Chesapeake Bay - June 2007
Ah, the Chesapeake Bay. We spent only two and a half weeks heading north through this wonderful cruising area this summer. Last year we dawdled here for about 5 weeks. I've heard that you could spend a lifetime cruising the bay and still not see it all - and I believe it. This is the third time we've been to the Chesapeake - the first time was on our sailboat in 1992. Every time we come, I always think our time here is too short. Each time I promise myself that the next time we will plan to come a little earlier and stay a bit longer. We'll see. Time not spent here is spent in other interesting places. I've come to realize that it's all good. The summers can be VERY hot here and it freezes in the winter - so the best time to come is in the late spring/early summer (May and early June) and again in the fall (September and early October). Since we're not doing the full loop this year, we plan to be back here in the fall - and that will be very nice indeed!
Ode
to a Flame Fest
We all know that is true,
We’re always sure we’re right
Others never have a clue.
Others put down the hook,
So long as when we get there
There’s a spot that’s not took!
Still others run on gas,
We all know that we use less
When we don’t go too fast.
There’s sail
versus power
And big versus small,
So many boats to choose from
There’s one for us all.
Others head out with twins,
It doesn’t really matter
Long’s we don’t have to swim.
Ten micron versus two,
It’s not engine décor
Just don’t have too few!
So dear to our hearts
Will get us all riled up
Then the “Flame Throwing” starts.
So “tanks” for the notes,
Been a real education
But let’s move on, folks!!
Norfolk is the place for maintenance on big boats of all kinds - both military and private. This shipyard shown in the picture to the left below has a marine railway lift for large yachts. The railway portion closest to the water is submerged and the yachts are driven up onto it. Once they are secure, the whole thing is lifted up out of the water and the boat can then be moved back into the yard or into one of the huge sheds for maintenance.
The photo to the right is of one of the tall ships in Norfolk for the Tall Ships festival taking place there. Many of the tall ships we saw in Charleston were participating in this festival as well.
We were fortunate to have met some folks through our American Tug owner's group that just bought a new AT34 - Bev and Mark with their new boat 'Calypso'. They own a house in Salt Pond, just north of Hampton - and kindly let us tie up for a night behind their house so we could visit. Unfortunately Mark was out of town on business, but we had a very pleasant evening talking about boats and cruising with Bev.
One of their neighbors had a great dolphin sculpture out on his dock - and I couldn't resist getting a picture of it. The photo to the right is of an osprey family - Mom or Dad with one of the chicks sticking it's head up. The family home was built on top of one of the navigation markers - which seems to be a popular building site for most ospreys.
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We stopped off in Deltaville on our way north where we made our way into town. What a treat to discover that the public library was having a quilt show while we were there. I particularly liked these two quilts pieced by Rebecca Mattox. Rebecca machine quilted the 'storm at sea' quilt on the right. The quilt to the left was hand quilted by the ladies at the Providence Mennonite Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The picture to the left is of a sunset in Deltaville. From Deltaville, we made our way to Solomons, Maryland. What a great town! The picture to the right is of one of the local swans who came by to investigate a sailboat that was docked near us.
We spent three wonderful days in Solomons staying at the Calvert's Marina on the north side of the bay. The main part of town was to the south of the bay - about a 2 miles bike ride to get there. We stopped at Annmarie Garden, which is a beautiful sculpture garden nestled in the woods along the way.
Several of the trees had little paintings hidden in among them. There was a 'treasure hunt' map available for those that wanted to see if you could find them all. We only found a few - but I really liked this one of two friends standing side by side which also looked like a little gnome hidden in the tree at first glance. I also loved the 'old man in the woods' shown in the picture to the right below.
The Council Ring was designed as an oasis in the heart of the garden to serve as a place of quiet refuge and reflection. Don't know about you - but this would be my idea of the perfect conference room for a business meeting. Nice quite place - outside in the middle of a beautiful woods. A place for everyone to sit, but not quite comfortable enough for the meeting to last too long.... Bliss!!
The picture to the right is of a Chesapeake Bay waterman dredging for clams or oysters in the bay.
We spotted this pretty little wooden church in town. I particularly liked the round stained glass window of a sailboat over the door.
Solomons has a wonderful maritime museum in town - the Calvert Marine Museum. We were very fortunate to meet the crew of the 'John Smith 400' expedition there - a group of 12 young explorers (average age was 26) who were retracing the path of Captain John Smith's exploration of the Chesapeake Bay that he made in 1608.
