Eastern Shore of Maryland

We've been working our way up the Eastern Shore of Maryland the last several days. We left Tangier on a snarfy day with the wind and seas right on the nose of the boat. But we only had six miles to go before we got into the lea of the Eastern Shore, so it wasn't too bad.

Our first stop was Crisfield, the self-proclaimed "Crab Capital" of Maryland. Crisfield still has crab processing plants where the watermen bring their catches to be steamed. Then rooms full of women pick the crab meat out of the shell. Tedious, meticulous work for which they are paid by the pound; in other words, piece work. I'm told that a good picker can pick up to five pounds of crab meat in fifteen minutes. I can't even imagine how they do that.

One afternoon in Crisfield would have been enough, but the next day's forecast was blowy and overcast. The following day had south winds (we were going north) at 5 knots. A forecast like that was enough to make us wait another day in Crisfield. We were rewarded with a wonderful trip up the Chesapeake. We went all the way up to the Choptank River (about 60 miles) and tucked into a quiet little cove inside Tilghman Island. There was no moon and no ambient light, the stars were amazing!

The next day, we moved about fifteen miles to Oxford, MD. Oxford was at its peak before the Revolutionary War. But many of the houses still date from that era and what new construction there is has been kept architecturally consistent for the most part, so it is a pretty little town. A bit lacking in services, however. There was only one restaurant within walking distance of the marinas and one dismal market. They did have a nice bookstore, Mystery Loves Company. I contributed to the local economy, buying a mystery we have been looking for.

Today, Sunday, we traveled from Oxford to Dividing Creek, an anchorage off the Wye River, near St. Michaels, MD. It was a beautiful day with light southeast winds and blue skies. The whole weekend has been lovely and local boaters obviously realized there are a limited number of gorgeous days left in the sailing season. I can't remember ever seeing as many boats as we saw today. The Wye River is a very popular anchorage, so we timed our arrival to be after the weekenders would be headed home. But, of course, that means we met them leaving as we were arriving. There were so many sailboats headed out of the Wye River it looked like a busy highway. I felt like I was driving the wrong way on an interstate.

Even on a September Sunday night, there are three other boats in the anchorage with us, but it is long enough to accommodate that without crowding. We can't see any human habitation, just trees to the water line. We're looking forward to another spectacular night of stars and quiet.

Tomorrow we heading to a dock in St. Michaels that our Eastern Shore client, the folks at the Talbot County Free Library, arranged for us. Had we arrived last week, we would have been sharing the marina with Johnny Depp.