La Trappe Creek on the Choptank

We left our anchorage on Harris Creek at 9 a.m. on Friday, October 4 for a cruise to Cambridge and later to another anchorage in the Choptank. The weather was quite blustery. There were  1-2 foot waves but we were reasonably sheltered in the Choptank basin. We made our way up the Choptank River noting the place we planned to anchor that night on La Trappe Creek.  We made our way to Cambridge, MD, the county seat of Dorchester County where we planned to explore for a few hours.

We tied up at the town dock where a friendly local boat owner gave us a hand.   We chatted with him for awhile.  He and his wife had a sailboat and a condo next to our dock. They sail to the Bahamas and beyond every winter and we compared notes on the various places each of us have traveled to.

We walked into town which had some very attractive homes near the waterfront.

After a satisfying lunch at  Jimmie & Sook’s, a local spot on the main drag that had good food we visited the Harriet Tubman museum. This small museum provided a good overview of her heroic role in helping to free slaves through the Underground Railroad.  Outside of the little museum was an evocative mural of her painted on the building’s exterior.  There is a much larger commemoration to her outside of town, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park which we unfortunately were unable to visit this time. 

Other interesting murals were scattered throughout the city. 

It turns out that Cambidge is the inspiration of the fictional town of Patamoke that plays a central role in Chesapeake, the historical novel about the Chesapeake that Lynn is currently reading, a fact she only became aware of the next day!

We headed back to LaTrappe Creek where we explored three different lovely anchorages before deciding on the first one that had two other boats in it. It seemed to offer the best protection from the wind and the space was large enough to accommodate several boats.

We skipped dinner that night due to our hearty lunch and were witness to a world class sunset. Later we watched The Shipping News, an excellent adaptation of the book of the same name.

Dunn Cove off Harris Creek in the Choptank

We left our beautiful anchorage on Little Round Bay on the Severn River on Thursday, October 3. We were crossing the bay to spend a few days on the Eastern Shore and more specifically the Choptank. But first we had to stop for fuel at tiny Smith’s Marina which had the lowest fuel prices around.  The marina was tucked away on the Severn River. It seemed so remote and out of the way yet was not far from Annapolis as the crow flies. It’s been under the same ownership since 1936 and the nice young man who helped us was part of the Smith family!

We cruised across the Chesapeake on a cool and cloudy day with calm seas.  As we approached the Eastern Shore, we passed through Knapps Narrows and considered stopping for lunch on Tilghman Island. But we hadn’t done our homework on where and how to get in there.  It was very shallow and the docking was iffy so we decided to move on. Tilghman Island is very much a working town. The waterfront houses each one had its own  fishing boat tied up to its dock.

We found a great  anchorage in Dunn Cove off of Harris Creek. This is a beautiful large cove with a few lovely homes set back from the shoreline. We set our anchor in the middle of the bay across from a wooded area. It was very calm and Jonny took off for what has become his daily hour long paddle.

Afterwards, we had our customary refreshment on the aft deck. Jonny makes an absolutely wonderful perfect manhattan - the key is rye with half sweet and half dry vermouth!

We had the same vinegar chicken dinner Lynn had made a couple of weeks ago and once again the convection oven quit working midway through.  This time Jonny figured out the problem without having to remove the microwave.  It turns out we can’t run the convection at such a high heat for too long because it is located in a confined space and shuts itself off when it gets too hot.

That  evening we watched the last of Ken Burn’ excellent series on country music which we highly recommend. 

Severn River near Annapolis

This October 2 was our last day with Cathy and we brought her in the dinghy to Eastport so she could get an Uber to the airport.  Our plan was to move on from our Annapolis mooring.  But first we stopped at a market to pick up a few things and passed a home with a unique boat-shaped window box filled with pumpkins.

We also stopped to visit with Karen and Mike, our friends on Imagine who were anchored behind us. We had a nice time catching up on each other’s adventures this season.  They are full-time liveaboards with lots of expertise.

