Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Today is another grey day with overcast skies and scattered showers.   No visit to St Michaels is complete without a trip to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  Of the nine buildings on its campus, none is more recognizable than the Hooper Straits screwpile lighthouse.

After standing watch for 75 years, it was decommissioned, moved to this site, restored and furnished, it provides a look into the lightkeepers life.

A view of St Michaels from the top.  Looking across the harbor towards the marina and Island Passage:

Looking towards the village:

Looking out at the Miles river and the Freedom Schooner Amistad.

The Amistad sailed in today from New Haven, CT for a one month tour of the Chesapeake area.  Of course, I was drawn to it like a magnet.

Boy, does it capture the imagination? 
You can read more about it here: Freedom Schooner Amistad

The museum had exhibits covering local maritime heritage as waterfowl hunting, boatbuilding and oystering.  One of my favorites is the steamboat building.  Below is one of the huge steam engines that moved these giants across the Bay in earlier times.

We could easily spend at least a week and not see all the exhibits and artifacts available here.  However it was time for the usuals and then dinner at the Town Dock Restaurant at the marina.

St Michaels

The Miles River is noted as the passageway to one of the most popular cruising destinations on the Chesapeake Bay, St Michaels.  Although the town was officially chartered in 1804, early accounts of trading here date to 1631.  As St Michaels grew it became an important shipbuilding center especially noted for its "Baltimore Clippers", the fastest sailing vessels of their time.

Coming into the harbor, we passed a traditional Chesapeake Skipjack dredging for oysters.

At the entrance to the harbor is the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum featuring the relocated cottage-style Hooper Strait Lighthouse.

As we tied up at the docks of the St Michaels Marina I could hear shrieks coming from the dockmasters office and thought it was part of their halloween decorations.  It turns out the shrieks were from the boat captains going in to register and learning that, due to a festival this weekend, the dockage rate had been increased to $3.50 per foot.  Ouch.

Anyway, since it was only midafternoon we had some lunch at the Foxy Marina Bar (conveniently located directly behind our boat) and decided to walk downtown.  It is a small but pretty downtown.  They take their fall festival seriously.

Every light pole and store front was decorated.

This was the prettiest by far.

We purchased several shirts (had to boost the local economy) and walked back to the boat in time for the usuals.  Since the dockage was so expensive, we decided to eat in and Katy fixed us some delicious nachos for dinner.

The Wye River (Wye not?)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Finally, the engine is ready and we pull away from the Annapolis City Dock under grey skies, but thankfully no rain.  On the way out of the harbor, we pass several of the 110 foot Navy Yard Patrol boats used for training the midshipmen on boat handling and seamanship.  They are almost constantly out in the harbor, turning, backing and moving around.

Further out in the Bay we pass the Melges world championship races being held this week.  There are 52 boats from all over the world participating.

Moving south down the Bay we need to pass around Bloody Point Bar Light to enter Eastern Bay.  The trees are beginning to reach full color in this area.

The light stands in 10 feet of water.  I was about 100 yards off the light in 165 feet of water.  Moving up Eastern Bay we pass another workboat.

Soon, we reach the Miles River and then its tributary, the Wye River.  The Wye River - divided into three branches - embraces the 2,250 acre Wye Island National Wildlife Refuge along 21 miles of shoreline.  Fields of grain roll down to the water's edge.  Watermen putter around in wooden boats, trotlining for crabs.  All is serene with an air of suspended time, as if nothing has changed in 200 years.

I took lots of photos of trees, finally Katy said "I think you have enough pictures of trees".

Here is the Anchor Diva doing her thing.

At times the sky was darkened by flocks of migrating geese.

We spent two nights anchored in this serenity with only the occasional fishing boat passing by.  Then, onward to St Michaels.

Annapolis, Maryland (Part 2)

As promised, the CAT technician showed up bright and early.

Meet my new best friend, Duane.

Duane was really a nice guy and very knowledgeable.  He quickly confirmed my suspicion of injectors.    Actually, the injector seals had broken on two cylinders and the combustion was blowing fuel back up through the injector.  Sooooo, he removed and replaced all 6 injectors, set the injector timing, adjusted the valves and we were set to go.  

Not!!    When we started the engine it was clear that there was still a problem.  It turns out that one of the new injectors was bad.  Unfortunately he had no additional injectors on his truck.  Another overnight shipment from somewhere.

