Chesapeake Bay (Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers) - May/June 2006
We spent four days in Hampton waiting for the weather to calm down (lots of wind!). It finally calmed down on May 24 and we headed north up to Deltaville - a small town on the Rappahannock River. We anchored in Jackson creek in a great little cove just south of town.
We found the town dingy dock and walked about a mile into town where we found the town library which was having a great book sale. Paperbacks were only $0.40 each and hardcovers were $1.00. We each found some great books and loaded up our backpack. Farther into town, we found a little seafood store that had fresh 'picked' lump crabmeat and beautiful shrimp - so we got them to pack that in ice and hauled all of our booty back to the dink and back onto the boat. What a great evening - wonderful food, good books to read and a lovely place in which to enjoy it all. Can't ask for more than that!
We found this interesting little 'Rainbow' house in Deltaville when we were out wandering around.
The next morning we hauled up the anchor and headed up the Rappahannock River to the town of Urbanna. This is a picture of the harbor inside the breakwater at Urbanna.
The town put in new docks a few years ago after the old ones were 'removed' by hurricane Isabelle.
Urbanna, like so many of the towns in the Chesapeake, is a neat little town. Lots of pretty houses with nice gardens and yards surrounding them. No one seems to have a chain link fence. If anything, some houses have small picket fences - but most folks seem to just let their yard run happily into their neighbors.
Jeremy had noticed that since we've moved onto the boat, we were no longer able to get our poor little engine to reach it's max RPM. After much discussion (no, I'm NOT throwing my fabric and sewing machine overboard!) and discussions with the folks back at Tomco (the builder that built Tardis) - it was decided that what we needed was to have our prop modified to remove pitch and/or cup so that it could be better matched to the new load.
After asking around, we found a great prop guy - Bob - at Chesapeake Cove in Deltaville who agreed to haul us, remove the prop and do the re-tuning that was required. Since the prop has never been off, it took a bit of persuasion to get it removed - including a blast with a blow torch. Bob got it off, removed the cup, fixed a couple of dings we've managed to put on it somewhere along the way (is THAT what that was in the Dismal Swamp??) - and got it all put back together and back in the water all in one day. He even gave us a place to tie up for the night when he was done.
Next morning, we headed our and Jeremy cranked her up. He was very happy to see that we could once again get the engine to rev up to the max RPM as designed. All that, and I get to keep my fabric and sewing machine as well.
Since the weather was cooperating, we decided to continue farther up north and head into the Potomac for a trip up to Washington DC. We spotted this Menhaden boat along the way. Menhaden fish swim in fairly large schools close to the surface of the water in the Chesapeake during the spring, summer and fall. The boats that go after these fish trail huge nets behind them that are laid out by small workboats. The boat we saw did not have his nets out since the workboat was tied up alongside when he passed us. If you see one of these with the workboats out behind the boat, you need to give them a really wide berth. They bring these fish into Reedville (about halfway up the bay between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers) where they are processed into fish meal and oil. We made the mistake of going into Reedville when we were up here on the sailboat in 92. The smell was horrible. Our two cats at the time - Spot and Bart were in LOVE. They spent the entire time hovering at the side of the boat closest to the plant wanting us to go over THERE!! We got as far away from it as we could and headed out first thing in the morning.
Fortunately we had really good weather and were able to make good speed, so we headed past Reedville and into the Potomac river. We anchored off the college town of St. Marys City in cove aptly named Horseshoe Cove. Somehow I managed to get a shot of Tardis with the sailboat directly behind her. So what do you think - how does she look as the ultimate Motor Sailor???
St. Mary's City was chartered as a city in 1668 by Cecil Calvert, the second Baron of Baltimore. The English King, Charles I, had granted Lord Baltimore what is now the state of Maryland in 1632. The ships that brought the first colonists to this area, the Ark and the Dove, sailed from London in October 1633. The town has a replica of the Dove moored at the docks in town. The Dove was a typical 17th century ship called a pinnace.
