St. Michaels, MD

October 13, 2007 Saturday
After a wait for bad weather, we were able to leave Annapolis in the throes of a powerboat show and sail to St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore. St. Michaels is a colonial town that has changed in the last 20 years from crabbing, clamming, and oystering to tourism. We actually got to sail most of the time (for a most welcome change) and arrived in mid-afternoon. We went ashore and found it to be a charming little town with grocery stores and good restaurants galore.
It has been a major change to get used to wearing long pants and heavy shirts as the chill of fall has arrived. I am getting the diesel heater ready as the nights can get into the high 40's. Of course, that is what makes the trees change their colors.
I am reading "Chesapeake" by Michener and it is so cool to be reading about the history of the places where we are now anchored. Today (Sunday) we went to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, which had a fascinating collection of early Chesapeake relics. See pix later. The part of the museum about oyster harvesting was so interesting that we went directly to Big Al's Seafood afterward and had a dozen oysters. Coming from water that is only partly salty, they were sweeter than the salt water oysters we have known from the Pacific. Yum! This is a very pretty town and I apologise for not putting up more pictures. Our keel is so deep that we have to anchor pretty far from shore and because of that, the pictures don't show the detail well enough.
This traditional catboat came by our anchorage. This used to be a very popular style as the one sail was easy for a lone fisherman to handle
Here is a church that dates to 1691! The chimes ring every hour and we can hear them in bed at night.
At the museum, we visited a lighthouse and there was a lighthouse keepers uniform available. Andi tried it on. Our boat is anchored directly to the right of her.
Here is the lighthouse with Saeta framed underneath it.
And here is a traditional Chesapeake sailboat; the kind that they used to dredge oysters and for light shipping.