Day 28: Solomans, MD to St. Michaels, MD

5.5 hrs. We rise early for an 0700 departure on another calm, clear morning. Our 50-mile run today is up and across the bay and down into the Miles River estuary to the town of St. Michaels. This now-tourist town is famous for dating back to the 1770s, for building the fast 'Baltimore Clipper' schooners, for 'fooling the British' in 1812, for oyster and crab industries, and for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. We're keen to get to the museum and then to take up our dinner reservation--phoned in while on the bay yesterday--at The Crab Claw, hence our early departure and short run for an early arrival.

We glide up the bay, passing an LNG loading terminal (with a ship just away and outbound for India - with 150 miles to go before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean), and a nuclear power plant. An inbound ocean-going bulker comes up behind us and another, outbound, heads toward us. Another of those immense suspension bridges the Americans do so well--the 4-mile-long Gov. William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial (Chesapeake) Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge)--looms away up the bay. When built in 1952 it was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure. It has been 'dual-spanned' and remains the longest fixed water crossing in Maryland. We'll be passing beneath it in days to come.

The bay now is glassy-calm and the wind is light. There's a lot of Mothers Day rec boat traffic around us as we turn up into Eastern Bay, past the burnt-out and storied ruins of the Bloody Point Bar lighthouse. A Fleming 55 coming out of St. Michaels is momentarily of great interest as it heads out into Chesapeake Bay.

We sail into a busy St. Michaels harbour. After tying up, Graeme and I head off to find the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Lorraine is not feeling 100% and stays aboard. The museum tells the story of the Chesapeake Bay and its estuarine tributaries, particularly the history of the 'watermen' and the fishing, oystering, and crabbing industries. We think it's great!

We return to 45 North, clean up, and repair to the harbourside Crab Claw for dinner. The harbour is quiet... the Mum's Day boaters have gone home.Читать далее