Their home for the 121-day voyage was an open 28-foot boat - or "shallop" - built as a replica of the one that Smith used. The replica was built in the Sultana shipyard in Chestertown, Maryland using 17th century tools and techniques.
You can find out more about the expedition, read the journals of the modern day explorers, and even pose questions about the trip to members of the crew at www.johnsmith400.org. The group will be traveling until September 8 - when they plan to return to their starting point of historic Jamestown, Virginia.
The maritime museum is also home to Drum Point Lighthouse - an interesting old lighthouse that had been salvaged and relocated here. The lighthouse was built in 1883 to mark the entrance to the Patuxent River. It was lit for the first time on the night of August 20, 1883 and ran continuously every night for 79 years. The station was decommissioned in 1962 when it was replaced by an automated beacon.
As well as being a 'light' and an invaluable aid to navigation, the Drum Point lighthouse was also very much a 'house.' It was home to many light-keepers and their families over the years.
The following pictures show some of the rooms inside this very unique dwelling.
The museum also had a pretty extensive collection of old outboard engines - including this interesting 1938 Sears Waterwitch outboard. Eat your heart out Len.
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Some of the locals were having a miniature yacht race while we were there.
We saw the shallop leaving the same day we headed out. They rowed for awhile, then raised their sail to catch the little bit of breeze that was there that day. I asked them how much they sailed and they said quite a lot. They said that it sure beats rowing - even if they are only making 1-2 knots of headway.
Out on the bay again, we saw one of the old style lighthouses that is still in operation. I wonder if there is still a family living there??
We also saw this beautiful schooner under full sail.
A good use for old props - or a garden for growing new props?? Either way, it was an interesting sculpture we saw in Galesville where we stopped on the way to Annapolis.
Annapolis is a wonderful city - famous for being the home of the Naval Academy. The academy is normally open for people to tour - but unfortunately it was closed when we were there. Hopefully we will be able to see it in the fall when we return to the bay.
The town is also the home of of the Maryland State House (shown below in the photo on the left). This was the capital of the United States from November 26, 1783 through August 13, 1784. It is the oldest building in the nation that is still in legislative use. Many of the most important events during the formation of the United States took place within its walls including the ratification by Congress of the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784 effectively ending the Revolutionary War. It was also here on September 14, 1786 that the Annapolis Convention issued the call to all of the states that led to the Constitution Convention in Philadelphia. The state house sits on a hill overlooking much of the city.
Along the waterfront in Annapolis is a long rectangular shaped waterfront area that pushes in towards the center of town. This is the home of the annual Annapolis Boat show. It's called 'Ego Ally' - mostly since many yachts are known to cruise slowly up and down the waterfront here. There's a wonderful sculpture of Alex Haley here of him passing on his historical legacy to the next generation.
One of the ladies that I've gotten to know over the years at the Jinny Beyer quilting conference is Carol Nicolas. She works for Jinny and is in charge of putting together the quilting conference in Hiltion Head each year. When she found out we were going to be traveling through the Chesapeake Bay area, she mentioned that if we made it to Annapolis, she'd come out and get me and take me over to Great Falls so I could see it and also visit the shop there. What a treat!!! I had the best time - visiting with her and also getting to see the shop and pick out fabric for my kaleidoscope quilt that I designed at last year's conference. Now I just have to get sewing...
Leaving Annapolis, we saw this beautiful American Tug Lyoness passing by. Jeremy took careful note of the satellite dome on top of the pilot house. I told him it sort of looked like a lump on its head - sort of like the one he might be sporting one day .... (just kidding...)
Our next stop heading north on the Chesapeake was Chestertown on the Chester River. The picture on the left is of the Chestertown Town Hall. The picture on the right is of Washington College. This college was founded in 1782. George Washington granted the use of his name for the college and served on the board of Visitors and Governors. He received a Doctorate in Laws from the college in 1789.
I spotted this family of geese on the Chestertown waterfront. It was interesting to see that the geese allowed a duck to get so close to the young goslings.
Rock Hall was our next stop along the way. We spotted this very interesting use of the front end of an old wooden boat at the Oars Inn in town.
I have to say that there is nothing like the wild abandon of flowers up here in the summertime. There are flowers everywhere you look! It's as if they know that they had better get all of their growing and blooming done during this short time of summer since winter really just around the corner.
