We have just finished a three night stop anchored in the East River, off the town of Mathews. This has turned out to be a real highlight of our Chesapeake trip. When we went ashore on Friday evening for dinner, we met a local gentleman by the name of Willis. Willis provided some general information about the town and gave us good advice on where to eat, but also said there was a farmers' market on the Saturday morning, if we were back in town. This was going to be at low water, which made it impossible for us to get to town in Guppy, but Willis said he would pick us up at the deeper public landing at the entrance to Put In Creek if we gave him a call. We were initially thinking of leaving on Saturday, but decided it was a great offer to see some more of the area so went ashore and gave Willis a call. A trip to the farmers' market turned into a wonderful day-long tour of the area. Mathews is a thriving community, with a lot of history (and a fabulous second-hand bookshop). Willis introduced us to many of the locals at the market, including Mairi from Greenock (on the Clyde) who makes and sells very tasty Scottish shortbread (even on a par with Mum W's). After a fine lunch Willis took us on a driving tour of Mathews county and generally showed us around. At the end of the day he drove us back to where we had left Guppy and we headed back to the boat to reflect on what a wonderful part of the world we had stumbled into and the delightful people we had met. Thank you, Willis, for a great day - we hope that we meet again.

Today we have moved north to Deltaville. We passed the Wolf Trap light, named after a British naval sailor who many years ago got his ship stuck on the sandbank. He contracted with the locals to help him get it off, but once they did get him free he sailed off without making payment - so the story goes.