Returning to Zendo, we had a quick lunch and then took off.  The wind had kicked up a little so we decided not to cross the Chesapeake Bay and instead headed up the Severn River just north of Annapolis. Karen and Mike had recommended an anchorage there. It was a hot, sunny day and our cruise was a short one, just a little over an hour.  We arrived at the beautiful quiet anchorage in Round Bay and dropped the hook.

We tried to relax for awhile but it was so hot that Lynn couldn’t stand it any longer and went for a swim.  Jonny quickly followed. The water was cold but not freezing - it definitely did the trick!  We stayed in until Lynn received her daily phone call from Stephanie.

We had been eating out for several days and were more than ready to cut back a little.  So we had a nice big salad for dinner and relaxed for the night in our quiet pristine anchorage.

Annapolis, MD

We left Rock Hall after a leisurely morning on Monday, September 30 and headed back across the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis.  We had another fine weather day - warm and sunny with smooth seas - boating at its best.  After about two and a half hours, we entered the Annapolis Harbor mooring field and were told by the dock master that they were full due to the upcoming Annapolis Boat Show.   We decided to try our luck and cruised up and down the mooring field and at last, lo and behold, we found an empty mooring ball! We snagged the last mooring that had just been released and it was in a great location.  We were surrounded by boats, mostly sailboats, some trawlers and a few mega yachts, the largest one being right in front of us!

We dinghied into town to start exploring.  Annapolis is such a beautiful historic small city.  It was great to be back there.

After reading reviews of the million restaurants in town, we decided to go to the Boatyard in Eastport, just across the water. It was reported to have the BEST crab cakes in Maryland and a great happy hour.  So we dinghied five minutes over to Eastport just in time for happy hour. As it turned out, the crab cakes and the happy hour proved to be as good as they said.  Apparently, Michelle Obama declared them to be the best she’s ever had and we have to agree that they were excellent!

The next morning Jonny went to another health clinic because his ear, that had been bothering him for weeks, was still not better even though he had already seen a doctor. Lynn and Cathy checked out a number of nice shops in town and scouted out a lovely French restaurant for lunch.  Jonny met us there and we had a very delicious lunch of soft shell crabs and a bottle of rose’ wine! 

After lunch we headed over to the United States Naval Academy where we participated in an excellent tour.  We had a delightfully enthusiastic multi-lingual guide who showed us everything she could and regaled us with interesting facts, lots of history and entertaining anecdotes about this storied academy.  The grounds were beautiful and the facilities were outstanding. We even saw a plaque with Cathy’s great uncle’s name commemorating him and others who lost their lives fighting for our country (see the second name from the top on the last photo that follows).

The tour was so long that we went straight back to the Boatyard for their great happy hour and skipped dinner. Are we just a little food obsessed??

We returned to Zendo just before dark and hit the sack early after our fun-filled day.

Rock Hall, MD

The plan for the day on Sunday, September 29 was to cruise across the Chesapeake Bay to Rock Hall on the Eastern Shore.  Originally, Lynn and Cathy were going to go to the big farmer’s market in Baltimore that several people had recommended.  But given that Cathy is as big a news junky as Lynn and Jonny, we all ended up watching some of the Sunday morning news shows unstead.  After all it’s not everyday that the president is facing an impeachment inquiry!

After lunch on board we headed out for our three hour cruise across the bay. As we left Baltimore we saw this typical juxtaposition of boats on the bay.  

It was a beautiful sunny day with little wind so our crossing was smooth and uneventful, just how we like it.  We arrived at Rock Hall Landing Marina where a very friendly dock master helped us to tie up. We’ve been seeing a lot of these traditional Chesapeake Bay deadrise boats that watermen use to catch crabs, fish and oysters.

We walked into the little town to explore.  However, because it was Sunday, most places were closed.

Lynn had learned that a local music venue was hosting a late afternoon jazz concert.  We happened to walk by it during intermission and walked in to check it out. We were somewhat surprised to see the small crowd all looking older than us. It was a very informal setting but no one invited us in so we just moved on.

