stillpond and the sassafras river.

stillpond. 

after filling up the water tanks again, we left queenstown creek and the chester river and headed north with no fixed plan.  everything was dependent on the weather and what the Bay was like.  it turned out to be fine and a lot of people were out on their boats.  we got buzzed by a carver who cut in front of us not 20 feet away and threw an enormous wake!  well, they are out there - boaters who know nothing about boating, like to go forward fast and never look back to see what damage they are doing.  we decided to pass on rock hall even though tom really did want to go there at some point.  it was july 5 and they were having their fireworks that night, postponed because of the weather.  for sure it was going to be a zoo so we moved on.  fairlee and worton creeks are popular anchorages as well - for the tiki bar types, which we are not - so we kept going and then turned into stillpond.  we hadn't been to stillpond in 8 years but it had always been our favorite place in the upper Bay.  it was a zoo, too, but one can anchor further away from the raft-ups and the noise.  it was just amazing how many boats there were!  but what was REALLY amazing was how those who came and went did so at slow speeds until past the last anchored boat.  it was quite unexpected especially from the go-fast types.  we went out in the dinghy that afternoon and explored old haunts.  it was good to be back.  actually, most of the boats were day people and they left after a while.  the anchorage became quiet that evening and it was really pleasant. the air was cool and there were no bugs.  tom stopped pulling up the outboard because it was all fresh water now.  the only thing - no internet!  the Eastern Shore in this section of the chesapeake is very different from our marshlands in the southern Bay.  here in the upper Bay, we have high bluffs and i guess that blocks the signals somewhat.  unfortunately, no unsecured wifi either.

tom looking for arrowheads in a midden

rocky point

tadhana at stillpond

 

sunset at stillpond

turner creek.

we regretfully left stillpond the next day but we were really looking forward to the sassafras river and the real reason we came up all this way - to see the water lilies again.  as it turns out, they are NOT water lilies, but rather, american lotus (Nelumbo lutea) which produces the largest flower of any plant in north america.  this plant was once a favored food source for american indians, who ate the starch-rich roots and large seeds.  today, american lotus is found in only three locations on the chesapeake:  the elk/bohemia river system, mattawoman creek on the potomac river, and the sassafras river. unfortunately, we were a bit early and instead of the acres of flowers that we had seen the last time we were there, they were mostly buds - not quite ready.  no signal either at turner creek or we would have loved to stay.  we anchored for a little while and dropped the dinghy so that we could take some photos.  there were a few blooms though, and wouldn't you know it, they were far from the edge so we looked for a "thin" section where we could cross in the dinghy, shut down the motor and raised it, thinking we would just pole through.  no luck there as it was too deep for our pole.  that left the oars - the first time the dinghy's oars have EVER been used!  but we got our photos, went back to the boat, had lunch and pulled up the anchor. 

consuelo enjoying the grass at turner creek park

georgetown. 

back out in the sassafras river, it was nuts.  boats rushing everywhere, some creating terrible wakes - what a mess.  we saw a guy in a canoe in the middle of the river.  at the same time, we saw another boat come roaring up the river throwing a humongous wake.  i happened to be looking in that direction and saw the wake just flip the guy out of the canoe!  tom heard me exclaim and turned the boat around.  the guy wasn't hurt and thank goodness he could swim (no life jacket!!!).  anyway, another boat arrived at the scene but the canoe guy said he'd rather use our swim platform to get back into his canoe so he swam and pushed his canoe over, climbed out, and he and tom turned the canoe over to empty it of water and then off he  went.  what was he thinking??? 

in any case, lots of recreational boat traffic on the sassafras as we made our way to georgetown.  we found an anchorage close to georgetown yacht basin, right in their mooring field which is a no wake zone and were pleasantly surprised to find that the wifi was not passworded.  we dropped the dinghy and went over to the marina's fuel dock to get some gas for the dinghy.  tom made the mistake of suggesting we go inside the marine store.  three dresses and two dove bars later, his wallet was a little lighter hahaha....

chester river.

langford creek.

