Two days in Rock Hall, MD

October 7, 2007 Sunday

We motored out of Worton Creek down to Rock Hall. It was only about 15 miles, but like every passage since we got into the Delaware River, our destination was directly upwind. So we motored. We love our motor, but this is a sailboat - but the bottom line is that it is a vehicle for two people to travel over water. The most important thing for us is the conservation of our energy - personal energy. If we fool around trying to sail and end up going in the wrong direction at 3 knots instead of the right direction at 6.5 knots, we also end up getting into the next harbor in the middle of the night, exhausted. Not fun! So while I might play with the sails when daysailing out of my home port, when we are going places, we do whatever it takes to get there quickly and easily. My old friends who remember how I was 30 years ago would be aghast.

So we easily got into Rock Hall with the tide pushing us along at about 2 in the afternoon. We had read in one of our many cruising guides that there was a free city dock so we went and found it. There were a few other boats on it, but it was mostly deserted. All the other boats had gone to marinas and paid $2/ft/night or more for the privilege of tying up to a dock. A few years ago, that privilege would have cost $20. Now, for a boat our size, it is $82/night. For that, I expect clean linen and a chocolate on my pillow. So the free dock was welcome.

The next morning we found out that the free dock had a commercial use. A big semi-trailer backed up to the dock and set up a conveyor belt and as the oyster boats came back into the harbor, they each pulled up to the dock and unloaded the days catch. They get paid by the bushel and a picture below shows the bucket they use to measure with. I was in Rock Hall 20 years ago and it was very much of a fishing village. Now, yachts and tourism are the big thing and the town has changed. But the fishing still goes on.

We set up our bikes and rode all over town - great fun, and ate seafood, of course.

Here is one of the Main streets in Rock Hall. There was a sign that George Washington passed through this intersection 7 times that we know of. Old George was all over this neighborhood. Rock Hall used to be a major landing spot when crossing the Chesapeake.l
Here is the buyer for oysters measuring and checking the oysters that the fisherman shovelled into the bucket. Another fishing boat is waiting for a turn to unload.