The good news is that CAT agreed to pick up the additional cost to replace the injector, including parts, the technicians time and travel back to Annapolis.

It was another beautiful day in Annapolis, however, this was my view for most of the day. 

Fortunately, Katy was able to get out and walk the city.  Later, we had the "usuals" and walked down to the town square market for soup and a sandwich.

Annapolis, Maryland

(Ted)  We have spent the last three days in Annapolis.  Friday morning was spent cleaning the boat and talking with the CAT dealer in Baltimore.  They do not have the injectors in stock and it will be Monday before the parts arrive.  So we made an appointment for the CAT technician to come down to the boat on Monday.

In the afternoon, Aaron came down from Columbia, Maryland to pick us up.  We had dinner with Aaron, kelly and the grandkids and then drove Kelly's car back to Annapolis so we could us it for the grocery store trip to reprovision.

On Saturday, the front came through with a vengence.  As we were driving to the grocery store, we passed the Navy football stadium.  The U.S. Naval Academy is just a few hundred feet from where we are docked.  The tradition is that the midshipmen (all 4,000 of them) march to the stadium for each game.  The stadium is about a mile from the main campus.  This is homecoming weekend and they are playing Wake Forest.  Unfortunately, just after kickoff the skys opened up and began a downpour.  It rained most of the rest of the day.  Needless to say we have no pictures from Saturday.  Aaron and Kelly invited us over for dinner and cooked some fantastic steaks with sauteed onions and mushrooms, tator and salad.

Sunday dawned clear and sunny, although a bit cooler and still a bit breezy.  Aaron, Kelly, Noah and Kennedy came back down to Annapolis to pick up Kelly's car and we walked over to tour the Naval Academy.  Since it was a nice day, we got a few pictures.

The campus is very pretty, but I like our Ram (UNC) better.

Inside the visitor's center, there are a number of exhibits and displays.  I liked the uniforms from the 18th century.

These were worn by John Paul Jones, a revolutionary war hero who is largely credited with starting the U.S. Navy.  I learned that after that war, he joined the Russian service and led that navy to several victories against the Turks.  I guess he needed to keep a hand in. 

From Wikipedia:

John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 - July 18, 1792) was the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among the American ruling class, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day.


During his engagement with Serapis, Jones uttered, according to the later recollection of his First Lieutenant, the legendary reply to a quip about surrender from the British captain: "I have not yet begun to fight!"
 
Here is a shot of the chapel on campus.  Unfortunately we had just missed the visitor's hours and it had closed for the day.
 
 

 
From the visitor's center, one can look out over the Annapolis harbor.
 
 

 
Looking southwest towards Spa Creek (we are tied up at the city docks just to the right of this photo).
 

 
 
Back at the boat, the canal here is called Ego Alley.  Boaters are constantly parading through the narrow channel which deadends at the town square.  Here is a shot from our bow looking down the waterway towards town.
 
 

 
 
There are several tour / cruise boats that come by, this one was pirate-themed:
 
 

 
 
This week, Annapolis is hosting the World Cup competition for the Melges class performance sailboats.   Their web page is http://www.melges24worlds2009.com/  The Pre-World regatta current standings:
 

After two races it’s an all Italian top three with Nicola Celon, the 2006 Melges 24 World Champion, leading this warm up series with Lorenzo Bressani sailing Uka Uka Racing second and Flavio Favini aboard Blu Moon third. America’s Bill Hardesty sailing Vince Brun’s Event’s Clothing/Atlantis lies in fourth place just ahead of Bruce Ayres and his Corinthian crew aboard Monsoon.

 
 The actual championship races begin on Monday.  There appeared to be about 50 boats tied up at the end of the waterway.
 
 

 
The races were held out in the Bay, we could just see the sails.  Here's one of the teams returning from the day's race:
 
 

 
 
The rum supply truck was right on schedule and just in time.
 
 

 
Now that's what I call an RV.
 
We all went to a seafood restaurant overlooking the waterway and enjoyed some Maryland crab cakes and other great seafood.

On to Annapolis

Thursday, October 23

(Ted)  Reluctantly we leave the protected anchorage of the St Marys River and head back out the Potomic River to the Bay.  Clear skys and mild winds from the south made for a smooth trip northward.  We passed or met a number of large cargo ships and barges in the shipping lanes.

