July 1 - July 8--We cut the taproots, hauled the anchors and headed down the Wye and into the Miles River to St. Michaels. It was a blessing that we only had to travel about 8 nm since wind was on the nose out of the south at 15-20 and current was against us; best speed 4-4.5. Made stop at fuel dock for diesel, gas and much needed water. We were fortunate that only one sailboat was in the anchorage so we were able to anchor close to the main harbor. The channel is marked by a line of about 4 green cans with the anchorage area behind them which spills outside of the harbor when it's crowded. Rumor has it that that you will get a ticket if your anchored boat swings out into the channel.....so we were well behind the row of cans!
The small harbor is ringed with marinas and waterfront restaurants. One is built out over the water.....the blue crab is king here. Almost all restaurants offer steamed blue crabs that are dumped on brown paper on your table for you to pick and eat. One of our favorites is Foxy's...all outdoors; just umbrella shaded tables on a deck with a bar. Everything they serve is cooked on a grill...so no fried foods! And Abigail was welcomed with a bowl of water with ice cubes floating in it! The main street (couple of blocks off waterfront) is lined with trees and shops and more restaurants, each painted a pastel color, with brightly colored flags and kites flying. Very charming. We dinghied into town almost every day...ran errands, ate several meals ashore, indulged in more ice cream!, and grocery shopped at Acme grocery store (that's its real name straight out of cartoons!).
Jim is from Texas, by way of California, so he very much enjoyed seeing all the old houses at St. Michaels...a few are from late 1700's, many from mid/late 1800's. We wondered why there are American and British flags flying alongside the harbor....there is a "tale" that when the residents heard the British were going to attack the town, they put lanterns in trees outside of the town in hopes of misleading the British....story has it that the British did attack the "town" (lanterns in trees) which spared St. Michaels and its residents.......
We spent one morning touring the Maritime museum where we learned about skipjacks and pushboats.....skipjacks, push boats and buy boats. Skipjacks and push boats work as a "team"....skipjacks are engineless and the relatively tiny boat (dinghy-sized) tied to their stern is the engine. The entire small push boat is filled with a large engine...it pushes the skipjack when needed (see pic). And we learned about the role of "buy boats".....In the heyday of the skipjacks, they would be away from the dock for months at a time.....the buy boat brought supplies out to the skipjack and would buy their haul to be taken to shore and sold. The museum had lots of displays that you could touch and some boats that you could board and explore. Volunteers at the museum bring old wooden boats back to life and you could watch the work being done from platforms above the work area. A lighthouse that used to be at Hooper Strait sits on land can be explored (in the pic behind the skipjack)...amazing to see how the keepers lived and what an isolated, maybe lonely life, it would have been.
I had last done laundry in Baltimore so it was piling up! There used to be a Laundromat in St. Michaels but it closed couple of years ago....so nearest one was in Easton, just 20 minutes away (by car)!!!!! One of the marinas, Harbor Inn, has a Laundromat....so we dinghied over and asked him if he would take pity and let me use the laundry. I assured him it was only this time and no, we would not use the showers! I thought he was going to say no but he relented and said ok (mucho thanks to the dockmaster)......so off we went to get my laundry.....turns out there is a washer/dryer in the ladies bath room.....my first thought was how sexist to assume only women did laundry! Jim checked men's room and found another washer/dryer...guess men also do laundry! He stuck his head in the door to ask if anyone was there...no answer after couple of tries. So I went in (men's room) and started loading the washer but I kept hearing the faint sound of running water.....Jim walked to the back and discovered a guy was in the shower! So I left very quickly.....So with Jim's help, got the two loads done. Nothing like clean sheets and towels!
The fireworks in St. Michaels were scheduled for July 6 (guess the town did not want to compete with Annapolis or Baltimore) along with live outdoor Big Band music at the museum. The anchorage started filling up on July 4, more boats on the 5th and many more on 6th.....we thought there were probably 100 anchored boats in the river outside the small main harbor. Ed and Alice Sealing and family members showed up in M/V Sealing (somewhat similar to both Buds' motor yachts) for the fireworks and anchored alongside Celerity. They invited us aboard so we had a great view that high off the water. The fireworks were accompanied by Big Band music and were some of best I've seen including those in Washington, DC (2009)......were unusual patterns and colors...seemed to be all different.......
We stayed over an extra day to do boat projects, including cleaning the bottom of my dinghy.....dinghied over to a sandy beach where we could drag it ashore and flip it over. With Jim's help, we successfully got the furry mess off the bottom.......our reward was dinner ashore. I had Snow Crab legs and ate every morsel! Yum!
Ed convinced us to go North to Rock Hall on Eastern shore instead of crossing the Bay to revisit Whitehall Bay (western shore, near Annapolis). Made sense to stay on east side of Bay since we will be working our way to C & D Canal (at the top of the Bay on eastern side)......