Farewell Chesapeake!

We have had such a wonderful time exploring the Chesapeake. Adirondack spent his early years here before joining our family. There are so many places to see and things to do. It’s easy to see how a boat could spend years here and still have places to go.

After leaving Solomons, we crossed to the Eastern Shore and spent two great days in Cambridge, tying up at the free town wall. We bought groceries at a store that had been in the family for 76 years, very funky and full of interesting foods. The High Spot Pub had the best crab soup – it equaled the seafood chowder from Shediac New Brunswick, which is quite the compliment! The next day we toured the Visitor Center, the Richardson Maritime Museum, the Choptank River Lighthouse, the Harriet Tubman Museum and went back to the High Spot for a dessert glass of Smoking Wood beer.

                               

We then moved on to Oxford, keeping our academic theme going. Oxford was a beautiful little town, hardly any traffic and great for walking. They have a good general store and the best ice cream on the Bay at the Scottish Highlands Creamery. We managed to get the materials we needed to fix the shower at Cutts and Case Yachts, which has a shed full of gorgeous old wooden boats. We got lots of boat jobs done with the shower repair and caulking the shower window (which was leaking into the boat) and caulking the back window over our bed (which was dripping on my head during heavy downpours).

Annapolis was the next stop to pick up friends who had bought time on the boat at our church service auction last fall. They had lived before on the Bay and have family here, so it was wonderful to explore some old and new places. We crossed to the Eastern Shore again to St Michaels, which is almost too cute. We had a delicious crab lunch at the Crab Claw restaurant and I got some time at the good yarn store in town.

We then went up the Chester River to Cacaway Farm where we tied up at the dock just before a huge downpour. What a lovely spot to spend a day; good food, great company and a TV for Kevin to watch game 6 of the NBA championship.

Rock Hall was the next destination. We had the free town wall almost all to ourselves and Jeff had multiple trips to the nearby West Marine store. We were able to connect up with one of our favorite fellow cruisers from the Exumas, Andy “Andante”. It was lovely to see him and catch up on life and talk about possible trips back South in the fall.

Finally we continued north in the Bay to Havre de Grace, another great town where Gina had lived and the kids were born and then on to Chesapeake City where we had to drop them off. What a great crew they were!

Now we are working our way through the skinny water of the Intracoastal Waterway of New Jersey, timing our days with high tide and watching the charts and buoys very carefully. We met up with Brent and Susan “Once Upon a Time” from St Paul at Annapolis and again at Chesapeake City and are traveling together through the ICW – very fun to share time together with great fellow cruisers. Soon we’ll be in NYC then on to Champlain!! Sally