we didn't really have a plan after we left mill creek - north was about the extent of it.  tom called a friend who lives in queenstown on the Eastern Shore and it turned out that they were planning to anchor out that evening with their neighbors so we headed up past the Bay bridge and turned into the chester river.  we wound our way up to langford creek and anchored off cacaway island, a very popular anchorage since it has a beach.  surprisingly, it was not too crowded.  this is all relative, of course.  coming from the southern Bay, we are used to being the ONLY boat in an anchorage, however, toto, we are not in kansas anymore.  this is the upper Bay now and there will be boat wakes, irate people on the radio saying all kinds of outrageous things, and usually more than just four boats per anchorage on a weekday, especially on a holiday week.  it is what it is and everyone has the right to enjoy the Bay in whatever manner they please.  jet skis, water skiers, wakeboarders, and other annoying noisemakers and peace breakers included.  sigh.... 

it looked like it was going to be another hot one.  there wasn't much in the way of a breeze on our way upriver but the wind sure kicked up that night making for outstanding sleeping!  tom did let out more scope though.  that evening, we dinghied over to visit our friends, mike and carmen, who were anchored at davis creek.  it was a nice reunion as it had been some years since we'd last seen each other.  the first comment as we pulled up next to them was "WHITE FACE!"  this was in reference to consuelo.  mike broke out a photo he had taken of consuelo back in 2002 when we first met.  gosh, you'd think her markings had been painted on!  the borders between the colors were so distinct.  oh well, we all get old. there is, by the way, a heron rookery on davis creek.  it was pretty neat to see the great blue herons' head sticking out over the tops of the trees.

the next day, after visiting mike and carmen in the morning, we spent the afternoon just holed up at home, avoiding the heat of the day, but in the late afternoon, we did our usual dinghy exploration and headed up the western branch of langford creek on the suggestion of our friend, dave, who used to keep his sailboat at nearby lankford bay marina.  as we motored up the creek which seemed to go on forever with plenty of deep water, we were delighted to discover many alternative anchorages to the cacaway island one.

headed north past the Bay Bridge

chesapeake buy boat

cacaway island anchorage

sunset at cacaway island

chestertown.

the chester river is just lovely with its pastoral farmland scenery and houses few and far between.  we made our way to chestertown and anchored in the river just below the bridge.  the current is very strong here and because the next couple of days were pretty windy, we experienced a phenomenon that neither tom nor i were used to in our anchoring experience.  ordinarily, when you anchor, the bow faces into the wind - that's pretty standard - but this time, we faced every which way and sometimes, the anchor rode was slack while the boat hovered, suspended between the current and the wind.  she also did slow 360s as evidenced by the snubber wrapping around the chain several times.  sometimes, i would be sitting at my desk in the pilothouse and out of the corner of my eye, i would see the dinghy float by on the starboard side!  it was all very odd and a bit unnerving in the beginning.

chestertown is a cute little Eastern Shore town that is not dead or dying.  it might be because it is a college town (washington college) but in any case, the storefronts are not boarded up and there were actual live bodies walking around even in the heat and boy, was it hot!  we stayed a couple of days just because it's a nice little town to poke around in.  i even bought a new hat at one of the stores.  i love hats but, unfortunately, they do not love me.  it's hard to find one that doesn't make me look like a dork.  some people wear hats really well - like tom - but i just don't seem to have that kind of face.  and i can't keep them on for long, they just make me too hot.  it might be a filipino thing - an umbrella is better for shade except that around here, everyone gives you strange looks if you have an umbrella and it's not raining.  but i have gotten so old that i'm beyond caring about what people think, thank goodness!  in any case, i have a new hat :)

sunset at chestertown

a buyboat and a skipjack

the "martha white"

sultana at chestertown

queenstown. 

we had promised to visit our friends, mike and carmen, at their new home in queenstown so that was our next stop as we made our way down the chester river back towards the Bay.  however, we made a small detour into the corsica river first.  i guess that's a cruise we're going to have to save for next time.  the chester river has many creeks that we haven't poked into yet. we thought we would do the chesapeake this summer before heading south for the winter but the fact of the matter is that there are so many places to go, we just can't do it all in one shot!  quite frankly, why would anyone want to leave the chesapeake anyway?  except for winter, of course.  we've cruised the chesapeake quite a few years and we are nowhere near done with it.  it boggles the mind that so many snowbirds just blast through the chesapeake on their way north in the spring and on their way south in the fall.  they don't know what they are missing. 

