On to St. Michael's

We left Windmill Point Marina on the morning of May 31^st under dreary skies.  The Chesapeake Bay was the calmest we had ever seen it.

Just south of Reedville we had to slightly alter our northward course to avoid interfering with the menhaden fishing fleet.  The menhaden is a foot-long, bony fish crucial to the food chain in the Chesapeake Bay, providing abundant food for eagles, osprey, bluefish and striped bass.  It is also an important player in water quality as the menhaden are filter feeders, like oysters, removing excess nutrients from the water.

Early Native Americans recognized the menhaden’s importance as fertilizer for the corn crop.  Much later, in 1874, Elijah Reed began processing menhaden for its fish oil.  Reedville soon became the Menhaden capital of America.  Today, Omega Protein, the only menhaden reduction plant in operation on the Atlantic coast, processes the fish into fishmeal for use in cosmetics, livestock feed and omega-3 fish oil supplements.  When the plant is ‘cooking’ the menhaden, the air around Reedville is quite odoriferous – we did not plan to anchor nearby!



To catch the menhaden, a purse seine is strung between two boats as seen on the right.  The boats encircle the menhaden in the net and then it is pursed, or closed.  The menhaden are then vacuumed into refrigerated containers on the mother ship, seen on the left, and taken to Reedville.



 

Solomons, Maryland is a major boating center at the mouth of the Patuxent River.  We have a favorite anchorage where we have dropped the hook on several previous visits.  So into Mill Creek we headed.  As we passed the docks where the LNG tugs are usually tied up, I noticed what appeared to be dozens of brown mats floating just below the surface of the water.  Closer examination proved that observation to be wrong – these ‘mats’ were cownose rays!  The cownose ray has a kite-shaped body with a wingspan up to three-feet and an indented snout that resembles a cow’s nose.  Traveling in schools based on sex and age, these rays visit the warm waters of the Chesapeake Bay from May through September.  We passed by several schools of them as we made our way into the anchorage.

Anchored off our favorite spot in Mill Creek where no one ever seems to be home!

 

The friendly staff at the Calvert Marine Museum allows boaters to tie up to their dinghy dock to access the museum.  So we made what felt like our umpteenth visit on June 1^st.  Though small in size, the museum is big on relating the colorful history of the Chesapeake Bay.  And even more amazing is that mega star country singer Toby Keith will be performing here in mid-June! 

There is always something new to learn at CMM, or maybe I just don’t remember things from one visit to the next!  Delaware-born Isaac Solomon purchased Sandy Island in 1865 with the dream of building a commercial empire based on the ‘almighty oyster.’  He amassed an oyster fleet, built a shipyard, a cannery and housing for his workers on the island and renamed his empire Solomon’s Island.  Over the years it has played a major role in American history, from building schooners, sloops and bugeyes in support of the oyster industry to serving as an amphibious invasion training site during World War II.  Commissioned in 1943, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station sits just across the river on its south side.

 

A calm night on Mill Creek




This picture is for you -Tim and Vicki Gardner!
Passing Thomas Point Light on our way to Annapolis

 

On to Annapolis where I learned that my mooring-ball-snagging skills were not as rusty as feared.  I managed to snag a mooring on my first try, woohoo!!  After dinghying into Ego Alley where the few docked boats had been taken over by ducks, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones and then happy hour at Pusser’s Caribbean Grille.   Safely back aboard Lazy W we enjoyed watching the junior and senior classes of the very pricey Indian Creek School board the Catherine Marie for their prom.  Dozens of small sailboats zipped around the harbor and launches from the cruise ship American Star ferried passengers from their far anchorage into downtown Annapolis.  It was a beautiful evening to be in Annapolis.  

Annapolis from our mooring ball

 

  

 

 

Prom attendees on Catherine Marie

 

As nice as the weather was now, a storm was forecast to approach the bay on Sunday.  That was our planned day to make the crossing over to St. Michael’s.  Luckily these plans are set in jello!  Instead of spending a second day on the mooring ball we moved Lazy W on Friday to the only available slip at Annapolis Landing Marina where we could do exciting things like laundry and grocery shopping.   Thanks ALM for use of the courtesy car!  We would cross the bay on Saturday.



Passing American Star on our way to Annapolis Landing Marina
 

 

 

As we left Annapolis we came upon an unexpected sight on the bay – a coast guard cutter emblazoned with “Japan Coast Guard” on its side.  The Kojima, the 377-foot Japanese Coast Guard Academy’s training ship, was heading north to Baltimore for a June 5^th event sponsored by Sail Baltimore.  This organization hosts sailing vessels from around the world as an ever-changing Maritime Museum in downtown Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

We have visited St. Michael’s many times over the years but we were drawn back for yet another visit through an invitation to join The Loopers and Cruisers Dock Up at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum on Monday.  This is what happens when you encounter grocery-shopping boaters in the Portsmouth Food Lion and offer them a ride back to North Landing! Thanks to Kenny Beach aboard Daybreak for inviting us to your gathering.

St. Michael’s is known as “the town that fooled the British” during the War of 1812.  The townspeople had been forewarned of an imminent attack on the shipyards – they blacked out their houses and hung lanterns high in the trees and in the masts of the ships. In the dark morning hours of August 10, 1813 the British, deceived by the height of the lights, thought the town was situated on a high bluff and overshot the town.  Only one cannonball struck a house, and to this day that house is known as “the Cannonball House.”

Throughout the day on June 6^th, ten boats in various stages of cruising ‘the Loop’ arrived at the museum docks.  By 4:30 it was time for all of us to meet and exchange boat stories at the 1890 home of Cindy Pease, the owner of The Shops at Sea Captain’s Cottage.  She graciously hosted happy hour even though she only knew one of the boaters in our group.  And what an eclectic group we were!  A Chesapeake Bay pilot and graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, a SUNY Maritime graduate (from across the river from Kings Point) and engineer, a Brooklyn dentist, second-time Loopers from Georgia, first-time Loopers from Alabama, a French Horn player from Delaware.

During dinner at Awful Arthur’s Seafood Restaurant we chatted with Jeff, a retired U.S. naval officer who served a short time on the destroyer USS Blandy around the same time that Frank did his naval reserve duty on the same ship. Jeff and his wife, Susan, had lived in Chesapeake’s Riverwalk community in the late 1990’s.  Well, Peg, my college roommate, just so happens to live in Riverwalk and, after a quick text message back and forth with her, we concluded that, yes, she vaguely remembers Susan and, yes, she plays bunco with their mutual friend, Ardis!!!  What a small world!!!

Our dockmate, the 1912 tug Delaware, at CBMM
 

The Loopers and Cruisers boats docked at various spots at CBMM

 

 

The Hooper Strait Lighthouse.
  Built in 1879 this screw pile lighthouse was moved to CBMM in 1966.

There were many opportunities to mix and mingle with The Loopers and Cruisers crowd.  Docktail parties, dinners, guided tours of St. Michael’s and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, even karaoke night at the Black Thorn Irish Pub.  But all good things must come to an end and it was time for Lazy W to make her way north to the C&D Canal.  Alas, the weather would not cooperate.  A gale warning (wind gusts of 35 knots creating waves of 3 feet) was posted for the northern bay on Wednesday, June 8^th.  Being “fair weather boaters,” we opted to spend another day at the dock surrounded by mating horseshoe crabs!!