Monday, June 2, 2008

Tangier Island to St. Michael's

Leaving Crisfield, we traveled up Tangier Sound, heading for Choptank River on the East side of the Chesapeake. We planned to visit Cambridge, Oxford and St. Michael's. We passed through the Hooper Island Pass and I expected to see that lighthouse there, but it was not. So, I thought I just missed it. Going on, we did pass this Sharp's Island Lighthouse entering the Choptank River, but I sure wondered how I could have missed the other one............. That night, we anchored in LaTrappe Creek just off the Choptank. It was a really nice anchorage, quiet with just a couple houses around us. It was amazing to me that we could be so close to Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington DC and still find this rural, quiet area. These osprey were on the buoy as we entered the anchorage......
The next day we traveled about 5-6 miles to Cambridge where we planned to stay in a marina because of the impending heavy winds forecast. We passed this catamarran and crabber on our way.
We enjoyed our stay in Cambridge and it was an easy town to walk around...colonial homes with beautiful yards and huge trees with branches that overhung the sidewalks so that we walked in the shade. Several of the older, large homes had been turned into B&B's or apartments, but they were still beautiful. We passed several churches and decided to go to the Episcopal church in the morning. The weather forecaster was right and we did have a big blow that afternoon with some rain which washed the salt off the boat !
We arrived at the church a little early the next day, but visited with a man who had at one time worked at Cargill. He invited us to go to breakfast with them after church. This church was founded in about 1680 but the present church was built in 1886--fires had destroyed the first two. It is a beautiful church with stained glass Tiffany windows. The service began and as is customary in many churches, after the prayer, there was the "sharing of the peace". We have been used to greeting people sitting in our immediate area in all the church services we have attended. Not here---EVERYONE greets each other...and this takes a while ! And, during this greeting, many knew we had started in Minnesota and also invited us to breakfast ! This was undoubtedly, the friendliest church we have ever attended ! I guess it goes with the town.......because we enjoyed the flavor of it..
Leaving Cambridge, we decided to forego Oxford and head for St. Michael's. But instead of going in to the marina, we were going to go in the back way--anchor in San Domingo Creek off the Broad River. We can take the dinghy in to shore and walk 3 blocks to the main street of St. Michael's. Arriving in the afternoon, we just anchored and decided to enjoy the quiet of this area which had colonial homes set apart on several acres each. We also had been told not to go into St. Michael's on the week-end as that's when all the people from the west coast go there. Here is one of the homes at this spot.
Next morning, we left Bellissimo at anchor and headed into St. Michael's...
We found this was really a neat way to go there---we walked down a street of smaller homes. We passed this huge magnolia tree in a church yard with HUGE blossoms--they smelled so good.
Here is a view of main street in St. Michael's---pretty quiet at 9am. Shops in older homes and buildings...........History is that the townspeople here outsmarted the British. The British planned to invade the town on August 10,1813 and the townspeople who had been forewarned, hoisted lanterns to the masts of ships and in the tops of the trees, and tricked the British by causing them to overshoot their cannons and miss the town. Only one house was struck by a cannonball and that house still stands and is still a private residence.
We decided to visit the Chesapeake Maritime Museum and after touring it for 4 hours, we're glad we did. It covered 12 aces. Not only did it show boats, but covered the whole history of the Chesapeake including the oystering (aystering according to the locals), duck hunting and lighthouses. Here is a picture of one of the boats and the Hooper Island Lighthouse....Here it was.....!....it had been moved after it was decommissoned by the Coast Guard !
It was amazing to learn of all the different kinds of boats....each designed for clamming, oystering, crabbing, bugboats, buyboats, etc, etc,etc. The log boat design which was original from the Native Americans was adopted and fine tuned with sails, first used for oystering, then used in recreation and racing. They still have these log boat races on the Bay and they certainly appear to be adrenalin raising! There is no motor so they have to be towed out and without much of a keel, can turn over pretty easily. So the ballast are people hiking up springboards on the side...some pretty high. The movie showed one overturning and it is quite a feat to re-assemble with the boards, etc.
It was surprising to me to learn just how big clamming, crabbing, and oystering is an industry. They are everywhere....I'll definitely have to read "Chesapeake" as Bob has. Here is Hooper Strait Lighthouse...the bay has many of this type. Others include Drum Point and Thomas Point among the better known ones. This type of screw pile lighthouse was adopted from the British..
This sign I thought was interesting so I thought I should show it here for our sailing friends !!!
These boats with the pilot houses are called buyboats....I don't know why..
And this is a skipjack, used for oyster dredging. I understand that waterman who use this type of harvesting now can only use sail power rather than mechanical power in order to conserve the oysters.
We walked up to the top of the lighthouse....here is the Fresnel lens used in this one...
A view of the restoration shed in the museum. There were many, many different types of boats in various states which are constantly be restored here. One of the shops on the main street............. On the way back to the dinghy, we passed this home and garden. Many, many homes had roses of many kinds including climbing roses. It was a nice day.............