in any case, when we finally got into queenstown creek, we headed to mike's community marina first to fill our water tanks and then to the anchorage.  there was only one other sailboat (black) anchored there but by the time we dinghied back to the community marina to meet up with our friends, three more sailboats had come in.  it was about 6:30 p.m. and i remember thinking as i saw the last two sailboats come in (filled with a bunch of little kids) and raft up - damn it, DO NOT park in front of us!  which, of course, they did.  anyway, we got to visit our friends' new home and from there, we walked to queenstown's popular pizza place and then back to the house for ice cream.  by the time we got back to the boat, it was past 9:00 p.m. and hotter than hell.  the air was completely still.  i took a shower in cold water and it still wasn't cold enough.  i wondered when tom would cave and it came soon after.  he said: "i have an idea."  i said: " run the generator and turn on the A/C?"  he said: "would you go down to the forward cabin and close all the open windows?"  you bet i would!  so that was really nice because the thought of trying to fall asleep in that heat was just inconceivable!  however, we were expecting some weather and we figured that we would have to close up the boat anyway to keep the rain out so might as well cool off the interior first, the rain would cool off the exterior and then we could open her up again and it would be nice sleeping weather. 

well, we  got weather all right and was it ever nasty!   we don't know for sure what the maximum wind speed was but on one particularly strong gust, tom checked the anemometer and it said 46 knots!  yikes....  prior to that, there was just lightning everywhere so we knew something big was coming and went about preparing for it.  what we were NOT prepared for was that two-sailboat raft-up with all the little kids dragging anchor and coming down on us the way they did, still rafted up, heeling over and moving sideways, making them seem bigger than they already were.  it was scary.  there was a lot of profanity going on in TADHANA that night.  tom had the engine running and he let out more scope on the anchor chain and moved us sideways to get out of the way of that runaway raft-up.  i had gone aft to shorten the painter on the dinghy so that if we backed up, the line would not have a chance to be caught up in the propeller.  it was pitch black with horizontal rain and screaming wind and this THING swept by us, totally out of control - two sailboats and two dinghies all tied up together.  you could hardly see anything in the dark except for their one anchor light and then flashes of light here and there indicating people scrambling around with flashlights.  tom turned on our searchlight - we just wanted to make sure we knew where they were.  at the same time, we were also keeping an eye on the other two anchored sailboats.  the black one never moved.  the other one, if he moved, was not going to come at us.  i don't think i'll ever forget the sight of that whole mess sweeping by.  i sighed with relief when they were finally behind us.  apparently, they managed to separate and the bigger sailboat, the one whose anchor had been holding them (or not) motored back up past us and then tried to re-anchor in the same spot!  the smaller sailboat kept circling around and i thought, surely, he's not thinking of trying to raft up again???  and i thought about all those little kids on the boat - it must have been terrifying for them, heeled over like that and careening out of control.  it was terrifying for US!  anyway, when it was over, tom went to bail out our dinghy.  i saw a flash of light out in the bushes across the creek and what had happened was that the group had lost one dinghy so someone was on the other dinghy off looking for it.  apparently,  it had flipped over and they lost all their gear.  tom went over to check on them.  we never moved from our spot - we were well dug in.  the sailboat behind us never moved either but i wonder how aware he was of the raft-up that had dragged.  the last sailboat anchored kind of beside us had put out more scope apparently because in the morning, he was aground and listing.  anyway, what a night - certainly not one to ever forget!  no one was hurt, thank goodness.  we didn't get to bed until 2:00 in the morning.  all of this excitement happened around midnight.

