able to do this so uniformly every time.I love martinis made with Tanqueray 10, but it’s not a gin that’s found in all bars. Imagine my surprise to see three shelves filled with it (the bottles with a silver band near the top). I was all set to order a martini until we watched the bartender making the specialty cocktails.
Sometimes we look at specialty drink menus and think that we could make those at home. Here are two drink menus that we could never copy because we have no idea what some of the ingredients are, and even if we did know, we wouldn’t know where to get them!
Cherry bark, butterfly pea flower – really??Smoked black tea syrup – sure, we always have that on hand.At one end of the Wharf is a large fish market. We now have a red snapper and a large rockfish in our freezer just waiting to be grilled, along with a pound of huge shrimp. The selection was mind-boggling – could we move that market to Indiana?
We did a hop on, hop off bus tour one day and hopped off to visit the Holocaust Museum – very sobering. It’s not the sort of place you take photos. Later that day we visited the Vietnam Memorial – again, a very sobering experience and one that you can’t capture in a photo.
Sunset our last night in D.C. The cloud formation was really eerie. We expected to see an alien spaceship coming out of the white band! We had watched Close Encounters a few nights before, so I guess that was still in the back of our minds.
We arrived in D.C. Friday, July 26, and spent a week at Capital Yacht Club. This turned out to be a great location, in the middle of the Wharf, a relatively new development with lots of restaurants, entertainment, a free shuttle to the National Mall and nearby Metro station, and a CVS with a mini market where we were able to get everything we needed for reprovisioning. The only downside was the heat – why does this have to be the summer of record-breaking heat waves everywhere we go???
Washington Monument as seen from the bow of our boat at the marinaSunset our first night at the marina – just above the tree line is a plane coming in for a landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport – and the first of many helicopters we would see every day flying up and down Washington Channel, where our marina is located ( just off the Potomac).
A few shots that need little or no explanation
Jefferson MemorialNational Gallery of Art – WestReflecting Pool – there were so many people at the Lincoln Memorial that I couldn’t get a good shot of the statue. ☹️National Museum of African American History and Culture. Unfortunately there are too many museums to see in just a week – next trip!Gate to ChinatownThe old post office building and clock tower – it’s now Trump International HotelWhen we were in Norfolk we saw an exhibit about these markers (see my earlier post about the Portsmouth/Norfolk leg of our trip). Imagine our surprise to see this as we were walking near Washington Monument.
Monday, July 15, we left Annapolis and traveled about 30 miles across the Bay to St. Michaels, MD. St. Michaels derived its name from an Episcopal parish that was established there in 1677. Coming from the Midwest where things are considered old if they’re from the early 1800s, we continue to be amazed by truly old places. St. Michaels’ claim to fame came in the War of 1812, when the British attacked the town’s militia battery. The residents dimmed their lights and hung lanterns in the trees, so the British aimed for the lanterns thinking that was where the town was. The cannonballs overshot the town, the town was spared, and it became known as “the town that fooled the British.”
Foxy’s is a famous bar on Jost van Dyke in the BVI, where we’ve had drinks many times. Turns out Foxy’s has a branch in St. Michaels! We couldn’t spend time in Maryland without eating some fresh Maryland blue crab. We didn’t realize how time consuming it is to get all the meat out – no wonder crab cakes, crab dip, crab salad, etc. are so expensive!These were big crabs!Another claim to fame for St. Michaels.There was more to see in St. Michaels but the temp and heat were so high it was dangerous to be walking for very long. The heat was as bad or worse than Indiana!
From St. Michaels we went back for one night to Shipwright Marina in Deale MD, on the west side of the Bay. Remember the goodie bag they gave us the first time we stopped there? No fixins for pina coladas this time ☹️
Then it was on to Zahniser’s Yacht Center in Solomons MD. It was a very nice marina with good, cheap laundry facilities (amazing how laundry facilities become a priority), a great restaurant for dinner, and a poolside sandwich place. Nothing unusual to take pictures of – I guess that can be a good thing.
From Solomons it was on to the Potomac. Even though it was only 95 miles from the mouth to the marina where we would spend a week in D.C., we decided to enjoy the Potomac and make 3 stops. We were surprised how rural it is for much of the way to D.C. and then how much military presence in the air when we finally got close to D.C.
