Pictures we missed. Enjoy.

Norm is showing off the neat birthday card he received from his grandsons, Jake and Evan.  Coooool, huh?

While anchoring in the Tred Avon River, we HAD to go to the Robert Morris Inn and try the crabcakes that James Mitchner made famous.   So, Mike, Fran, Roger Vicki and Norm dingyed over to Oxford.  Unfortunately, Roger's mate, Lisa, had to return to work that day.  The crabcakes were fantastic and we all raved about them--only to find out upon our departure, that the restaurant was under new ownership and the crabcake recipie was not the "world famous" recipie that James Mitchner enjoyed.  Oh well, they were great in our minds--and on our tounges.

Not to be outdone by the "Inn", we decided to find our own crabs.  So, we broke out the chicken necks, rods and reels and began to crab off Mike and Fran's boat, Dauntless.  We were very sucessful. 

Fran and Mike steamed them up in this steamer and got the mallets out for "slammin" those shells.

Mike, Fran and Norm picked until their stomachs were full. (Vicki does not like to pick crab.) Vicki added cole slaw and another side and we were "a-feastin".  Unfortunately, Rober had to anchor up and depart for Baltimore to be with family.  Too bad Rog, you missed a great fresh crab lunch.

After sad goodbyes to Mike, Fran and Roger, we were off to Harrington Harbor, North, MD to visit with Ed and Connie Dooley.  Of course a couple of meals were had and Ed and Connie gave us the tour of Chesapeake Beach and Deale, MD, very nice towns with tons of boats and boaters.  Thanks Ed and Connie--we're looking forward to catching up again with you later this year.  You can see what I mean about the number of boats.  See the video below.

Ciao for now.

Back to Summit North Marina, Bear, DE

Our final route for this leg of our adventure:  Oxford, MD to Bear, DE (Summit North Marina-our home).
Home-bound route

As I write this, we are still cruising up the Chesapeake Bay to the Elk River and the C&D Canal.  Expect to arrive Summit North Marina at 1100.  We departed Tolchester at 0600 to catch favorable currents.   Tolchester was a kinda nice surprise.  The docks and facilities are needing some repair, but they are working on that.  A lot of slips are covered and last years heavy snows collapased a couple of them.  (Hence, our reasons for going SOUTH in the winter.)  But, there is a nice pool, restaurant, tiki bar (w/food) by the beach, a beach with lots of dry drift wood for bonfires, some maintenance facilities and nice people.  (VERY PROTECTED MARINA)  We met a new Defever couple, Steve and Anna Keiser aboard their new-to-them 49 Motor Yacht, "Journey". (That's the 44+5 for we older Defever members).  Nice 2006 model.  They joined us for cocktails aboard Tide Hiker and we got acquainted.  Very nice Philadelphians--hope we run into them again on the water.

IMPORTANT:  WE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO UPLOAD PICTURES BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT HAD GOOD CONNECTIONS.  WE WILL BE UPLOADING ALL THE PICTURES FROM OUR MOST RECENT CRUISES SOON.  WE'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN AND IF INTERESTED, YOU CAN GO BACK TO THOSE SECTIONS AND SEE THEM.  Caio, for now.

Ed and Connie

The last two days we've been at Shipwright Harbor Marina in Deale MD.  This is home port to Ed and Connie who we met last summer in Reedville VA when we and they on their sailboat "Surprise" were socked in at Reedville by storms for a couple days.  We kept in touch and met up last fall in New Berne NC by surprise and again in Brunswick GA.  They were deluxe hosts - lunch the first day at a local eatery where we found out that Connie is alergic to bivalves ( hey, it's not everyone who can say that!), pool action, then cocktails on their boat that evening.  Day 2 - a tour of the nearby towns and then lunch at Chesapeake Beach, then naps and dominoes aboard Tide Hiker.  They taught us a new domino game - Chicken Foot - definitely doing that again!

Today we had  a short journey to the South River - the Selby Bay Yacht Club.  Lovely place - great pool - open only on weekends.  We're enjoying the opportunity to go to yacht clubs --now that the MTOA is a member of the Yacht Clubs of America, we have reciprocity with most yacht clubs -- it opens a whole new world.  This one which is 10 minutes from Annapolis by car is $1/foot.

Tilghman Island and the Lost Pooch

We stayed at Tilghman on the Chesapeake for two days, a lovely marina for a nice housing development.  Great pool - finally cool water - especially good since it was 102-degrees.  Our days were like this - walk/run in the morning after getting up late, poolside for the afternoon, lounge on the boat watching movies in the evening.  Very relaxing.  The first day we walked to Knapps Narrows.  Not much on the island.  A lovely cafe "Two if by sea" is just outside the housing development and Harrison's Crab House is about a half-mile away -- we could hear their entertainment from the boat.  That's about it for Tilghman Island.