the two sailboats did not raft up again but the occupants still seemed to be talking to each other the next day.  well, at least they left together.  i was glad to see them go.  late that morning, we went off to the grocery store to re-provision.  mike had very generously lent us a car.  it was another hot day and hauling those groceries from the car to the dinghy and then from the dinghy into the boat and putting them away....  what a production!  tom took a nap and i half-heartedly went back to work and tried not to fall asleep.  i think we both felt pretty beat up still -  that whole thing with the dragging could have all gone so badly.

dark and stormy

ominous clouds

for the Fourth of July week, we normally cruise around chasing fireworks but this year , the whole east coast had Hurricane Arthur to contend with.  we were pretty dug in at queenstown creek, it was too hot, it was very windy and even the chester river was rough, let alone the Bay, and, well, we just didn't really feel like doing anything or going anywhere.  and this is KEY here - we didn't HAVE to be anywhere.  we could come and go as we pleased.  this hits us every now and then because all our lives, we've had some kind of schedule or other and tried to fit the play in with the work.  there are still some limitations but not as much as there used to be.  it really is kind of neat that except for a PFA (pet-friendly area) for consuelo and an aircard signal for me, we can sit damn near anywhere we please for however long we like.   works for me. 

mill creek.

oxford. 

we left denton at o'dark early to catch the outgoing tide on the choptank river and made our way to oxford and anchored off of town creek for the night.  we were starting to run low on supplies so we went to the oxford market for a few essentials and then spent the rest of the day just chilling out.  after dinner, it was off to the highland creamery for ice cream.  tom and i went wild and had two scoops each!  tom went to bed early so i took consuelo for her last potty run.  it's been a while since i've taken the dinghy out by myself and that 9.9hp yamaha is a bit heavy to raise up out of the water.  in any case, the funny thing is that since i so rarely do the dinghy runs by myself, i went out again later that night to make sure that the dinghy was securely tied.  i've had at least three friends whose dinghies have "run away" because they weren't properly secured so i kinda have nightmares about that.  heck, i even checked it twice!  the dinghy was fine.

herrington harbour south. 

at the fuel dock at HHS

we left oxford early and went back to the Bay via knapps narrows instead of going around black walnut point which was the original plan - tom worries about the shoaling at the narrows but it was high tide so we went for it, calling for a bridge opening.  i think, however, that we will avoid knapps narrows from now on until they dredge over there.  we were lucky not to meet any boats going the opposite way in that section where it is really narrow and shallow although if we did, i probably would have suggested that i take over the wheel.  i am better at playing chicken than tom is.  bullies are like that hahaha...  well, it might be a cultural thing, too.  i have this hierarchy background - if i am older than you, you must give way.  similarly, if i am bigger than you, you should probably get out of my way.  tom is much more polite and usually moves out of the way.  not me...  i was here first - YOU get out!  :)    we crossed the chesapeake to herring bay and into herrington harbour south marina to fuel up.  why there?  because the price of fuel was lower than anywhere else.  nevertheless, it was an expensive day.  200 gallons later and ass-heavy, we left for the rhode river.  

rhode river. 

surprisingly, the entrance to west river, which i always think of as crabpot city, had less crabpots than i had ever seen prior!  hmmm.....  that's not good!  i heard that it's not a very good year for crabs so far.  in any case, from the west river, we headed to the rhode river anchorage where we sat for a couple of days and relaxed.  or rather, we sat for a couple days and i worked and tom did projects.  on one of the dinghy runs, we noticed a sailboat had run aground on one of the points.  they had called towboat US but had already been waiting an hour so likely the towboat was out helping someone else.  they ran aground at high tide which means only one thing - that they'd dig in lower into the mud when the water runs out from underneath them and they'd be in a worse situation.  with the dinghy, we were able to push the bow to face the other way in hopes that when they raised the mainsail, together with our outboard and theirs, plus the wind, they'd be able to extricate themselves from the mud but, unfortunately, it just wasn't enough horsepower.  oh well, we tried.  towboat US finally arrived and muscled them out of the mud.  the two young people in that sailboat motored by later on and were profuse in their thanks.  well, you know, the last time we waited for towboat US was when we got hit by lightning - it was two and a half hours before the towboat arrived.  in any case, lots of reminiscing at the rhode river.  tom and i had both spent time anchored there on our individual boats before we even met each other so it was like an old friend.  i remember it when there were three islands.  now there are only two and the one is considerably smaller than it was.  everything changes.  

