After a busy week of hustle and bustle at the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis, we were ready for a change of pace. Just a day-sail east across the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis is bucolic Eastern Bay, and the historic village of St. Michaels. The crisp and sunny October afternoon found the Chesapeake Bay covered with white sails, and made our crossing over to Maryland's Eastern Shore perfect.

Our principal reason for visiting St. Michaels was to tour the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. This outdoor working museum brings the history, heritage, and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay to life. Watermen are the backbone of the Bay, and the restoration of traditional working watercraft is central to the theme and activities of the museum. Touring the museum, and re-reading James Michener's "Chesapeake" has really enhanced our cruising experience on historic Chesapeake Bay.

Cruisers have many of the same practical needs as do "Earth People," so we were happy to see that St. Michaels had a clean laundromat, small town grocery store, and a Unites States Post Office - all within walking distance of the harbor. The Village Council provides yachties a convenient dinghy dock behind the popular Crab Claw Restaurant on the northwest shore of the harbor. The Anglican's friendly church bells remind us of the time, and serenade us with our favorite hymns at noon and evening meals.

During our Sunday evening walk around the village of St. Michaels, we found the homeowners and shop keepers to be quite friendly and easily engaged in conversation. The ambiance of the Colonial and Victorian era charm is unmistakable almost anywhere one looks. The streets are quiet and serene, and we felt completely at ease here in small town USA. As the setting sun's last muted rays filtered through the oaks and elms, we viewed families framed in shuttered windows, gathered around their supper tables, enjoying the warm glow of candlelight and the camaraderie of their fellow diners while taking their evening meal together. This sacred family time brought us back to values too often lost to our busy culture - but still alive in the backwaters of America...

St. Michaels Harbor is quite interesting and busy, and the view from the cockpit of S/V Tiger Lilly is always changing. With the rumble of a pulsating bow-thruster, a visiting sailing yacht (every bit of 65 feet and gleaming from stem to stern) backs away from the dock, then heaves-to and waits while an elderly black waterman in his jaunty-bowed work boat overhauls his trot-line for blue crabs - right down the center of the harbor's fairway. The owner and his party on a huge mega-yacht slips in at sunset for dinner at a local waterfront restaurant, and then leaves early the next morning for points south - including the West Indies. The ubiquitous community of south-bound Mom & Pop cruising sailboats take up their anchorage at the harbor entrance and scurry about purposefully in their dinghies - visiting amongst themselves, running errands, and provisioning ship. At day's end a garrulous flock of big Canadian Geese circle in and splash down in a quiet corner of the harbor; honking their arrival from the Arctic tundra for all to hear, as they migrate south down the Atlantic Flyway. The autumnal panorama before us is ever changing and colorful.

We hope that you get a chance to see St. Michaels for yourself one day, and do not miss the experience of visiting the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum if you do! To see some of the pictures we took at the museum, please navigate our Photo Gallery thusly: Ports of Call / USA / Chesapeake Bay / Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.