Motor Yacht Pearl with Glenys and Don: September 2017

Deltaville and onwards.
We docked in Fishing Bay Marina (Chesapeake Boat Works) once again May 27th.
As I said in the previous blog Pearl needed some TLC, her bottom needed to have preparation done and anti foul applied. As it was pretty warm and to run any systems we needed to stay somewhere off the boat.
So we are temporary land lubbers for a while.

In the last blog I mentioned our stay at an anchorage before Deltaville we were there for 3 days and I had forgotten to post the photo of the FBI headquarters Langley so here it is. It was taken when we were leaving and the terrible weather had left us, you can see how calm the water is.

Love to be a "fly on the wall" in here

Deltaville
We rented a place via airb&b it was a heck of a drive to and from the marina. The apartment was a room above a garage with a separate bedroom and bathroom, pity it didn’t have any windows or cooking facilities except a microwave and a coffee maker. No TV either but it did have internet so we watched a few things on the computer. Needless to say we managed to eat and were comfortable.

So Pearl was lifted, moved into “the yard” and placed very carefully on stands. Don did the work himself as he did before on Agua Therapy. sanded, primer and painted. Anodes replaced, Props polished.

I took advantage of using the rental car buying spares for Pearl, filters, oil, and all the usual bits, provisions for our next stage of our trip.

Don ! now what are you up to ?

I was on a personal mission to try and get a better diagnosis for my leg which was still pretty sore, maybe I’m impatient but this is silly now. To cut a long story short a visit to the ER in Gloucester then sent to see an orthopaedic surgeon. My insurance company are fantastic, no hesitation, no permission needed, I was sent for an MRI and x-rays. Anyway the MRI showed fluid still around the painful area, no breaks or cracks and so I was prescribed compression stockings, full length, both legs, what! Lets just say Don was needed a few times to help but I’m afraid the temperatures were way too much to use them for very long. So keep taking the pain meds, grin and bare it.

We met up with our local friends, Hilton and Brenda, had a couple of outings with them and spent a night in their fantastic log house. They made us very welcome and provided some lovely shrimp kebabs. We also managed to see off a few bottles of wine and a selection of Hiltons IPA beer that evening and suffered just a little bit the following day. I stuck to the wine.

Hilton is quite an artist, we love the paintings, here are a few with his kind permission granted

My favourite

Hilton works in the tourist information in Gloucester and is a mine of information of all kinds of fascinating things about the areas history.

Gloucester has so many old buildings, monuments, many associated with the civil war and some wonderful gardens.

Once again, Hilton and Brenda gave us the use of their ‘spare’ pickup truck for the duration of our visit, which we were very grateful for and proved to be very useful.

One of the many churches in Deltaville

We stayed on the hard, on the boat, in the yard one night before being “splashed”. We departed Fishing Bay Deltaville on Tuesday June 27th heading for Rogue Point off the Wicomico River, Just north of Reedville it was so quiet, just birdsong.

We stayed at Rogue Point for 2 nights, 29th June heading for Smith Point N37° 53,87 W76° 17, 983

July 1st. So now we are in Solomans, Maryland the furthest North we have ever been so far.

We tried to anchor but the anchor dragged through the soft mud when we put a pull on the chain, just like a knife through butter so it wouldn’t be any good in a blow and nothing we would trust so, it was time to make other plans.

We picked up a mooring ball at a marina, the first in a long time. Solomons is a smashing place. Cruising buddies had mentioned it in the past and as it was close to the 4th of July celebrations we wanted to be away from unknown places with all the holidaymakers. We took the last mooring suitable for our size so it was quite a relief.

A short dinghy ride and we were ashore, taking several long walks to explore the area.

The marine museum, yes another one was pretty good. All kinds of boats on display both inside and on the water. There are aquariums with so many different fish.

The photo above is the old Drum Point lighthouse that was moved here

This lionfish is huge, the biggest we have ever seen

Above, a Horseshoe crab, a little like a prehistoric beast

Tobacco growing played a big part here

People stood in the Hogsheads and packed the leaves down by hand

Cute little guy very inquisitive

The fireworks for the 4th weren’t so spectacular we have really good ones at home so maybe we are spoilt.

Oysters were big business here too and there is another place on the main street which has an amazing display of how it used to be here.

Lots of local history here

Some very strange shaped oysters, all huge too

It was hard work

Paid a pittance for standing all day at these stalls so they went on strike when their wages were reduced even more to 25c a gallon.

The seafront / boardwalk is a little like an old seaside place in the UK with a pier, we had an amazing fish dinner there.

Houses are covered in red white and blue rosettes as it is the 4th of July. We did consider removing our British ensign just in case we were fired at.