sunset at the rhode river

mill creek. 

the run to mill creek was another o'dark early start.  the forecast was for wind and thunderstorms mid-day.  the thunderstorm did come but it was not until late that night. and quite a display of lightning, too.  we were at john and heidi's on mill creek by 9:00 a.m.  it is always terrific to see old friends - they were my family when i lived in annapolis.  and when i got consuelo 13.5 years ago after simka died, they came to visit to see the new puppy and brought toys!  we spent a relaxing three days docked at their home and did all our provisioning - west marine and grocery store - wednesday was a VERY EXPENSIVE day!  mill creek, though, gets crazy with boat wake and as much as we would have loved to stay longer, the weekend came up and EVERYONE was going to be out bouncing us all over the place.  we had to tow the dinghy out into the Bay before we could even haul it up with the davit.  it was nice to get caught up and spend quality time - we will be back!  any way you look at it, tom and i still tend to think of annapolis as home. 

tadhana at mill creek

john and heidi's home at mill creek

denton.

we had never been on the choptank beyond the bridge.  there were a lot of workboats on the water just beyond cambridge where the river was still pretty wide but after that, it was quiet of boat traffic with mostly marsh and farmland and houses further apart from each other as the river narrowed.  it reminded us a bit of the wicomico river going up to salisbury - pretty, but not very interesting, unlike the pocomoke river with its cypress trees and black water.  the river had lots of sharp little turns so you really had to pay attention.  when tom called the dover bridge tender (it is an open-on-demand swing bridge), he seemed reluctant to stop traffic just for us but even with everything folded down, we are simply too tall.  the upper choptank past cambridge is actually typical of what we've seen on the rivers we've traveled on the Eastern Shore.   the marina guy at denton seemed very excited about our arrival.  people waved enthusiastically from shore.  not too much boat traffic around there obviously.  the "marina" we stayed at was actually in west denton, across the choptank river from denton.  it was really more of a tiny repair yard called mathews landing but next to it was the choptank river yacht club's dock with three pontoon boats tied up to it.  as it turns out, the "marina office" is on the other side of the town of denton and the person tom had spoken to on the phone earlier did not communicate anything to anyone so the guy who came out to help had no clue who we were.  not that it mattered really as tom and i are more than capable of tying up by ourselves, but these people must get something like two transients a year!  in any case, it was exciting for folks to see the "big" boat come in (we are hardly big) but in this part of the river, little jonboats and pontoons are the norm.  we were probably the main excitement of the day.

to get to the town of denton, you have to cross the route 404 bridge.  the building that stands out is the district court which is probably responsible for denton's (barely) survival.  like most Eastern Shore towns, it is struggling to stay alive.  the large red brick building that can be seen from the marina is apparently a correction facility which is across the street from the district court. 

our "rustic" dock

the excitement of the weekend launching

pretty steep ramp at low tide

the next day, we dropped the dinghy and continued upriver to greensboro, MD.  the choptank goes on beyond it but we didn't bother.  compared to greensboro, denton is a thriving metropolis.  as the river got narrower, it reminded me of the movie, "apocalpyse now." and even though it was a rather chilly day with occasional drizzle, you could smell the earthy scent of summer.  we could conceivably have brought tadhana further up the river - there was plenty of deep water - but there were logs and fallen trees and you had to pick your way.  it really is small boat territory and an Eastern Shore way out in the sticks kind of place.

 

abandoned railroad bridge left in permanently "open" position

diving platform?  the river is deep.