We had decided to travel on to Annapolis today, a trip of about 75 miles.  The weather forecast indicated another front to pass through on Saturday and we wanted to be where we could stay for a few days.  Annapolis seemed to fit the bill and was also about as far north as we wanted to go on this trip.  After Annapolis, it was time to turn around and head back down the eastern shore towards home.

About half way up the Bay, the port engine started dropping a few RPMs.  At first it was intermittant, but then it got worse.  I checked the fuel filters and the vacuum gauge on the fuel lines showed that the filters were fine.  I suspected injectors.

As we were pulling into the Annapolis harbor a little after 5:00, I called the CAT dealer, Albin Tractor in Baltimore.  The service department promised to check their inventory the next morning and let me know if they have the parts on hand.

The Annapolis harbor was very busy.  Boats of all types and sizes were everywhere and seemed to be going in all directions.  As we passed by the U.S. Navel Academy, the military band was playing "Anchors Away" on the waterfront.  What a great welcome for us.  We were very impressed until we learned that it is the Academy's homecoming weekend and they are playing Wake Forest on Saturday.  I hope they get a break in the forecast.

Since the harbormaster's office was closed, we had gotten a slip assignment earlier by cellphone.  However, we didn't know exactly where the city dock's were located.  Eventually we found what appeared on the charts to be the right place and sure enough a hail to another boater standing on his bow confirmed that this was the city docks.  We immediately backed into the slip and found ourselves looking at the Pusser's Rum Restaurant and waterfront directly across from us.

Since it was getting late in the day, I took a few sunset pictures and called it a day.

We walked around the town square for a little and went over to Pusser's for dinner.  It was a little touristy but the food was pretty good.

St Marys City

Today we have internet access so we have several days of blogging events to upload.

Wednesday, October 21

(Ted) Today we take the dingy and travel a couple of miles back down the St. Marys River to St Mary's City.  Actually "City" is something of a misnomer.  As mentioned earlier, English settlers established the colony in 1634, not long after the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth.  It flourished as the capital of Maryland until 1695 when, for political reasons, the capital was moved to Annapolis.  Within a few years the city disappeared and was lost for over two hundred years.

Today there is a small, "honors" liberal arts college: St Marys College and Historic St Marys City, a National Historic Landmark and recognized as one of the most important  and well preserved 17th century archaeological sites in North America.

But I get ahead of myslf.  The college of St Marys was begun in 1839 as a finishing school for young ladies, later became a high school, then a junior college and in 1964 converted to a four-year, coeducational college.  We had lunch at the dining hall and the entry foyer was filled with plaques listing the names of Fullbright scholars from the school.  There must have been 80 - 100 names listed.  Not bad for a student body of only about 2,000 students.  Currently they have one of the best sail teams in America and compete all over the world.  Fortunately they allow visitors to use their dock for short term visits.  Here's a shot of the dock as we approach.

We were also treated to visits by the crew teams, usually late in the afternoon, but once at 4 in the morning.  They rowed up the river, along with their instructor in a jon boat, circled our boat (we were the only boat up there) and back again down to the college.  We could hear him barking instructions over a megaphone.

Ashore, we visited a reconstructed State House. 

As usual I was in the doghouse.

Fortunately I got a reprieve from the Governor (a handsome guy..  but he looks familiar).

There was also a 17th century tobacco plantation, inn and other reconstructed buildings as well as a number of archaeological digs taking place.  My favorite, of course, was the full size replica of the Maryland Dove a recreation of a 17th century square-rigged ship.  Similar vessels transported supplies from England and were used for coastal trade.

The Maryland Dove is a working ship that today sails to ports of call around the Chesapeake Bay to tell the story of Maryland's history.

The ship was capable of carrying 40 tons of cargo, and due to it's shallow draft was also able to transport the cargo up the rivers to small towns like St Marys.

I could easily imagine myself up in the crow's nest.

The ship has a wooden binnacle - a box designed to hold and protect the ship's instruments.  In this case, the instruments included a compass and a hourglass.

The ship carried  normal crew of 8 or 9 sailers and officers.  This is the officer's quarter's:

This is the ordinary sailors quarters.  Clearly it was good to be an officer.

Back on deck, looking forward.

It was a beautiful and exciting day.  Like Jimmy Buffett, I was born three hundred years too late.