St. Michaels, MD!

First I had to share this photo of our last sunset in Oxford, MD.  I thought it was a pretty darn good picture!  Such a beautiful evening it was. 

We pulled out of Oxford, passing some of the homes along the water!  These homes are ginormous!  Almost all of the marker poles had Ospreys sitting on nests waiting for babies!  We had decided to alter our original course and pass through the Knapps Narrows rather than going back out the way we came.  The guidebook said that on summer weekends it is a pretty crazy place to have to wait out the raising of the bascule bridge.  The skies were gray and foggy when we left but by the time we arrived at the narrows, it was just cloudy!  

The bascule bridge was listed in the guidebook as a 12’ clearance.  It was low tide so Ken called the bridge tender, told him we needed 13’ and inquired as to the height today.  “13 is your lucky number today.”  We approached slowly to make sure we could clear the bridge.  We cleared it and were on our way!  Not a lot of room to spare!

The  further north we go on the Chesapeake, the higher the prices are at marinas!   We arrived at Higgins Yacht Yard conveniently located a block from the grocery store and town and also very close to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum which we wanted to visit!  

Another Cruiser’s Yachts buddy of Ken’s that boats in these waters came and joined us for dinner!  Thank you Mike for taking the time to come meet us!

The Chesapeake Maritime Museum has certainly been a highlight of St. Michaels!  We spent an entire day exploring the museum’s many exhibits.

This screwpile lighthouse was moved to the site!  Screwpile lighthouses are so named because they are “screwed” into the Bay bottom.

We could watch them building boats and restoring boats.

You could practice scooping up oysters with tongs.  The tongs were very long and very heavy!  Ken scooped a good amount of oysters!

There was a great exhibit on Tugboats telling museum visitors all the Tugboats have been and are still used for!

The stories in the “rising tide” exhibit were pretty scary.  Some of the islands that used to have residents are now totally empty.  The picture at the right shows high tide 2008 to 2009.  The fear is that some of these sea level islands on the bay will someday be under water and uninhabitable!

 

Mama  duck just had 11 babies!  Love it!

The town of St. Michaels is charming.  There are many fine shops to wander through and great restaurants too. 

Of course we had to stop for ice cream! 

The Episcopal church pictured plays chimes on the hour and half hour so you always know what time it is!

This purple gift store is called a “Wish called Wanda”.  My good friend Wanda and her husband Ted will join us for lunch on Sunday in Annapolis so this picture is for her!

Lastly,  I updated maps as to how far we have come on this trip of a lifetime!  We have traveled over 4,500 miles on the trip.  We are now spending time on the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay is a HUGE body of water.  Many boaters spend weeks or even months exploring all the rivers and creeks that feed the Chesapeake!  There is also tons of history that has happened in these waters!  It is 200 miles long from top to bottom but has thousands of miles of shoreline with all the rivers that feed it!  We have tried to pick stops on the Chesapeake either rich with history or recommended by other “loopers”.  We have not been disappointed but I know we are only scratching the surface.  Tomorrow we will head to Annapolis, home of the US Naval Academy so another blue line will be drawn to the other side of the Bay!   We still have Baltimore at the top of the bay and then we connect with Delaware Bay via the C & D canal!  Then it is on to New York City by June 1!

Stay tuned readers!  There is a lot more to come!  Thanks for coming along!   Pat