Days 63-64 - Museums, Shopping and Friends

Current Position: 38° 47' 1" N 76° 13' 20" W

Such a beautiful calm day on the water.  We enjoy this when we can as not all days are this peaceful on the Chesapeake. 

We see a beautiful classic boat mostly becalmed because of the lack of wind.  We learn later that this is a historic boat out of St. Michaels.  The sails are massive and all raised by hand, NO electric winches here!  That takes lots of muscle. J

This style boat is a local style fishing/crabbing/oystering boat called a “Deadrise” used by many waterman on the Chesapeake.  This one is loaded with crab pots.

This cruise ship was at Cambridge with us and left at night to get to St. Michaels just ahead of us.  They used the boat at the stern to ferry passengers to town.

This beautiful home caught my eye.  The small building off to the right is the question.  What is this used for?  Kind of looks like a chapel but the addition on the rear is so interesting.  See the second picture for a close up.

Lots of sailboats and other water craft out enjoying the beautiful day.

We arrived in St. Michaels just ahead of our friends, Marshall and Judy on Lets Go.  We tried to get to the dinghy dock in time to help them tie up at the dock but there was “no room in the inn” at the dinghy dock.  We ended up tying up to the stern of their boat.  They had their friends from near DC with them so the 6 of us hit main street and all the fun shops along the way. Bob finally bought a pair of shorts.  Jeans get a little warm in 90 degree weather. We visited Christ Church – termed a “Water” church" as you could access it from the water.  There were many water churches in the area as this was an area where people traveled by boat long before the first roads were built, and continued to have a boat building and fishing/oyster/crabbing economy. The docent that told us about the church is an avid boater and knew all about the Loop.   He gave us many tips on our upcoming transit. 

We went back to the boat to do laundry and make dinner.  It was good turning on the generator so we could use the air conditioner as well as the laundry.  The sun gets to me after a while.  I’d better acclimate soon!

Thursday we toured the town.  We couldn't locate a walking tour so don't know a lot of the history but pretty none the less.

Cities further south were ahead in the blooming department so it was nice to see the peonies in full bloom.

The street signs were extra special

I just loved the roof line on this one.

Flowers everywhere

And prettiest of all this lovely boat in the harbor :)

The highlight of the city was the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  Just when I think I've learned everything about an area - BAM - new ideas :)  The museum is actually built around the boat building industry as the city started with that.  They build and repair boats on site and even have a apprenticeship program to keep the old ways alive.  The boat building part of the museum is extremely well laid out with mock ups of the procedures used.  You can also see the boats that they are currently working on (sorry no picture) from the new one being built to the historic boat being restored.

From the boat building we moved to the water foul building. Not being into duck hunting I don't know a lot about this sport, but let me share what I learned!  Many types of hunting have been invented and then outlawed as being too effective.  The Punt Gun is an extremely heavy gun loaded with shot on land then loaded onto the boat.  One good blast could kill either 10 geese or 30 ducks.

This gun weighs 109 lbs.

When the Punt gun was outlawed in the early 1900's Battery guns were homemade from pipes and used for a while but not as effective and quite dangerous.

Then someone came up with the idea of a sink boat.  This idea was too successful too and also outlawed.

This "boat" is flush with the water with a coffin like insert the hunter lies in.  He is surrounded with decoys waiting for the ducks to come.  

What an education I got here!

Do you know where the term "Shanty town" came from?

I can't find verification of this but the information plaque said the watermen would use this floatable house to live near their work.  They were called shanties. When a group of watermen placed there house boats in the same place, a temporary shanty town was created.

The museum was set up for kids as well as adults and they have a wonderful screw pile lighthouse set up so the kids could touch and explore.  There were also oyster tongs, crab pots and eel traps to try out on the dock. Adults had fun with these as well.  They had a mock of an oyster boat to board and explore.  We learned that Frederick Douglass lived here.  One of my favorite displays were black and white photographs of Chesapeake Bay by Robert de Gast (and not only because the building was air conditioned).  Check him out on line.  He does beautiful work.  All in all a great museum to spend hours in.

We had a lovely lunch of Crab Fluff (a deep fried crab cake) and cream of crab soup.  We met up with Marshall and Judy and their company at the restaurant.  We limit going out to eat to times we are with others, otherwise we eat on board.

We walked to the grocery store then back to the boat to cool down and fix a quick dinner of leftovers.  We leave in the morning to head north.

Anchored in St. Michaels harbor.