Mike
09/16/2009, Annapolis, MD

September 15, 2009 Annapolis, MD
After sleeping in a little and a cup of coffee I began the process of replacing the Link 1000 head unit which had arrived yesterday along with our new GPS and remote vhf mike. It took forever due to tiny wires and even smaller holes where they needed to be. It was one of those times when I had to tear apart some things before I was in the position to work on it.
Finishing that job, switched to the GPS. It will take me awhile to get it installed the way I want but I did remove the old one and marked the new mounting bracket for drilling.
Steve showed up about that time to take us out for some more shopping. But our first stop was the Annapolis Yacht Club for some lunch. The "Club" is everything that you might expect in the sailing center of the East Coast; Guards at the gate, cell phones off before entering, etc. The building is three stories on the water with meeting rooms, three or four restaurants of varying levels of dress, bars, a card room, offices, a shop for clothing. We ate outside on the water and had a wonderful lunch. Most of the people knew Steve and were happy to see him.
We walked to Fawcetts after lunch and were greeted by Bess, who we spent some time with in the Bahamas last winter. She works there but is going to Boston for a week tomorrow. We talked for a while and she insisted that we use her car while she was gone.
Next it was grocery shopping before heading back to Spa Creek. Scott had told us about a place down town where there were 1/2 price hors dovores on Tuesdays, so we hooked up with Veranda and some others to check it out.
We stayed out too late again. But Steve's leaving tomorrow, so maybe we'll get to take a short break for a couple of days. At dinner last night at Skip and Gerry's we met the Scott who is in charge of the docks here at Shearwater and found out that we can stay for $25 a night... which is cheaper than a mooring here in Annapolis so we'll be staying for a week or so.


September 14th, 2009 Annapolis, Md
Steve picked us up at around 10am. On our way to the laundry we stopped at some of Steve's friends who had invited us to dinner. Skip and Gerry were next door neighbors when Steve lived here in Shearwater. We had met them in Hope Town, Abacos a couple years ago and then in Oriental last Fall.
We dropped Kathy off and began our list of errands stopping at the bank, the Inflatable shop for fabric to make patches, the Harbormaster's office to pick up our packages, and a canvas shop where they are making some covers for Steve's jerry cans.
After collecting Kathy we headed across the street to West Marine and ran into some folks that we sailed with in the spring for a few days. Lenny, a friend from Annapolis, was at the till and another friend was the assistant manager. We had a nice chat and then continued on the find some lunch.
We had some burgers and stopped at a store that sold glasses to get my new ones adjusted so that they wouldn't fall off my face so often.
From there is was out to the Mall for a trip to Williams and Sonoma where Steve needed to pick up something for Scott. Finally we went to a new Whole Foods store to find some things to take to dinner.
We arrived back at the boat about 4:30 and to rest up for supper but a Marine Surveyor called and wanted to stop in to check our lightning damage. He had called a few days ago to make arrangements to visit us when we got to Annapolis. Bob was a real nice guy and spent over an hour with us asking questions, going over the boat and taking photos of the things that we have already replaced.
Kathy and I were late for dinner but his visit was more important. Eventually we walked up to Skip and Gerry's condo for an excellent dinner and a very good time. We stayed way too long.

Septemper 13th, 2009 Rhode River to Annapolis, MD
We weighed anchor at 7am for the two hour run up to Annapolis. Steve and Scott came out on Scott's fishing boat to meet us just before 9 am. We made the bridge opening at 9 and motored up Spa Creek to our dock for three nights at Shearwater, which is a very nice Condo community.
After getting things squared away, Steve, Scott and I went back out in the Bay for some fishing.
Scott's boat has all the bells and whistles and he know the area, but the fish didn't cooperate. Kathy stayed aboard and rinsed a layer of salt off the boat and waxed the cockpit.
After returning to the dock we called Amy (Scott's friend) and the five of us took off in Scott's boat to a crab joint called Cantler's. It was about a 20 minute run by boat, but would have taken longer by car. The special was " all you can eat" Crabs for $20, which ended up being a deal. Kathy ordered mussels that looked good, but the crabs were excellent.
By the time we returned, it was about dark. We said good night to Scott and Amy, and spent the evening in the cockpit with Steve solving the world's problems and trying to map out what we need to get done in the next two days.
We kind of feel like we're home here in Annapolis and don't really know how long we're going to stay. When we retuned from dinner there were two bags of books and DVD's in our cockpit thanks to "Veranda" who have been hauling them around since Vero Beach.

September 12th, 2009 Mill Creek, VA to Rhode River, MD
We left Mill Creek as soon at daylight and went as far as we could, which ended up being the Rhode River about 10 miles from Annapolis. We motorsailed all day into a nice 15 kt breeze from the NW.
The sun was out most of the morning but around noon is clouded up and stayed grey for the rest of the day. It was a non-eventual day over all.

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Mike
09/13/2009, Mill Creek, VA

September 11th, 2009 Mill Creek, VA
The winds are supposed to subside this afternoon but by about noon they hadn't . We spent another day reading and working a few boat projects. There is really nothing more to say.
I did speak to a boat surveyor who was contracted by the insurance company.

September 10th, 2009 Mill Creek, VA
The wind blew all night and all day at about 25 knots. Our anchorage is fine but there's a gale out on the Bay. We spent the day doing some puzzles and reading. I am about out of projects, but did spend some time putting things away.
I thought about baking but never really got around to it. It was a good day to curl up with a book and a blanket and that is precisely what we did.

