Eastern shore solitude

We are anchored in the Corsica River, off the Chester, just a few miles from Centreville, Maryland (map).  Blossom is anchored just a few hundred yards from us.  It is dark and very, very quiet here at night; the Corsica is navigable only another mile by large boats, and three miles to Centreville by shallow-draft.

We had a very pleasant cruise here Sunday from Rock Hall, although on such a nice day, there was a lot of traffic on the bay.  I suspect some of the traffic was related to the Star Spangled 200, still ongoing on Sunday, which was the final day for the Blue Angels performance.  A good time to be here on the quiet side.

We led out of the harbor and most of the way here, with Blossom taking the lead coming into the Corsica so they could choose their anchorage.  Blossom draws another eight inches more than Vector, so they are the limiting factor.  Left to our own devices, we would have chosen a spot another mile upriver, thus shortening the tender ride into town.


Vector under way, as seen from Blossom.

We each got some good shots of the other vessel under way.  We both splashed our tenders after we dropped the hooks, and Louise and I zipped over to Blossom for a delicious dinner of Moroccan Stew.


Blossom under way, taking over the lead.  She's at full power here, running the engines up to clear the soot.

Yesterday afternoon we all headed into town.  Martin, Steph, and Jim crammed into their tender with two full-size bicycles, and Louise and I went separately in our own tender, which allowed both boats to get on plane for most of the ride. The bicycles were to allow the ladies to head off to the local quilt shop a couple of miles away, while the boys wandered around town (ten minutes) and landed at the pub (45 minutes).

I picked up a couple of gallons of gas for the tender at the lone station/mini-mart in town on our way back toward the river, and the five of us reconnected at Doc's Riverside Grille for dinner.  The crab cakes were delicious and the place was pretty popular for a Monday.

It's a quaint little town, as you might discern from today's cover photo, typical of the eastern shore.  Not much there, except in this case, as the county seat, it sported a number of lawyers and bail bondsmen, encircled around the historic court house.  Apparently it is the oldest operational courthouse in Maryland.

This morning we loaded the tenders back aboard and in a few minutes we will weigh anchor for a familiar anchorage, near White Rocks off the Patapsco River. We should have better Internet access there, and we'll have a couple of restaurants we can dinghy to when we want to get together.  Martin and Steph only have their training captain aboard for another few days, and they are working on anchoring systems this week.