"apocalypse now"

i seriously doubt that we will find our way back to denton by boat again although we very much enjoyed our stay at the rustic dock and talking with the locals, one of whom was actually a  transplanted south african working at the yard with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor about the deadness of the place.  the area just didn't have that much of a call to return but we're glad that we went anyway.

it got hot.

the beach at little bay

little bay. 

we left on sunday for little bay.  how can one not love little bay?  it really is one of our most favorite places.  the stars are always amazing at little bay because there are no city lights.  tom went deep sea diving to inspect our running gear and clean out any growth.  just a relaxing day all in all, like sundays are supposed to be, except that, of course, i had to work that night. 

drum point light replica

solomons

the potomac behaved during our crossing.  solomons is so different from our southern bay - it is POPULATED.  the AIS was going nuts with all kinds of alarms popping up from boats docked whose owners had left the AIS on.  we anchored in our usual spot in back creek between the museum and calvert marina.  unfortunately, my password for calvert marina's wifi wasn't working but tom was being social again, seeing boats familiar from the deltaville area and i knew he was going to go visiting so i told him to make himself useful and get the password from friends docked at zahniser's.  i am never social and most especially so on a hot day so i happily stayed aboard and went back to work.  luckily, a slight breeze came in that night or it would have been absolutely miserable at anchor.

la trappe creek.

from solomons, we caught the tide running up the Bay to the choptank river.  it was HOT HOT HOT the whole passage.  the air was just STILL.  by the time we got to la trappe creek, tom already had his swimming trunks on, supposedly for a second inspection of the running gear.  we ALL went swimming that afternoon - what a relief!  again, we were lucky to have a breeze come up later.  my social butterfly tom ended up talking with some guy on the beach who knew tom's brother in oxford.  that guy's friend showed up in another sailboat and he turned out to be a member of the board of governors at the cambridge yacht club and invited us to dock there for free, which was really nice of him.  cambridge is another one of those places that suffered greatly when the economy went south and both the municipal marina and the yacht club are looking for ways to stimulate the boater traffic through cambridge to generate some income. 

no wind AT ALL, la trappe

sunset at la trappe creek

cambridge. 

we SO enjoyed cambridge.  our purpose there was to get together with friends, steve and charissa, before they moved back to illinois, and we got to spend two lovely days and several meals with them.  cambridge is actually a nice little town that is struggling to bring itself back.  the municipal marina is huge and there are a lot of empty slips which is too bad because it is a very nice marina, not too far from town, and there are shops and restaurants for those so inclined.  it really does need to advertise itself better as a cruiser destination. lots of great old houses along the river for those interested in architecture and stuff like that.  unfortunately, unlike tom, between work and company, i didn't get to spend too much time exploring cambridge although i did manage a little bike ride around and found the farmer's market and wound up talking to a retired waterman for a bit.

deltaville

we arrived deltaville on a sunday and thought that we would stay a few days just to pick up mail, get cleaned up, do a few boat projects, move things to and from the storage unit - that sort of thing - but we ended up staying a whole week because tom wanted to help a friend move his sailboat from deltaville to the corrotoman river and that didn't happen until the next saturday.  the other thing was that tom thought it would be nice to get caught up with the neighbors as well since our plan was to leave again for the northern Bay and not return until six weeks later.  well, i just have to say that tom's social life for us adversely affected my work life - remember i still work???  i'd be up all night trying to catch up with the work i missed and then awake again early the next morning for more of the same.  don't get me wrong - i LOVED seeing all of our friends but there simply aren't enough hours in the day! 

i wondered about my two ducks and it kind of made me sad not to see them.  there was one drake swimming around our area of the marina but quite frankly, i can't tell one duck from the other so i wasn't sure if it was "my" duck.  however, on friday evening, five days after our return to deltaville, the drake showed up on the dock behind TADHANA and demanded to be fed - obviously, he was "my" duck, at least he thought so!  the next morning, he showed up again with my little brown hen, my gentle little mama duck who only chirps and never quacks like her boyfriend.  they must have some kind of communication system - did he tell her that i was back?  how did he tell her?  in any case, i was really happy to see her but there were no ducklings in tow so i guess that didn't happen this year either.  they hung out with us the whole weekend and people who walked by were amused by the bowls and at how unafraid they were of both us and consuelo.  i hated to leave her again but i guess that is just the way it is.

