MTOA Rendezvous & DeFever Mini Reunion

The MTOA (Marine Trawlers Owners Assoc) Rendezvous in Crisfield was very enjoyable. Good seminars, great food, nice people. Lots of people - 170, which was daunting at first, but we ended up meeting some very fun ones. Six DeFevers were there - Accapella, Got Da Fever, Footprints, Resurgent, Adventures, and us. Vicki took a docking class and practiced docking on a t-head and in a slip on a 44' trawler. She's angling to practice with Tide Hiker...funny how Norm seems more interested in anchoring than marinas these days. Unfortunately, we were so busy we failed to take any pictures. So, we can't show you the fantastic people, great food or the crab races. Sorry!

We hooked up with Richard and Judy Klawe, who we met at MTOA and took the ferry from Crisfield to Tangier Island for a few hours. We all enjoyed a nice lunch at a local cafe and toured the island. We were on our bikes and the Klawe's were walking. Tangier is unique - the people speak with an unusual (some say Elizabethan english) accent. Many of the homes have graves in the front yard with a chain link fence around the yard. Flooding is a problem -it's a very low-lying island, 75% marsh. There are historical markers everywhere which are hysterical. One marked the first mobile home delivered to the island in 1958 -- undoubtedly an important moment in history. Another recorded the story of a guy who was shot by the sheriff for not complying with the law requiring everyone to be in church Sunday morning - he was convicted and later ended up being sheriff himself. He was then shot and his killer is still missing. (You can't make this stuff up.)

Mom came aboard our last day in Crisfield. We cruised north and anchored in the Honga River behind Hooper Island on Sunday, then on into Cambridge on the Choptank River on Monday. September Song and Gypsies are here. We're on the free wall in downtown Cambridge. Nice location for walking around. It was dinner abord Tide Hiker on Monday (Vicki's homemade Lentil/sausage soup), dinner on board September Song (Homemade Crabcakes from caught-fresh Chesapeake Bay crabs, by Bob and Stephanie). Doug and Tammy brought great appetizers and desert both nights.--Hmmmmmmm, good!

Richard and Ann Strauss who we met at MTOA saw us arrive and walked over to greet us and offer their car. We took advantage of their generosity and the three boats did some provisioning today. Rich and Ann will join us for dinner at Bella Luna tonight where Vicki is hoping to crown a new winner in the quest for the all-time-best lasagna.

We're leaving here on Thursday. Gypsies will be heading north to Rock Hall for a reinstallation of their watermaker; September Song and Tide Hiker will be headed south to Solomons first then just scoot around the southern Chesapeake until time to buggy to warmer climes.

However, while in Cambridge, we had Mid Shore Electronics investigate our VHF difficulties and discovered one marginal radio (the really old one in the pilothouse) and a defective antenna. Replaced the antenna and will look for a new radio at the next boat show we attend. That's boating!