Chesapeake Bay

We are having fun in the Chesapeake Bay. Lots of boats, interesting people and nautical sights to see. We crossed the Chesapeake from the Rappahannock River Thursday morning. We went into Tangier Island. It was a windy and rather rough crossing. The wind was on our beam and/or on our port quarter. We rocked and rolled. The "Pelican" handled the Bay very well.

When we arrived in Tangier Island we docked at Parks Marina and met Milton Parks, the owner. He is 78 years old, was born on Tangier and has been a waterman all his life. Milton is quite a character. He had quite a few saying and one stuck with me. " Good is short lived and bad last forever". This is something to remember to live by. Tangier restaurants were not open so we had crabcake sandwiches at a little sandwich shop. There were lots of locals eating there and we met the owner of a Buy Boat that is still in operation. He knew Bill Hights from Urbanna. The supply boat came in and brought supplies to the only grocery store. It closed from 12:00 until 2:00 while they unloaded the groceries from the supply boat and put them on the shelf. At 2:00 the golf carts and 4 wheel vehicles came from everywhere to get fresh groceries. The store was full of ladies purchasing groceries and a lot of the groceries were purchased on credit. The husbands are away crabbing and I expect will pay the grocery bill when they return from crabbing down near Cape Charles.

Tangier Island is one of the most unique places I've ever visited in the world. I love this island and its life style. There are approximately 600 residents on the island and they are very strong in their religion. Two churches on the Island. They also seem to be very family oriented. What a great place!!!!!!

We left this moring and came accros Tangier Sound into Crisfield, Maryland. We are staying at the Somers Cove Marina. There are over 400 slips and 99 % are empty. We are the only transit boat here. We purchased fuel, for the first time and paid $2.08 per gallon. It took 90 gallons to get here from New Bern. NOT BAD..... If the weather permits we will leave Crisfield Saturday moring and go to Solomons, back accross the Bay.