sunday morning was our usual pancakes and bacon breakfast and then we got ready to leave for little bay.  tom's plan was to do some deep sea diving over there and check our running gear - he said we lost some RPMs and that it's been a bad year so far for growth so best to check.  the weather is good so it will be nice to be back at our lovely little bay - on a sunday when everyone will be leaving.  it's great to be underway again :) 

obligatory sunset pics from slip G-30 at regatta point marina, our home for the last two years.

clean-the-bay day at tangier island.

tom had made an announcement at an MTOA rendezvous back in march about the clean-the-bay day at tangier island on saturday, june 7, 2014, and several members had expressed an interest in going, probably because they were not sure what clean-the-bay day ACTUALLY entailed, however, it sounded like a good excuse for a cruise.  we arrived on a thursday, the day before everyone else so that milton would have help getting all these boats docked. we also wanted to reserve the bulkhead slips for the bigger boats - milton's reservation system at parks marina (there is no reservation system!) could use some tweaking.  tom actually had me print up signs, however,  the thing with making signs is that you are supposed to post them.  tom had a radio show to do which he did at milton's house using milton's phone - this is tangier island - cell phone black hole - thinking that he was going to put up the signs AFTER his radio  show.  luckily, the sailboat that took the main bulkhead slip while no one was paying attention only stayed for lunch and then left but he stiffed milton the $5 for the brief stay.  what a jerk....  anyway, as soon as he left, we put up the signs.

the boats started arriving on friday but there were other boats not in our party that were arriving as well so it got pretty busy at the marina.  milton is NOT supposed to be doing all this work!  so we were kept very busy helping him out.  let me tell you that when the current runs fast at tangier harbor, it can take you by surprise  so if you are trying to help a boat dock, it's a long wait in the hot sun while the boat tries ten times to get into a slip sideways before you even get to touch one of its docklines to help!  there was one guy (not from our group, thank goodness) who said that he would wait for slack tide and come back and he went off and tied up at the ferry dock.  milton sent tom over to ride back with him and handle dock lines.  we finally got him in but man.....  there was a lot of shouting and arm-waving going on.  it was all very entertaining....

four brothers was having free ice cream from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., something they do every year the evening before opening day.  since we were all adults, it was okay to have dessert first and then a group of us had dinner together at lorraine's that evening and ate absolutely way too much.

the next day, saturday, was clean-the-bay day.  we all met up in front of the general store at 8:00 a.m. along with some of the locals and were issued large orange plastic bags, gloves, and reaching tool grabbers.  

john pruitt, the guy in charge, gave instructions about being careful to avoid boards with rusty nails, etc. and then they set us loose in the marsh to pick up trash.  broad-brimmed hats, sunblock fishing shirts and high rubber boots were the standard uniform of the day - every cruiser seems to have these on board.  it was a hot day and it was nasty, dirty work - lots of smelly dead fish around, too, but at the end of the day, one really felt good about picking up all those bottles, cans, plastic bags, light bulbs and all manner of detritus that the tides had brought in and the marsh looked the way it was supposed to look once more.  loni and carol moore of tangier island had all of us in their home for hotdogs afterwards.  there really was a general good feeling all around about having, in some small way, done our part for OUR bay.  everyone dispersed after lunch to do their own thing and then the group got together again for a family-style dinner at hilda crockett's chesapeake house.  5:00 p.m. is last call at the chesapeake house which takes some getting used to when one is not a farmer (or a waterman).  tangier is a dry town and no, you do NOT bring your own wine to dinner.  i suspect people were already drinking on their own boats at 3:00 p.m. (or earlier) anyway after all that hot, sweaty work tramping through mud in rubber boots.  everyone seemed to have a healthy appetite :)  

MTOA PARTICIPATION IN CLEAN-THE-BAY DAY 

tom and i have had a very special relationship with tangier island for the longest time and we were very happy to have been able to share a little bit of this with friends and members of the MTOA.  as for milton - we worry about him.  he does too much and he doesn't ask for help and even if you offer it, he is reluctant to take it.  but it is obvious that he loves what he does and is frustrated by the limitations of his ongoing health.  he said something to the effect of "well, just kill me now if you won't let me work" and i can certainly understand this.  the best that we can do is to bully him into letting us help when we are visiting. 

always spectacular sunset at tangier