June 25... Oxford MD to St. Michaels MD

We pulled out of Oxford around 8am and motored to St. Michaels via Broad Creek and arrived to find crab line running through our desired anchorage. At this time of year most crabbing is done by laying down a line that is baited about every four feet. Many of these lines are 500 yards long. The watermen then put the line over a roller on the side of their boats and drive slowly while the baited line is lifted from the bottom. Crabs hang on to the bait all the way up so it's a simple matter of netting them as the bait reaches the surface.

We dropped anchor in the middle of the creek until the guy picked up his line and then moved out of the main channel to re-anchor.

After a snack we dinghied to shore and tied up at the public dock where most of the watermen keep their boats. From there it is about four blocks to the downtown area through a very pleasant residential area.

Debbie and Kathy shopped for a while Davey and I stopped at a nice air-conditioned bar for a quick beer.

Our main goal for the afternoon however, was a meal at the Crab Claw where they paper your table and dump on the steamed crabs. So once the ladies found us, we were off for the waterfront.

The meal was excellent.

Before we left town we stopped at Big Al's for some shrimp and the gdrocery for some chicken necks for bait.

Our evenings entertainment was crabbing. Davey and I tied chicken necks to four lines and lowered them to the bottom tying the other end to the life line. Every few minutes someone would slowly pull up the lines and check for crabs. If one of the lines was heavy I brought the net and scooped. We caught three nice ones which were steamed and picked before I went to bed. It was great fun.