DAY 32 -- SOLOMONS, MD TO ST. MICHAELS, MD

                                 DAY 32 -- SOLOMONS, MD TO ST. MICHAELS, MD

            The rain finally ended at some point in the wee hour, and when we woke up it was overcast and cold enough that I put on long pants for the first time the whole trip. We got underway at ten for a 49-mile run to St. Michaels, which pretty much everyone seems to think is a must-see little town on the eastern shore. We had off-and-on rain showers all morning, and a light wind out of the east. There was just a small chop, but again with swells coming out of the south. It wasn't a very pretty day, but we were warm and dry in the cabin. 

            Interesting sights along the way included a big LNG dock at Cove Point. Wikipedia says it is an export facility operated by a Berkshire Hathaway Energy company. In the first photo you can also see the Cover Point lighthouse. The dock is almost a mile offshore to give the ships about 45' or more of water. 

 

We also saw the Sharps Island lighthouse, which was built in 1882, automated in 1938, and deactivated in 2010. Its leaning tower of Pisa look is the result of an ice floe in 1977.

            

            St. Michaels is a charming little town with kind of a New England feel to it. Very much upscale shops and restaurants, plus a world class maritime museum. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's display on oystering was really interesting. It included film taken aboard one of the last working "bugeye" boats dredging for oysters under sail. The boat is now in the museum, and you can walk its deck.

            The CBMM had lots of beautiful old boats in the water, including this 1926 Matthews which was built in Port Clinton, Ohio. The Matthews company shipped it to the Chesapeake to try to drum up sales and the couple that ended up with it kept it for many years and then gave it to the museum. 

            The CBMM is in the final stages of building an updated version of the Dove, the old sailing ship that we saw in St. Marys two days ago. The attentive reader will notice that this version only has two masts and is rigged differently. One of the workers explained that there are no drawings of the original Dove, so there was a lot of debate about how a ship of this size and vintage would have been build and rigged. 

            We treated ourselves to a night sleeping ashore at the Harbour Inn Marina & Spa, which was close to our marina. I took this photo from the flybridge. We checked in after we gave Craunological II's interior a good cleaning, as we are going to have company aboard. Our friends Dave and Sue are going to meet us in Annapolis tomorrow, and then cruise with us for the next four days. We'll drop them off at their house in Sea Isle, NJ on Tuesday. 

            Here is Craunological II at her dock, way back in the corner at a short finger pier that we had to back into. Docking was a bit of a challenge, but the dockhand and First Mate were good at their jobs.