The second day, we went for a run/walk and a young black lab joined us.  He had a collar with his name "Clyde" and phone number and was looking in every culvert for water.  We figured he was lost.  After explaining the situation to another walker in the neighborhood, she pointed us to a house that would help us by calling the phone number  - they did and the owner came to claim the pooch.  (Stephanie will be so proud of us good samaritans.)

Ahhhhh, finally weather we can anchor in.

We're still on the Tred Avon River near Oxford, MD.  But, we moved over to Plaindealing Creek.  We'll have a better view of the fireworks tonight.  We're planning on Maryland American crab apps, Coney Island  American hot dogs, New England American baked beans, Southern American Chocolate Creme, and Washington American apple pies. Mike and Fran (Dauntless) will be aboard celebrating with us.  Ummmmmmm, what a way to celebrate our nations birthday!! Happy Birthday America--We Love You!!

The weather is perfect, warm sunny days and cool breezy nights.  Unfortunately, it's supposed to get up into the mid-90's again this week, so we may be going back to the marina's for "juice".  We'll have to hit the Wye River on our southern treck in the fall.

We've been crabbing and caught enough for lunch for 3 of us yesterday.  (Vicki doesn't like to pick crab.)  Ummmmmm!!

For those of you following our journey, here are our  routes since we left Southport, SC.  Just click on the following link:
Our most recent routes from Southport SC to Oxford, MD

Roger and Lisa and the Big Car Carrier

We're anchored in Trippe Creek off the Tred Avon River north of Cambridge MD with friends from Dock B--  Roger on C-Venture (Lisa is at work in Delaware - the poor woman) and Mike and Fran on Dauntless.  Went into Oxford today and celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at the Robert Morris Inn - we all had crab cakes which were fabulous.  Norm and I took home a chocolate carrot cake because we'd never seen it on a menu before - sampled it when we got back to the boat and it is scrumptious!  We felt lucky to get a good meal because we'd all been in Cambridge at the Cambridge Yacht Club for a couple days during which we ate out four times with not-so-hot experiences each time.

Roger and Lisa had a harrowing experience on the way to Cambridge.  They left Summit North Marina on a pitch dark night to go a ways and anchor at Still Pond.  After emerging from the C&D Canal, Rog noticed that his dinghy was loose, paused in the middle of the channel to fix it while Lisa held the boat in the middle of the channel.  While securing the dinghy, Rog looked up and saw a light, looked around and saw another light quite a ways away from the first, indicating that there was a ship bearing down on them and it was VERY CLOSE.   He raced to the helm, powered to the side of the channel and the giant car carrier passed them no further away than you would be to a train if you were stopped at the railroad crossing (Need I way that the car carrier is about a zillion times bigger than a train and would run you over without even feeling it?)  Fortunately, they got out of it's way.  Unfortunately, they caught its wake (big wake) on their beam  - Lisa thought the boat was going to swamp - it didn't, but lots of stuff was thrown to and fro --- except the rum which remained upright on the counter!  We are truly thankful that they're still with us.    

Wildlife! and more......

We're at Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth VA.  It's 100+ degrees today and we were attracted by the advertised pool.  What a crummy pool!  No shade... a few plastic chairs, but not even a table with an umbrella...and it's in a basin with tall walls around it, so no chance for a breeze to penetrate --- not going there.

Today we saw a bald eagle - that's the first one sighted on this trip up north and it's always a thrill to see them.  Two days ago we traveled from Dowry Creek Marina (which has a lovely pool that they were adding very cold well water to while we were swimming - very refreshing) to the Alligator River Marina (which has nothing but a gas station near it).  Much of that trip is on the Pungo River-Alligator River Canal (which no longer has any alligators).  It's 20 miles of staying in the middle of the canal to avoid the tree trunk snags on either side.  There's nothing to do, but look for wildlife.  Vicki was quite motivated to do so by the promise of a double chocolate ice cream cone for every unusual wildlife sighting.  Unfortunately, Norm can no longer be motivated in that way because Vicki awarded him a double chocolate scoop for life when he saw a bear while we were hiking in the Shenandoah Valley.  (Well, we weren't hiking at the time, we were driving to the trailhead in Peg and Mike Wilson's car.)  But I digress.  

Vicki has been awarded two double chocolate scoops for spotting a fox on the shore and a bear swimming acros the canal.  The fox was just sauntering through the trees along the shore.  The bear first appeared as "something" swimming across the canal -  we could see ears poking up and a small v-shaped wake.  We grabbed the binoculars and could only tell it was a bear when it emerged from the water.  So, so cool!

As we cruised to Intracoastal Waterway mile marker "0", we passed through the Portsmouth Naval Boat Yards that line the waterway.  Look at this new warship being built.  Cooooool!!  Don't forget, you can click on the picture to get a better view.