November 3, 2008

OK, so it is Tuesday. Election day, at that! We returned to the boat late last Monday, the 27th of Oct., from a busy week in Newburgh. Lynn and Jeffrey motored over from Baltimore to say au revoir, and to have a great Chinese dinner! Tuesday and Wednesday were really ugly weather days--on Wed. afternoon we decided to ‘give it a shot’ and head for Annapolis despite the ‘small craft advisories‘. After all, we are not such a small craft, are we? We are! Rapidly repeating 7-8 foot waves convinced us that we belonged back at the dock, and back we went. Had some work done on the Watermaker, and by Friday the sun was shining and we were underway. Spent Hallowe’en in Knapp’s Narrows, MD, where Jeff, the bridge tender at the busiest bascule bridge in the country, let us watch the bascule bridge’s workings from the operator’s side, and recommended Harrison’s Family Restaurant for dinner. It was a hoot! Not only costumed wait staff, but the folks at the next table shared their freshly caught Sea Bass (prepared by the restaurant’s chef). Nice. We returned to Solomon’s Island Sat. and stayed Sunday as well. Anchored this time in the Back Creek and used the dinghy to explore and to pick up a few things from our two favorite stores-West Marine and a gourmet food store! It doesn’t get much better than that! We also toured the wonderful Calvet Museum. Several neat things there--a 3000 year old fossilized whale skull unearthed by Hurricane Irene in 2003, the sailboat Manitou, which was gifted to John Kennedy for his use while President (it is for sale--a mere $2 million!), and a transplanted light house beautifully restored. I was meandering about the museum when I heard the loudspeaker say “Phone call for Mr. Mangelsdorf”! Don’t you know, Fred found the name of Mel Conant, a member of the Rum, Sail and Chowder Society from Cape Cod (remember the photo of Sophia Loren on the boat?) on a museum exhibit, asked the docent about Mel, and the next thing we knew we had a dinner date with Christa, Mel’s widow. It’s a small, small world! Monday we motored on down to Deltaville, VA. Once more there is boat work, and Mike has been here all day fixing ’stuff’. As I look toward the Bay all I see (through the rain) is a solid wall of fog. So we’re tucked in and snug to check out the election returns. The marina offers a car and bikes to explore the town. Perhaps it’ll be dry tomorrow…. We will ‘see’ you next week! Fred and Linda Aboard YOUNG AMERICA Deltaville, VA