We returned to Zendo for cocktails before heading out to dinner at Waterman’s Restaurant, the best in town and the only one open!  We had yet another seafood dinner on their porch with a beautiful sunset in the background.

Baltimore, MD

We left our lovely anchorage on Friday, September 20 at 10 a.m. on a beautiful summer-like day. Jonny went on a long paddleboard ride all around Worton Creek before we left.  After an uneventful four hour cruise we entered Baltimore Harbor, where there were some pretty impressive ships,  and we arrived at Anchorage Marina. 

This was our first visit to Baltimore by boat.  We would be staying at the Anchorage for a week while we went to Solomon’s Island for a Marine Trawlers Owners Association (MTOA) board meeting.  Later in the week we would be volunteering at Trawlerfest at another marina in Baltimore.  We were very happy with the Anchorage Marina which had newly renovated docks, full length finger piers, a very nice cruisers lounge and lots of sponsored activities for dock owners and cruisers.

As we were exploring the marina we ran into Liz and Steve from Shingebiss who we thought had already left for the Solomon’s. We had fun catching up with them and comparing notes on our summer cruises.

We discovered that the amazing Baltimore Aquarium was half price on Friday nights so we headed over there for a few hours of excellent exploration.  

On Saturday, we went to a great farmer’s market in nearby Fell’s Point, a wonderful historic neighborhood with cobblestone streets and narrow interesting row houses.  The corn on the cob we bought at the market was as good as any we got while we were in Connecticut,  which is saying a lot for us Connecticut natives.

That evening we met Stephanie’s best friend, Amanda and her husband Ryan at a lively seafood restaurant called Choptank in Fell’s Point.  We had a great time visiting with them.  Amanda is a resident at Johns Hopkins and her husband is a pharmacist. They are both working long hours but managing to enjoy living in this fun city.

The next day we rode our bikes to a very unusual and interesting museum called the American Visionary Art Museum.  This fascinating collection of works by non-mainstream artists was well worth the visit. We spent several hours there.

On the way back, Lynn got a flat tire on her bike but fortunately we were close enough to the marina so it was just a short walk back. That evening we picked up the rental car we would be using to drive to the Solomons. 

We left very early on Monday morning so we would arrive at Solomon’s Island in time for the MTOA board meeting.  We were excited for this visit because the meeting was being held in a lighthouse and several of the board members, including us, would be staying overnight there since the lighthouse is also an Air B&B!  It was quite an amazing setting overlooking the water.  The house was really a duplex where the two halves could open up each to the other side to make one big comfortable house.  About eight couples stayed for either one or two nights.  The local MTOA member who organized it brought food and organized breakfasts and other meals as well as a number side trips, tours, and activities that included many members of the local group.

After the board meeting, an outing was organized to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River where the highlight was spending a little time in an actual flight simulator. How cool is that!

The next day was Lynn’s birthday and Jonny presented her with the lovely ring she had chosen.

All in all, the past two days were a unique way to spend her 66th birthday!  After driving back to Baltimore, Lynn chose Miss Shirley’s Cafe, a well-known Baltimore institution for a delicious lunch of Southern specialities such as shrimp and grits and fried green tomatoes, all of which were beautifully presented and delicious!

The next three days were spent working at a booth at Trawlerfest, a boating conference for trawler owners and wanna-be’s sponsored by Passagemaker magazine  The goal was to recruit new members.  Several local MTOA members were assigned to volunteer each day and altogether we signed up 28 new members - a record!

Each day we would ride our bikes to the conference and stop at a local (and historic) pub for a beer on the way back.

On Saturday, Lynn got to cut out early because Cathy Tisdale was flying in to spend three days on board Zendo.  After Jonny broke down the booth, we went for dinner at a very good restaurant called Gia’s located in Little Italy. We left with a bottle of their homemade limoncello!