September 9th, 2009 Heney's Creek to Mill Creek, VA
We left our anchorage in Henry's Creek about 8am and headed our way out Indian Creek into the Bay. We found about 12 knots of NE wind, right on our nose, and waves of 2 to 3 feet. It wasn't a bad ride, but we were only making about 4 knots into the waves and wind.
By about 10 am we had a decision to make. We knew that the winds were going to build through out the day and by midnight be gusting to 30 knots so a protected anchorage was important. Our choices along this stretch of the Bay are limited; pull over here into the Great Wicomico and into one of the creeks, continue on and go up the Potomac into a creek, or push on to the Solomons.
The Potomac was out of the way and it was 40 miles into the wind or about 10 hours to the Solomons which meant we would be arriving around dark with no GPS. I chose to pull over and we worked our way into Mill Creek.
Our anchorage was beautiful. We read most of the afternoon listening to the wind build. The skies were grey and it rained on and off most of the day.
We baked sweet potatoes and ham for dinner. Kathy made a nice salad with tomatoes from Mike and Tammy's garden.

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Mike
09/13/2009, Heny's Creek, Kilmarnock, VA

September 7th, 2009 Henery' Creek, VA
Mike and his dad, also a Mike, picked me up at 6:30 am and we headed out into the mouth of Indian River. The boat was made of fiberglass and was completely open. It had an awning over the aft half where the work and the sorting happens. The engine was a 250 Honda and the steering consisted of a stainless steel bar about two inches in diameter and four feet long situated along the starboard quarter where Mike Sr.'s workstation was located. Mike Jr. stood directly forward of him. In the center of the boat was a sorting area, a box of bait (assorted fish about 8 inches long), and four different areas for the sorted crabs. There were bushel baskets raised to about table height by setting one on another inverted basket. They were for Number 1 Jimmys, Number 2's and number 3's. Jimmys are male crabs and generally run a little larger. There was a much larger plastic barrel into which the female crabs were tossed.
The system was much as one would expect. Mike Sr. drove up to a float and Mike Jr. snagged the line with a hook mounted on a 5-foot length of PVC pipe. He handed the line to his dad who wound it around the puller and stepped on the motor switch, which hauled the crap trap to the surface. He would lift the trap to the wide gunwale, handing it to his son. Mike then knocked the trap on the gunwale to get rid of the old bait still left in the trap, unlocked the opening side and shook the crabs into the sorting tray. While he closed the trap and reloaded it with bait his dad started sorting and drove to the next float. They sorted as they approached the next trap and when they got close Mike Sr. rolled the newly baited trap off the gunwale as Mike Jr. snagged the next float to start the process again.
They watched the point for boats that had been out all night netting fish and finally called one that they knew to purchase 5 totes of bait fish. The fishermen pulled into a sheltered area and transferred the bait over to our boat. The netters sort out the fish that have a market value but end up with lots of baitfish and love the chance to a get a little money for them. The crabbers pay about 1/3 price if they buy directly off the fishing boats.
Then it was back to hauling pots. Without the knowledge to sort crabs there was little I could do to help. I hung on to one of the awning supports and watched. I have always prided myself in having good balance on a boat, but I spent the morning hanging on while the boat pitched and rolled. Mike and his dad never hung on and somehow never lost their balance while working. I said something to Mike and his response was, "You need both hands to work."
After about four hours we finished the strings of pots in the mouth of the river and worked our way up stream where the water was much more settled. We drove most of the way up the Indian River and worked our way back to Henry's Creek past very nice new homes and docks. The crabs in the river were mostly male as opposed to the river mouth area where the majority of the crabs were female.
We returned a little after noon and I jumped in the dinghy and followed them to their dock. The crabs were off loaded and weighed. Tammy had just sold one bushel as we arrived and another was spoken for. Their dock and cooler act somewhat as a transfer station, with watermen driving up all afternoon dropping off their sorted crabs for market. They are weighed and then taken to market. The females all go to Reedville, about 12 miles away to a picking plant where they are steamed, picked and canned.
The Jimmys are driven to Laural, Maryland and sold there.
Another aspect of the business is "Peelers." Peelers are male crabs that are going to molt shortly. At this time of your there aren't very many of them, but we got about 10 during the trip. The Croxton family purchases "peelers" from other crabbers ,which are then placed in salt water tanks and monitored. There are signs as these crabs get closer to molting and are moved from tank to tank as they appear. Finally, they molt and are sold as soft shell crabs. They also sell soft shell crabs that have had their legs and shell removed and are called "clusters." Tammy had given us a few for supper when we met them in Deltaville and we wanted to buy a box to keep in our freezer.
I went back to the boat and picked up Kathy and we returned to shore to hang out with the family. We brought a pint of maple syrup to each Mike, for which they were very grateful. One thing that I didn't mention was that in the process of crabbing you also catch fish...blues, spot, small flounder some of which a large enough to be legal. They are usually saved unless the freezers are already loaded. Mike Sr. cleaned today's fish for our dinner and put them on ice. Meanwhile Mike Jr. drove home to pick us a bag of green peppers and cherry tomatoes.
At about 3pm we bid our farewells and headed back to "Sapphire" loaded with crabs, fish, peppers, tomatoes, and a few peaches and apples that were thrown in as well.
We read for the remainder of the afternoon. The weather looks bad here for most of the week. Rain, winds from the north at 20-25 knots with gusts to 30. There are small craft warnings out for the next two days. We've learned the hard way that going with or across 25 knot winds in the Bay is ok, but going into them is stupid. We may be here a few more days than expected.
We had flounder and soft shell crab for dinner... which was excellent, and then I went to bed.

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