A beautiful sunset at Point Lookout Marina, on a creek just 4 miles from the mouth of the Potomac. This marina had a courtesy car, but the only place to go with it was Dollar General. Slow WiFi, one bar cell service, and pumpout wasn’t working, but very peaceful.Next stop – Colonial Beach VA. This marina had a restaurant and tiki bar and the best fish and chips! We were also able to get a taxi into town to mail some packages at the post office – jackpot! Taxi AND post office 😊On our way to the third marina we passed under this bridge – 165 feet from the water to the bottom of the bridge – that’s a tall bridge!This looks like a plane, but wait….It’s a bald eagle!It rained briefly while eating dinner at Occoquan Harbor Marina and then a rainbow appeared.Mt. Vernon from the waterNational Harbor just south of D.C. They say you can see the Capitol from the top of the Ferris wheel.Washington Monument on the left, the Capitol dome on the right – thrilling!
A couple of days after my last post I discovered I couldn’t get into my blog site. At that point we were busy sightseeing all day in Annapolis for several days and then we were on the move again with intermittent decent internet – so no blogging. I tried a couple of weeks ago to get help from my server host and got nowhere – bad communication on both ends of the conversation. So I decided a couple of days ago to try to get help from the server host and although he wasn’t able to figure out why I couldn’t get in, he was able to give me a backdoor way to access it. Unfortunately then it was back to no WiFi and only one bar for cell service, so still no way to post pictures in a reasonable length of time ( 3 1/2 minutes to get one picture to load was like being back in dialup days.) I seem to have good WiFi now, so maybe I can finally post about the past month.
We ended up staying in Deale a couple of extra days because of weather and never did get up the creek with the dinghy. We finally left Deale July 10 and made it to Yacht Basin Co. marina in Annapolis.
I’ve described the goody bags we’ve received at several marinas, but this has to be the most unusual one thus far.
The marina is located next to the Annapolis Yacht Club, but our Saugatuck Yacht Club membership wasn’t on their reciprocity list. Oh well – it’s been rated one of the top 10 yacht clubs in the U.S. so I’m sure my denim shorts and white T-shirt wouldn’t have been appropriate attire.
Annapolis Yacht Club, seen from our boat. The third floor dining room had beautiful chandeliers, waiters in black pants, white shirts, and ties.The first night in Annapolis was race night, which we watched from our boat. There were several classes of boats racing – great fun to watch! Note all the people standing on the bridge watching the races.One of the boats coming back in – that black sail makes it look ferocious!This platform was tethered to the dock in an empty slip. There was always at least one duck on it, sometimes several, but amazingly it kept them off the docks.This building has been a tavern/restaurant continuously since 1750. Several of the founding fathers gathered here regularly.This is an upstairs meeting room. Can’t you just imagine all these men sitting around the fireplace discussing politics and whether the colonies should declare independence from England?The gentleman on the right was trying to drum up business for a nighttime ghost tour. He liked Rich’s hat (it has a bottle opener in the brim) and thought they should trade.This sculpture group is Alex Haley reading a book about his family’s journey to America to three children of different ethnic backgrounds. It’s part of the Kenya-Kinte – Alex Haley memorial located around the head of the city dock, “to commemorate the arrival in this harborof Kunta Kinte, immortalized by Alex Haley in Roots, and all others who came to these shores in bondage and who by their toil, character and ceaseless struggle for freedom have helped to make these United States.”We had dinner one night in another pub that was frequented by the founding fathers. I commented to the bartender after taking this picture that instead of saying Washington slept here, I could say I ate where Washington ate. His response was that there was a great story about Washington drinking in this pub. As the story goes, he apparently got really drunk one night and started hitting on the innkeeper’s wife. He was then thrown out and told to never come back.The dome of the state capitol at night.The Naval Academy was right across from our marina. The visitor center has the yellow roof.
We did a two hour tour of the Naval Academy, led by a gentleman who graduated from there in 1964. He was very knowledgeable and was a great guide, giving us insights into life at the academy. My head felt overloaded at the end of the tour and I was wishing I had been able to record all of his comments. As someone who taught study skills for years, I found it very interesting to learn that there are a variety of resources for the cadets to ensure that they get the help they might need to get through their courses.
You don’t need to know how to swim when you enter the academy, but… by the end of the second year, you must be able to swim several laps in a certain amount of time in full uniform, and jump off the 10 meter board.In the crypt of John Paul Jones, under the chapel at the Naval Academy. The museum at the Academy has a large number of model ships, but we found this especially amusing. Do you see the urinal on the bulwark (side)?
