Solomons, MD to Deltaville, VA

We left Spring Cove on the afternoon of May 30^th.  In some respects it felt like leaving home.  We enjoyed the hospitality and friendliness of the marina staff and the friends we made.  We will miss them.  A couple of days ago we visited the site of the first English settlement in what was to become Maryland.  The town of St. Mary’s is now an 800 acre outdoor museum with recreations of many of the buildings on their original sites.  There is also a recreation of one of the ships the 140 settlers travelled in from England. The town is sited on a high bluff overlooking the St. Mary’s River and is without doubt one of the most spectacular views of any anchorage we have visited.  The bluff is also the location of a church, cemetery and small college (St. Mary’s College; what else).  All this is located in St. Mary’s County.  One of the most unforgettable parts of the museum is the St. John’s Site Archaeology Museum.  It is a completely enclosed and air conditioned building covering a 1700’s house under excavation.  It is truly a fascinating and informative display.  I can’t think of a better anchorage than St. Mary’s, but I also can’t think of any “bad” anchorages we have had.  The really good ones are always the quiet ones with only a few farm houses or no houses at all.  Just trees and maybe a cultivated field.  Lots of birds.  Some anchorages, like Annapolis, are entertaining because there is so much going on.   Tonight we are in Deltaville, VA at anchor in Jackson Creek.  We took a dinghy ride to the town dock so we could find someone to check Diane’s blood pressure.  She is just fine, but we were concerned about her being a little light headed the other day.  Turns out, it was dehydration.  The local volunteer emergency response station was only a mile walk, so that’s where we went.  I was concerned about not being locals and taking up valuable time for a non emergency.  Well, the 4 people manning the station were so professional and so inquisitive about us, that I think we could have stayed there all afternoon and provided for their entertainment.  We were able to escape after about 45 minutes.  Not one call came into the station while we were there.  They must have been so bored.  According to one of our guide books, Deltaville has 800 residents and probably 4 times as many boats.  There are 20 marinas listed in the guide.  Diane had no luck crabbing while in Maryland.  One day after a couple of hours of unsuccessful crabbing we went for a dinghy ride and noticed this nice fat crab hanging on to our rudder.  I guess all the crabs were hiding under the boat that day.  Well, better luck in Virginia.  Tomorrow we are heading south toward Yorktown.  We will play “car shuffle” and also visit Yorktown, Williamsburg and Jamestown the site of the first English settlement in Virginia.  Check the MAP for our travels this week.

Photo 1 - One of the 2 ships that brought the first settlers from England to St. Mary's. 

Photo 2 - Sunset at St. Mary's (just after we had been hit with the nastiest thunderstorm we've experienced on our trip)