More Deltaville

We got to Deltaville about Tuesday.   Now it's Sunday.

We meant to leave today, but the boat won't start.  We have two battery indicaters.  One says we have plenty of amps and the other is showing an error code.  So Tom is contacting previous owner and local person (on Sunday morning, yet) to see what gives.  Can't find enough info. on internet re this particular inverter/charger system.   Of course, he gets so frustrated.  Once we lick some problem another gets worse and demands attention.

We have fun while here.  Yesterday we went to the Farmers Market, held on their museum acreage on a branch of water near us.   We had breakfast inside their very large new community room, then roamed the attractions of the market.

Then we walked along a path through the woods along which sculptures were scattered.    No pictures of this though.  Then we walked their boardwalk and then to the dock where we had dinghyed to.  There we met Walt, a man who lives in a van who spends summers here in a campground and winters in Key West where re runs a community sailing school.   This day he was taking people around by golf cart and also showing people crabs.  When we met him, he was emptying the crab pool.  He said we could have them if we wanted, but we said we want to catch our own.   So I got to catch and release them using a small net on a handle.

As we started to get in our dinghy, people brought the boat below up to the dock, using long slender wooden oars.  It turns out they had been out for a demonstration in one of the museum's most prized possessions.  The boat is very similar to one that Capt. John Smith used when he mapped the whole Chesapeake Bay in two, two-month sessions.   These boats were once common.  They were used all over Europe and some were brought, cut in half in ships to America to be used along shores.  Apparently 14 men stayed in them, (not camping on shore) as they did the mapping trips.

When sailing, instead of keels, they put down a lee board to keep them from slipping sideways.

That evening, we dinghyed back to the park to hear one of their scheduled concerts.  Took this picture along the way and then one of Tom and Bob, our host, when we got there.  He had saved chairs under the pavilion.  Everyone brought their own drinks and foods and most brought chairs to sit in the lawn before the stage.   Was a lovely community event.   And the bands were good.    The second one was very dancable, but Tom told me he heard it was illegal to dance in Virginia.   So we didn't.

I see we won't be leaving today.   So Tom is going to take me over to the dock and I'll borrow one of Bob's bikes and explore some more.   Tom hopes to meet someone who will look at the battery system.

Southern Comfort

I forgot to show you a video from a few days ago when Tom was demonstrating how to do housework while sailing.

 

We wanted to be flexible and so here we are, staying a number of days around Deltaville, VA.   Deltaville is an unincorporated town/area, again with more boats than people.   There are 14 marinas scattered around here.    We were walking along the highway, backpacks on back toward the grocery story and a man stops to pick us up, saying the store is a lot farther than we probably imagined.  We hopped in. He has turned out to be our sponsor here in making us feel welcome and to meet people and places.    

First he took us by a home machine worker who will weld a part we need for our engine.  Then he invited us to a 4 p.m. gathering at his home to watch the America's Cup.   It turned out his home is very near where we were anchored.  A big fine home on the shore overlooking the large river entrance and our protected anchorage.   We met the owners of the Waterway Guide we'd been using.   The couple also owns two marinas here.   We also met the manager of the 30-acre museum property here where he had taken us earlier to show us how volunteers here are building a community center and natural gardens where their boat museum burned a few years ago.   

We are also invited to a poker game at his house tonight (may not go) and to the Farmers Market and then concert that evening on the Museum property.    With all that offered, we decided to stay.   It's pretty here and it might be a nice place to live sometime.  Plus we needed a break.

Yesterday, when we went to have our boat pumped out, the nearby marina said their pump was inoperable, so we ended up over in another river marina and anchorage.  After pumping, we just put out anchor here and are spending the morning before motoring back to our original spot.

After anchoring yesterday, we dinghyed out to explore.  First we tied up to some pilings along a channel to have manhattens.  We soon decided to untie and just let the wind float us back out while we relaxed.  Such a nice ending to an otherwise stressful day.

If the weather permits, we'll probably head over to Cape Charles on Sunday, where we've had mail sent.

Part-way back on the Chesapeake

Yesterday, we anchored in Deltaville.  Deltaville is sort of like Oriental, NC in that it is a boating capital.  Many marinas, many boats, located here because there are lots of protected rivers and water in a centrally located place on the Chesapeake.  One of the marinas advertises that it is four hours to anywhere from here:  Annapolis, Norfolk and all points in between.  There really isn't much of a town.   But we've found a basin, Jackson Creek where about 8 boats are anchored and a nearby marina where we may get a clamp/brace for the heat exchanger on the engine made.  Tom discovered it was broken a few days ago.

After that great stop at Tangier Island, we motored two hours into the wind up to Crisfield, the southernmost town in Maryland. It's on the eastern side of the bay.  It's after the season and docking rates are so low and the marina so nice (run by Dept. of Natural Resources) that we stayed two nights:  doing our laundry, gathering groceries and looking around.   The people there feel the town is on a decline after Sandy flooded and took out half of it recently.  

We can tell we're getting north by the architecture.

I thought this was going to be truly a simple place where the crab pot workers ate.  Turns out it was close to gourmet as you'll find here.