One of the ideals that Lord Baltimore wanted for his new town was one of religious tolerance. Lord Baltimore was a Catholic and his plan was for Maryland to be a place where people of different religions could live together peacefully. In England at that time, Catholics could not worship in public or hold public office. This practice of religious tolerance, was made into law in 1649 with An Act concerning Religion. The law was limited-providing toleration only for Christians, but it was the first statement of religious toleration in America. Ultimately, the great majority of people coming to Maryland were Protestants-mostly poor indentured servants who would work in the colony in exchange for their passage.
In 1667, the first English Catholic Chapel in the New World was built in St. Marys City. The town has found archeological evidence of the site and is rebuilding a replica of the chapel on this site.
In addition, the town has erected 'skeleton' buildings and homes depicting the size and general architecture of houses from the 17th century. In addition, they have constructed a sample Indian village on the site.
The Piscataway and Yaocomaco Indians had established villages on the land when the English settlers arrived. The Yaocomaco Indians had already cleared land but were preparing to leave, possibly due to hostilities with another Indian tribe, the Susquehannock. Although some of the Yaocomaco had already left, it was agreed that within a year those remaining would leave the village to the colonists. In exchange, the English gave metal hoes and axes and cloth to the Yaocomaco. The land was claimed in the name of King Charles I and Lord Baltimore and was called Saint Maries in honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria.
In 1676, the settlers built a brick State House which was the meeting place for the upper and lower houses of the Assembly, which formed the governing body for the colony. The town completed a replica of the State House on the site a few years ago. Jeremy tried out the 17th century method of punishing those that broke the law in those days. Seemed like a bit of a snug fit.
We saw this sundial over by the cove where we had anchored the boat. We checked it against our digital watch and it was pretty accurate! We saw lots of bunny rabbits while we were out walking - including this one that seemed pretty fearless.
We saw the USS Eagle after we left St. Marys City and were headed up the Potomac river toward Washington DC. The USS Eagle is a US Coast Guard cadet training ship. It was a war prize seized from the Germans after WWII. A few miles outside of DC, we saw this neat little lightouse marker off the side of the river.
We knew we were getting close to DC when we saw Washington National airport and lots of recreational and commercial boat traffic.
We docked at the Gangplank marina which provided a great home base for out time in Washington. It provided a secure place to keep the boat within about a 6 block walk to the Washington Mall. We wandered into the city and saw the Capital with the statue of James Garfield in front.
We saw these statues of the horse brigade on the Mall by the pond in front of the Washington Memorial. We got a fellow tourist to take a picture of us in front of the pond.
Flags surrounding the Washington Monument.
The Smithsonian Institution and museums are legendary in Washington DC - and we spent our share of times in the museums. These are pictures of the original Smithsonian museum and surrounding gardens.
One place that we visited was the Lincoln memorial which included many of his writings and speeches including the Emancipation Proclamation. We also visited a few of the many war memorials in our nation's capitol including the WW II memorial. The memorial includes a pillar for every state and US territory that participated in the war.
One that was particularly moving was the Korean War memorial, which includes statues of war-worn soldiers tramping through a field. The memorial includes a granite wall with engravings of soldiers from all parts of the military that were involved in the war.
The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum opened the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport in 2003. It's about a 50 minute shuttle ride from the Air and Space Museum on the mall - and well worth the trip. The museum includes all the 'big' stuff, including the Enola Gay, the Concord, a Stealth bomber and even the Enterprise Space Shuttle. It also includes several smaller planes - including the biplane shown below and several WWI and WWII planes.
Back in town, we visited the National History Museum which included many exhibits of transportation including this steam engine. The museum also had a large Fresnel Lens. These are the lenses that are used in lighthouses to focus and magnify the beams so that we boaters can see them and know were we are and where the dangerous coast and rocks are.
We saw this very interesting little mini-van driving up on the sidewalks in DC - seemed to be very much in a 'McFlurry'. I especially liked the little yellow rotating light on top!
Updated June 12, 2006