The further adventures of Lazy W

On the morning of August 29^th we left Oxford bound for one of our favorite anchorages near St. Michaels - Leeds Creek.  To get there we had to negotiate the skinny water of Knapps Narrows cutting through Tilghman Island.  The Narrows are dredged regularly but they also shoal regularly. Since the charts show six feet of water in the channel and Lazy W draws four feet of water there is little room for error when navigating this stretch of water!

 

The bascule bridge at Knapps Narrows opening for the passage of Lazy W

 

The Captain did a fine job traversing the Narrows without incident and we arrived at Leeds Creek just off the Miles River in early afternoon.   The vintage catboat, Selena II, was a frequent visitor to Leeds Creek during our five day stay on the hook.  Yes, five days at Leeds Creek – it was Labor Day weekend!

Selena II

 

Bright and early every morning the watermen arrived in Leeds Creek to work their trot lines.

Goose Buster was a frequent visitor to Leeds Creek

From our anchorage it was just a short dinghy ride across the Miles River to St. Michaels, “the town that fooled the British.”  One August night in 1813 the British planned to attack the then thriving port but the townspeople foiled their plans by hanging lanterns high in the treetops and darkening the rest of the town.  The British aimed for what they thought were the lights of town – their cannon fire overshot St. Michaels!

 

Today St. Michaels lures boaters from all over the Chesapeake Bay. Its bustling shops along Talbot Street and scores of restaurants serving up crabs, crabs and more crabs appeal to the hungry, wandering masses that arrive by land and by sea.  And this weekend was especially crowded due to the 16^th Annual Boat Auction taking place at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM).

 

Up for bid at the auction were over eighty water toys ranging from 12-foot windsurfers and canoes to a 38-foot power boat and a beautiful 39-foot motor sailor.  For those with a smaller pocketbook, there was also a nautical tag sale where we were big spenders – one crisp dollar bill got us a much-needed spotlight for our after-dark dinghy excursions!

 

This 1989 18-foot Cobalt Bowrider had a run-in with a tree sometime in its life.  But that didn’t deter one lucky bidder who picked it up for a mere $25.

 

A winning bid of $500 would have gotten you this wooden 16-foot Lapstrake Skiff.  This project boat will be keeping its new owner busy for a long, long time.

A 12-foot wind surfer for $100 – A 16-foot Hobie cat for $650 – A Hunter 18-foot sailboat for $2,100 – A Freedom 21-foot sailboat for $2,500.  The bids were coming in fast and furious.  All the action made us hungry and thirsty so we headed into town for crabs.  As we sat on the deck of one of the many crab houses along the waterfront we were amazed at the number of boats still arriving in the harbor looking for dock space! 

 

The drawbridge that once linked Tilghman Island with the rest of Maryland at Knapps Narrows spans the land entrance to the CBMM.

 

We love St. Michaels but five days on the hook, dinghying across the choppy Miles River, was a bit too long to spend here.  We walked Talbot Street searching for ¼” fuel line hose for the dinghy, stopping in at Eastern Shore Brewing, eating at the Blackthorn Irish Pub, tasting Italian wines at Simpatico, replenishing our wine inventory at Village Market, perusing the aisles of Calico Toys & Games and Chesapeake Bay Outfitters, and roaming the grounds of The Inn at Perry Cabin.  By the end of Labor Day weekend we were anxious to get underway again.

Also located in St. Michaels - The luxurious Inn at Perry Cabin

was once owned by designer Laura Ashley.

 

 

Kent Narrows is a convenient shortcut linking the Miles River and the Chester River.  In the 18^th century, this waterway was filled with sailing cargo vessels loaded with tobacco. Today, condos, marinas, dockside restaurants and tiki bars are wedged into every square inch of shoreline.  We carefully made our way to the eastern end of the narrows and waited patiently for the opening of the bascule bridge.

Lazy W was comfortably docked next to a big Hatteras named Pleiades in the 550-slip Mears Point Marina.  This busy destination marina would be our home for the next two days. 

Adjacent to the marina is the start of the Cross Island Trail, a six-mile paved bike path that links Kent Narrows with the Terrapin Nature Park.  The first mile or so past the causeway runs parallel to the strip malls of busy Route 50 - while winding through stands of tall pines you hear the traffic but see and smell the woods!  The rest of the trail was a peaceful pedal through wetlands, farmlands, Old Love Point Park and the Kent Island High School parking lot!?!  We desperately wanted to visit the West Marine Store on the opposite side of Route 50 (our bargain spotlight needed a new light bulb) but I didn’t dare attempt to cross that busy six-lane divided highway.

 

The Captain relaxing at the Terrapin Nature Park end of the Cross Island Trail...

 

...and the Watermen’s Monument at the other end.

 

Kent Narrows and Mears Point Marina as seen from atop the Chesapeake Exploration Center. 

Somewhere in that mess of boats sits Lazy W.