The narrow channel in.

This is only one of about 13 steaming pots this restaurant has.  In season, it's loaded with people at picnic tables and inside, eating crabs by the 12 and 20.

A very modern marina with all the comforts of home

As our first leg back south, we sailed over to Smith Island, where you follow a channel east through a town and out the other side, where we sailed on over to an anchorage in the Little Wicomico river.  Smith Island is populated by people a lot like those on Tangier, but not so prettily.

The north side is a nature preserve where the public is not allowed. 

Karen, if you're reading this, this would make a great pastel painting, wouldn't it?

As we motored toward the west side of the bay, the wind blew about 15-18 and the waves were hitting us directly on the starboard (right) side of the boat, tossing us back and forth.   We put up a foresail and eased back on the motor.   We used very little fuel on that run.  My friend Jimmy tells me that we should have had both sails up and the ride would have been more comfortable.

We found an anchorage where we were protected from the strong north winds and part of the view was just nature.
We ended up staying  here two  nights.   We started out the first day, got gently grounded and were told by the tow boat driver that the bay was cold and choppy that day.  We went right back to the anchorage and had one of the most  peaceful relaxing days in a while.   

Yesterday, we sailed and motor sailed (when the wind wasn't right) down here to Deltaville. Winds were 7-10 and it was sunny.  A lovely, but long day.

Pictures

Tom has discovered how to easily and quickly view pictures larger on our blogs.   (Some of the last ones looked so much better when bigger.)

You just left click on the first picture.   That makes all of them appear in a line at the bottom of the screen.   Then you can click on each one in succession and they each quickly fill the screen.  

I've posted these directions on the left side of the blog so they'll be there for any help with any post.

Turnaround

I named this post Turnaround for two reasons:  one is a turnaround in plans and the other is a turnaround in directions.

I decided a couple of days ago not to fly back to Arkansas to personally rent out a house.  One of my lovely brothers has agreed to show it for me and the rest I can probably do long-distance.    We are ten long days from where the plane would take off and we don't want to rush.

The other turnaround is in direction.  We are at Chrisfield, a little town in Maryland that is just north of Virgina on the east side of Chesapeake sound, about half-way up the long sound.  When looking for anchorages and at the time of year, we think this is as far as we should go.   Most of  the anchorages, looking by google earth, have homes around or near them.   We're used to finding places that are mostly just nature and us and we want those again.   Also, it's getting chilly here.   We are using our beach towels as blankets, 'cause we don't have one and aren't near a place to buy one.    Plus it sometimes feels cosier to eat down in the boat rather than in the cockpit.   Time to move south, don't you think?

Now to the good parts.   I may have written that we motored in some high winds our first day on the bay and ended up over in an anchorage near Yorktown, lower on the east side of the bay.  These first few pictures are from a walk we took there, then a dinghy ride, and then that night with the moody weather.

We had heard from the lock tender that a place called Tangier Island was a "must visit."   So after two nights at that first anchorage area (we moved three times), we started north.  With the wind on our nose, we motored NINE hours.  We wondered along the way, "WHY?"   And also saw this little lighthouse.

About six that evening, we saw LAND.

Tangier Island (s) is a batch of land about 4 feet high right in the north-south, east-west middle of Chesapeake Bay.  They are losing ground each year and realize that the islands will be inundated a few generations into the future.

Now we know "WHY."   This place is the best stop yet.

The islanders make their living as "watermen," catching and selling crabs and by catering to us tourists.

We stayed at a marina run by an 82-year-old man, Milton Parks where we paid $30 for each of the two nights we stayed there.  He had spent 41 winters with the dragon boat fleet (they used to drag for crabs they way they still drag for oysters.)

 A couple from Maryland and their two children had made this their second stop on a two-year journey.  They were on a beautiful 40 foot sailboat named Quartet.

The houses are all close and small.  Several had the family graveyards in front of their house.  They all came from the same place in England and continue to speak with a Restoration English dialect.   Very fun to listen to and try to understand.

We only saw two pickup trucks on the island.  All of the "streets" look like this, to us a bike path.  They use golf carts and bicycles to get around.  So much fun to see several women on bikes, stopped by a friends house to gossip

We followed one bike path 'til it turned into a sandy path.  Ditched our bikes and walked out to a beach.

Looked back to town from the path.

We ate dinner at one seafood restaurant and lunch at another.  The specialty here is soft-shelled crabs so I had my first (except for one a long time ago in New Jersey - Don't think I forgot, Jerry).

After lunch we took a new friend's advice and dinghyed around to the south of the island where there's only a crescent of sand.   Wonderful to see and to play in.

At the end, birds gulls and pelicans hung out by the hundreds.

All the boats around were what they call "dead rise."  The ones they go harvest the crab  pots with.

One evening, I thought I saw these gulls walking on water.  But the tide kept going out and it turns out they were walking on land.

Our last night here we saw the  full moon and visited with people from the two other sailboats here.

Now, once again, we motored (wind on our nose) two hours over to a town in Maryland:  Crisfield.  We have now decided to stay here two days.  It's cheap and the nicest marina we've stayed in and we can regroup a little.