I really liked this sign for the Elbourn's - guess a seamstress lives here???
We were delighted to hear from our friends on Namaste that they were planning on heading into Havre de Grace at the same time as we were. We had last seen them in Brunswick Georgia. They left about a week after us - and we kept expecting them to catch up at any time.
That has to be one of the hardest parts of traveling all the time. You make friends, then you each go your own way. It's so wonderful when you get to catch up with each other again.
We had met a really nice couple last year in Isle of Hope - Jan and John on the Monk 36 trawler "Huckleberry." We exchanged boat cards, and they mentioned that if we ever found ourselves up in their neck of the woods, we should give them a call. Turns out they live about a block from the Havre de Grace marina. We all got together - went out to dinner and exchanged stories of our sea-faring adventures over the past year - and had a wonderful visit.
I have to say that that is what I miss most about leaving California - is all of the wonderful friends that we made while we were living there.
We really liked Havre de Grace. The town name means "Harbor of Grace" - and that is exactly what it is. It has the most wonderful waterfront park and trail that leads from the bay around the Susquehanna river front. The lighthouse shown in the picture below is the Concord Point Lighthouse. It was built in 1827 and is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation in the US. The light was maintained by the O'Neill family until 1928 when it was automated. John O'Neill was named as the first light-keeper in recognition of his heroic defense of Havre de Grace against the British in the War of 1812.
I was struck by the words on the old First National Bank building in town. I guess that's all it has now is memories, now that the building is for sale.
Spotted the Blues Brothers as well as a cool cow in front of an antique store.
The town even has a beer museum. Jeremy particularly loved wandering through here visiting some of his 'friends from around the world'.
The pictures below are of the Bayou. The Bayou was built between 1917 and 1921 as a hotel for the visiting rich and famous. The walls of the building are constructed of stone and are 18 inches thick. The hotel had a large lobby with 50 guestrooms - each with their own private bath. There was an enclosed heated swimming pool in a nearby building (now converted to house a Decoy Museum). The stock market crash as well as a fire in 1929 signaled the beginning of the end of the Bayou as a grand hotel. The building was eventually purchased by the Franciscan Nuns to be used as a home for the aged. In 1953 the building was sold once again - this time to a developer who converted the rooms into apartments.
Unfortunately the building was once again ravaged by fire in the early 1970's and in 1976 it was abandoned and given to the city. The Bayou was boarded up and left empty until September of 1983 when the National Park Service in conjunction with the Maryland State Historic Society designated the Bayou as a National Historic Structure and directed its preservation. In 1984 the city sold the building. It has now been renovated and converted into condominiums.
I have to say that we've seen so many monstrosities being built as new condos all along the east coast that it was really wonderful to see such a lovely old building restored and used as condos instead.
We stopped into the Havre de Grace maritime museum while we were in town and learned about the following two men who were instrumental in developing the nautical charts that we take for granted today.
Ferdinand R. Hassler, shown in the picture to the left below, was the Coast Survey's first superintendent. A Swiss immigrant and mathematician, Hassler led surveyors in charting the nation's shoreline as well as its harbors and offshore waters during the late 1700's and early 1800's. The data he collected was translated into the world's finest nautical charts of his day.
George Davidson, shown in the picture to the right below, began charting the Pacific coast in 1850. This was the height of the California gold rush, drawing literally boatloads of people to the west coast. Hundreds of boats sailed these treacherous waters without any of the lighthouses or aids to navigation that we have today. Not surprising, an alarming number of these ships were wrecked, making the situation critical. Davidson and his team traveled the coast for seven years accumulating the data that would be translated into the navigation charts and recommendations for navigation aids along the west coast.
Our last stop as we left the Chesapeake Bay was Chesapeake City - located on the Chesapeake and Delaware canal at the northern end of the bay. We found this rather interesting looking hotel when we were walking through town. At first I thought it was some overly rowdy hotel guest swinging from the front balcony. Turned out to just be a mannequin hanging up there!
The picture on the left is of two pretty little houses in town. The picture on the right is of some VERY large wrenches we found when we were over visiting the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal museum in town. Jeremy was sizing them up to see if he could use them on our boat!
I pieced this mariner's compass together with the boat name spelled out in nautical signal flags as a table covering for our boat. I got the idea from another boater who has a quilted cover on her table. I put elastic around the edge so it slips over the top and stays in place. Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself!
Updated July 31, 2007