The town of Chestertown is twenty-five miles up the Chester River from Kent Narrows.  After snaking our way through the narrow channel at the western end of the Narrows, we turned north for a cruise up the Chester River.  No mega-mansions hugging its shoreline.  Instead we had wonderful views of farmland and fields of shimmering greens and golds meeting shorelines edged with lush marsh grasses and dotted with rickety duck blinds.  These scenes were perfectly captured by the artist Bonnie Foster Howell whose paintings were on display at the Artists Gallery on High Street in Chestertown.

 

Along the Chester River

 

In 1774 the residents of Chestertown staged their own version of the Boston Tea Party when, after outlawing the sale and consumption of tea, they stormed the British brigantine Geddes and dumped her cargo of tea into the Chester River.  Things have quieted down since then but the residents still know how to throw a First Friday celebration!  Free beer, free wine, free munchies and plenty of good conversation were provided by the proprietors of Salon and Creative Focus at Stepne Station and the shopkeepers along High and Cross Streets.  We admired art work at the Artists Gallery and ogled the wooden floating tables of Vicco Von Voss at the Massoni Gallery.  We were given a free loaf of focaccia bread at the Evergrain Bakery.  But the Chestertown Marina claimed to have no slip available for Lazy W (even though we saw plenty of empty slips) so we were anchored off Devil’s Reach, a short 1.5 mile dinghy ride  from downtown.  Without a light bulb for our spotlight we were back on board Lazy W before dark.

The schooner Sultana along the Chester River

 

Next stop – Rock Hall, the self-proclaimed ‘Pearl of the Chesapeake’ and the Rock Hall Landing Marina.  Jim and Mary Anne Lancaster, past owners of the marina, and Ed, one of the new owners, met us at the dock to help secure Lazy W.  Unlike our first visit here in 2002, we did not go aground!  We enjoyed an early afternoon happy hour aboard Meander and then met up again with the Lancasters for dinner at Waterman’s Crab House.

 

Along Main Street in Rock Hall. We may have gone aground in 2002 but we were never quite this bad at docking!

The following day, Bonnie and Charlie Burke arrived in Rock Hall Landing Marina aboard Sonata fresh from their trip down the ICW from Cape Cod. 

 

That evening we all gathered for a dock party on the finger pier separating Sonata and Lazy W.  While it may not appear to be so from this picture, the OMYC gang had a wonderful time!

 

Jim, Mary Anne, Frank, Charlie, Bonnie

 

 

Oysterman Tribute

along the seawall in Rock Hall

 

Crab pots retired for the season line the seawall in Rock Hall

On September 10^th – Happy 25^th Anniversary, Peg and Greg! – after much debate over our next stop, we departed Rock Hall bound for the Magothy River. 

Lazy W leaving Rock Hall Landing Marina

 

The winds were blowing from the west and we were prepared for a choppy crossing of the bay but we were pleasantly surprised by how smooth the ride was.  When we arrived on the Magothy we dropped anchor in Sillery Bay between Little Island and Dobbins Island.

The only house on Little Island in Sillery Bay

 

Dobbins Island in Sillery Bay

The shore of the Magothy River is lined with the bedroom communities of Baltimore and Annapolis.  There are plenty of little creeks to explore so we launched the dinghy and took a ride.  This glass-walled house sits overlooking the entrance to Broad Creek.

But the lone house on Little Island was certainly the most picturesque.  We suspect that the owner frowns on visitors to his enclave – there is a cannon perched on the island to the right of the house; it is aimed at uninvited boat guests.

 

While we were off exploring, the winds shifted and Lazy W was getting pummeled with waves.  This made our return to the mother ship a bit nerve-wracking as the bow of the dinghy was being knocked under the swim platform of Lazy W.  We managed to get onboard safely, raise and secure the dinghy, weigh the anchor and motor over closer to Dobbins Island to escape the wind.  After three attempts at dropping the hook, we got the anchor to set and settled in for happy hour.  And the wind died down!

 It was at anchor in the Magothy River that our PC was officially declared DEAD!!!  After days and days of enduring its repeated attempts at startup, only to be followed by restart, boot, reboot, crash, freeze, black screens and blue screens filled with undecipherable error messages we gave up playing around with it.  We called the Geek Squad who thought that maybe the hard drive needed replacement.  KA-CHING!  We vowed not to turn the PC on again until we arrive in Baltimore.

In our opinion, no cruise of the Chesapeake Bay is complete without a stop in Annapolis.    We had a plan to dock Lazy W along Market Slip, aka Ego Alley, next to the City Dock.  This is where the really B-I-G yachts dock to see and be seen in Annapolis.  So why not dock Lazy W there for the night?

Approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

 

Well, by the time we arrived in Annapolis there were already enough big yachts in Ego Alley to fill the wall so we grabbed a mooring ball instead. 

 

Annapolis from the mooring field

It turned out to be a great decision.  It was Wednesday night and we had front row seats for watching all kinds of sail boat races!

The junior sail boaters were practicing their maneuvering skills right off our bow.  Some came precariously close to Lazy W but always managed to avoid hitting her.  They were having a great time!  And so were we!

 

The Junior sailboat racers

 

Later on the older sail boaters came in off the bay.  The maneuvering skill of some of these adult boaters was not nearly as precise as the juniors.  One duo narrowly avoided wedging themselves underneath our dinghy hanging off the stern davits of Lazy W!