We headed to Solomons MD on Wednesday because we had read that they have great fireworks on the 4th. It was very hot and humid and we seriously thought about skipping the fireworks because it was a 15 minute walk to a good viewing area. But we decided since we had made a real effort to get into a marina there, we had to go. And it was worth it! They shot them off continuously for 20 minutes, and many times they shot off a low one followed by one going higher through that one.
I tried to get some shots, but this is the best I could do. This was toward the end and the smoke was getting so thick it started to block out the fireworks!
Friday we headed to Deale MD, where we will be until Wednesday, when we will head to Annapolis.
On the way to Deale we passed the Calvert Cliffs, an almost 30 mile stretch of fossil-laden clay strata that is 10-25 million years old. It reminded us of cliffs we saw when we were on the rivers.This is an LNG (liquified natural gas) unloading facility, located in the water just off the cliffs.The marina gave us a goody bag when we checked in, and this was in the bag – we immediately fell in love with this marina!Sailboats definitely outnumber powerboats here.Last night it looked like we were going to be hit with a terrible storm, but there was a lot of wind for a few minutes and then the clouds were gone. It was quite impressive looking!Our entertainment today lasted over 4 1/2 hours as we watched the sailboat on the left try to get off a shoal. Eventually the dinghy and sailboat on the right which had been trying to pull it off gave up. About half an hour later Towboat US showed up and struggled for a very long time before finally getting the boat loose. Our marina gave us specific warnings about the shoal, and it shows up on charts, so we can only make some assumptions about why it went aground.
I didn’t get a photo of it, but there’s a pontoon boat at our marina that serves as a water taxi Friday-Sunday. We took it to a restaurant across the creek from us on Friday and loved the convenience of being picked up at our boat and dropped off at the restaurant dinghy dock.
We’re on a side tie so we are able to get our dinghy in the water easily. Tonight we ordered takeout from that same restaurant, so Rich dinghied over to pick it up. Life on a boat presents all kinds of new adventures! Tomorrow we’ll dinghy up the creek to check out another waterfront restaurant. (We have no oars in our dinghy, so yes we’ll be up the creek without a paddle 😀).
Sunday we headed back to Colonial Williamsburg. We got a slightly earlier start and it was a few degrees cooler than Friday’s visit there, so we spent several hours there.
The front of the Capitol. The first capitol of Virginia was in Williamsburg. We had a very knowledgeable, interesting tour guide and learned so much about how the government ran, how the courts worked, and how many conventions it took (5) for Virginia to join the movement to separate from England. They had trials with juries, but when it was time for the jurors to make a judgement, they were locked in a room and got no food or water until they reached a unanimous decision. I can’t imagine that happening today!This building was just outside the wall around the Capitol. We decided it was the outhouse, because there were three doors on the other side and three small doors at ground level on this backside. Do you think our theory is correct?This was the entrance to the gaol (jail). Note the metal staples holding the floor stones together. We saw this on many of the stone floors.I thought it was interesting that prices for food and drink were set by the government.
We had planned to leave Hampton Monday, but the marine forecast was not good, so we stayed one more day. I did laundry and Rich cleaned the outside of the boat – so exciting!
Today we headed to Deltaville VA, about 50 miles north. Most of the trip was open water on the Chesapeake Bay, so it was a quick trip. We arrived about noon, got the courtesy car about 2, and went to the hardware store to buy a replacement flag pole for the one that came loose and fell into Albemarle Sound, West Marine to buy a grill cover (the old one fell off), and finally to a fantastic seafood market to buy crab cakes for dinner (they were SO delicious), seafood salad for tomorrow’s lunch, and Rivah dip for snacks. The lady at the marina office said we had to buy the dip – she knew what she was talking about. It’s cream cheese mixed with crab, shrimp, lemon juice, and hot pepper spicing – no idea why it’s called Rivah dip, but it is incredibly good.
As we headed out of Hampton we saw this Navy vessel headed north. It turned more easterly as we headed north, so we don’t know where it was headed or what specific kind of ship it is. The flag flying to the left of the ship is on Fort Wool. The original fort was built in 1818 and rebuilt in 1902. It was decommissioned in 1953.Tonight’s sunset
