During Looper visits in 2023, I was told that Crisfield wasn’t really such a great place and in fact, Tangiers with the passing of Mr. Parks had fallen into disrepair.

Since I had a trip planned for Wallops Island VA, I thought I’d take a quick detour off to Crisfield to check it out.

Crisfield is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland at the MD/VA border. It was famous for it’s fishing, crabbing and oyster fleets. Sadly with Covid the fishing and crabbing have dwindled. As like most of Virginia, Maryland Oystermen are working on the large number of projects to rebuild the oyster beds. It’s paying off, they have planted over 10 billion oysters in a large number of beds across the bay. So the number of oysters will grow, and some will switch back to the harvest side.

When I was there I had brunch at the Water’s Edge Cafe. I had my goto Sausage Gravy on a waffle. The waffle was very crispy and the sausage gravy was loaded with meat. Total cost was $10 with a 20% tip.

I checked out the waterfront area. There are ferry boats that run 7 days a week weather permitting to Smith and Tangier Island. With Tangier marina facilities on the decline, these ferry’s may be the best way to see the islands.

The Captains I talked to said that there was a decent flow with people that live on the islands, but as of now ( mid-June 2023) tourist traffic was light. They were hopeful that with schools being closed for the summer that there would be more activity.

In Crisfield the place to stay is Somers Cove Marina. It’s a large facility with pump out, a nice bath house docks are in amazing shape. Downside is it’s about 8 block to the restaurants in town that are open.

On my way out of town, I got a crabcake from the Fisherman’s grill. It was very good, very little filler. They are closed Monday and Tuesdays (lack of help and not many Monday / Tuesday tourists) but have good hours the rest of the week.

Other than the small (4 block) shopping district at the entrance to Somers Cove there isn’t much else to see or do. I’d still recommend it as a 2 day stop with riding the ferry to the other two Islands in the middle.

We have become weather mavens the last 13 months. Today the winds from the South at 10 to 15 knots, gusts to 20. That means 2′ waves from the South. Gusts to 20 means they will be white caps and will start to build. Weather for Sunday is the same plus showers. So rather than do two nice days of 30 miles we will do one long day of 60+.

So it’s up and ready to leave the dock at 6:30. We are off and rather than go South around the island (and head into the waves (bounce, bounce) we will go through the famous Knapp’s narrows. While we did our last lock in Virginia two weeks ago, today means a drawbridge. We head out, call the bridge operator and he will open when he sees us. So push off and a little before 7 we are looking at the “closed” bridge. The boat behind us reminds the operator we are there, and by 7 we are on our way out into the Chesapeake.

We need to run West before we can go North, but that means broadside waves. I head SouthWest to quarter into the waves so we get a little bounce and a little roll for about 3 miles (half and hour) until I can turn 90 degrees and go North West.

It’s an OK day on the bay, 2 foot waves are nothing to the hard core fish guys and they are out in droves today. Lots are out trolling, so we need to watch out for the trolling boards that are about 50′ behind the boats. Most of them have flags on them so they can be seen. The captains have done this before, so it’s not much to keep out of each other’s way. But the autopilot isn’t happy about being pushed around by the stern waves so there is some bow dance that goes on.

By 9 the Bay Bridge is fully in sight as is a container ship coming up fast behind us. I call and he is doing 16 knots to our 8 so we pull to the side so he can pass us on the “One”. Susan got some great pictures of it going by and then later on on under the bridge.

At 9:30 we officially entered the Upper Bay and with a little luck we would be docked by 2:30. Oh, but as Mark says: “the tide givith and the tide taketh away” and I was now looking the wrong way at a falling tide. Oh well, we will slog along at 7 knots.

For the next few hours familiar places slid by. It was nice to start going “hey I’ve seen that before”. Love Point, Swan Point, Fairlee Creek, Still Pond .. At 2PM we passed by Turkey Point Light and we were officially in our home waters.

Susan has been doing GoPro time lapse photos along the trip, little mini movies of our adventure. So at 2:32 in the mouth of the Bohemia River we both stepped to the bow and held our Gold Looper flag, we were GOLD LOOPERS!

Susan took down our white flag and put up our gold one. We did a tour down to the 213 bridge to see if we could find any of our boater friends. A quick spin and we came back to Bohemia Bay Yacht Harbor, our former and now home again. A 90 left, 90 right, spin starboard, bump it, bump it, shut it down and we were home!

Across the next few day’s we will post some trip wrap ups and stats so keep an eye out here.

Gold Loopers, YAY US!

Looking for lighter winds in the morning we got out of the marina at 8. There were a number of other boats that had the same plan, we were part of a parade that motored down the Patuxent River. It was a pretty smooth ride and soon we were turning North to head up the Chesapeake. The good news is the Bay is starting to narrow, you can see both sides when you are in the middle channel. We laugh on the trip, the chart plot for the first trip on the Quo Vadimus from Chesapeake VA to Bohemia River is still showing up.

Ahead is the Cove Point Natural Gas Facility. It was built in the 1970′s for that decades energy crisis. It fell to disuse in the oil boom of the 1980′s. It was resurrected and expanded in the 1990s amid a huge amount of controversy over having an LNG facility (that may go Boom) near to a nuclear plant (just a few miles at Calvert Cliffs). But the proponents won out and the expanded site went into operation. Enough gas can be stored to heat 375,000 home for a year. So the tank farm and the unloading port are both huge. But wait, there is more. With all the fracking going on the companies that own the port want to use it to export LNG. So the controversy continues.

Just North is the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant. It was built in the 1970′s and as a budding engineering student the day long field trip to see the plant was great thing to do. (My father had contacts in the 1970′s and the “stranger danger terrorist” hoopla hadn’t started. One of the side effects of the plant is that it heats the water of the Chesapeake and the fish just love it.

