On the road again

We're finally back on the boat and underway again. Our visit to Cleveland was a week longer than we expected it to be because I had to have a little dental surgery while we were home.

When we finally got back to the boat we decided to do a little car cruising before we left the northern neck of Virginia. I had never been to Williamsburg and Jim's only trip there was nearly 30 years ago. So we visited Yorktown, Williamsburg, Jamestown and the Civil War sites of Petersburg and Cold Harbor.

On Saturday we went to an antique and wooden boat show in Reedville. While there we went to the Fisherman's Museum and learned quite a bit about the history of fishing in the Chesapeake. We also learned about a type of fishing neither of us had heard of before - pound net fishing. Fishermen set up a series of stakes in the water and attach nets to them. The nets are configured to create a set of two "rooms", the last of which has a funnel shaped entrance which makes it easy for fish to get it but not to get out. A third set of nets creates a directional flow of water leading into the net rooms. Apparently schools of fish change their direction to travel with a flow of water, so they turn and enter the rooms. Then the fishermen pull up the net of the third room and scoop the fish out of it and into their boats. All very complicated and quite difficult in bad weather.

This afternoon we left northern Virginia and crossed the Potomac to the southern shore of western Maryland. The Potomac was a lovely, well behaved river and the trip over was a pleasant two hour cruise. Quite a change from our last experience with the Potomac. Tomorrow we go down the Potomac to Tangier Island. We're hoping that timing our departure to coincide with the tide flowing out of the river, and the predicted west winds, will give us another day like today. Wish us luck!