As we traveled along we ran into a number of 50 foot pools of fish that were swimming on the surface, the striped bass season was getting ready to start. The smaller fish swimming in school as protection are easy snacks by the much larger “rock fish”.

Around 11 we turned into the Choptank River and ran into a problem. As a mariner, I watch the charts and they are the guide. But the Coast Guard / Corps of Engineers often move buoy’s to match the actual condition (shoaling, channel moving, etc.) So the rule is follow the buoy, then follow the chart. Unless the buoy is really wrong then follow the chart at low speed. We’ve seen buoy’s set up in strange configurations in the river where you follow an S bend to get around them. But it looked like the red markers had been moved. Remembering that there had been heavy ice in the bay I dropped speed, followed the chart and kept a close eye on the depth finder.

That worked well for both of the markers that were well out of position. By noon we were tying up at “Tilghman on the Chesapeake” Marina. Tilghman’s Island has been around since the 1800 and has been home to oyster-men, crabbers and summer vacationers. In the old days you came by Steamboat and stayed the week until the next steamboat arrives. Today you wait in traffic to come across the Bay Bridge at Kent Island, fight your way down Route 50 through Easton and then down Rt 33 into the island. By the time most people try that they are tired in either Easton or St. Michales, so they stop there.

We unloaded our bikes and headed into the town center about a mile away. First stop was “Two if By Sea” for lunch. Susan went for fried rock fish, I went old school with a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. After we finished lunch we biked into town and across one of the few remaining 24 hour drawbridges in the US. It’s a very pretty place, lots of work boats that go out every day for crab or oysters, a smattering of pleasure craft for the locals. The fishing is great and there lots of water to explore in all of the coves of Talbot County. The Choptank River is to the south and the towns of Oxford and Cambridge are a short ride away.

Back to our cool boat for naps and catching up with things around the boat.

Towards 6 PM we headed off to dinner at Harrison’s. They have been a Tilghman destination for years and years. They were one of the first places to take boarders in the 1800′s. Dinner was good but it started us remembering other dinners that we have had on this trip. Some of our favorites were Susan’s Birthday dinner in Atlantic City at Docks (with the puffed potatoes), Dinner at the top of the CN tower, our first Fish Boil in Door County, and 2”Pork Chops at Patti’s. One that stuck out was from a year ago today, doing the lunch truck rodeo with my Sister in Rochester.

We cycled home happy and contented. Just 60 miles to go to the mythical Loop Crossing, wonder if there will be a buoy at the mouth of the Bohemia.

Looking for lighter winds in the morning we got out of the marina at 8. There were a number of other boats that had the same plan, we were part of a parade that motored down the Patuxent River. It was a pretty smooth ride and soon we were turning North to head up the Chesapeake. The good news is the Bay is starting to narrow, you can see both sides when you are in the middle channel. We laugh on the trip, the chart plot for the first trip on the Quo Vadimus from Chesapeake VA to Bohemia River is still showing up.

Ahead is the Cove Point Natural Gas Facility. It was built in the 1970′s for that decades energy crisis. It fell to disuse in the oil boom of the 1980′s. It was resurrected and expanded in the 1990s amid a huge amount of controversy over having an LNG facility (that may go Boom) near to a nuclear plant (just a few miles at Calvert Cliffs). But the proponents won out and the expanded site went into operation. Enough gas can be stored to heat 375,000 home for a year. So the tank farm and the unloading port are both huge. But wait, there is more. With all the fracking going on the companies that own the port want to use it to export LNG. So the controversy continues.

Just North is the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant. It was built in the 1970′s and as a budding engineering student the day long field trip to see the plant was great thing to do. (My father had contacts in the 1970′s and the “stranger danger terrorist” hoopla hadn’t started. One of the side effects of the plant is that it heats the water of the Chesapeake and the fish just love it.

As we traveled along we ran into a number of 50 foot pools of fish that were swimming on the surface, the striped bass season was getting ready to start. The smaller fish swimming in school as protection are easy snacks by the much larger “rock fish”.

Around 11 we turned into the Choptank River and ran into a problem. As a mariner, I watch the charts and they are the guide. But the Coast Guard / Corps of Engineers often move buoy’s to match the actual condition (shoaling, channel moving, etc.) So the rule is follow the buoy, then follow the chart. Unless the buoy is really wrong then follow the chart at low speed. We’ve seen buoy’s set up in strange configurations in the river where you follow an S bend to get around them. But it looked like the red markers had been moved. Remembering that there had been heavy ice in the bay I dropped speed, followed the chart and kept a close eye on the depth finder.

That worked well for both of the markers that were well out of position. By noon we were tying up at “Tilghman on the Chesapeake” Marina. Tilghman’s Island has been around since the 1800 and has been home to oyster-men, crabbers and summer vacationers. In the old days you came by Steamboat and stayed the week until the next steamboat arrives. Today you wait in traffic to come across the Bay Bridge at Kent Island, fight your way down Route 50 through Easton and then down Rt 33 into the island. By the time most people try that they are tired in either Easton or St. Michales, so they stop there.

We unloaded our bikes and headed into the town center about a mile away. First stop was “Two if By Sea” for lunch. Susan went for fried rock fish, I went old school with a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. After we finished lunch we biked into town and across one of the few remaining 24 hour drawbridges in the US. It’s a very pretty place, lots of work boats that go out every day for crab or oysters, a smattering of pleasure craft for the locals. The fishing is great and there lots of water to explore in all of the coves of Talbot County. The Choptank River is to the south and the towns of Oxford and Cambridge are a short ride away.

Back to our cool boat for naps and catching up with things around the boat.

Towards 6 PM we headed off to dinner at Harrison’s. They have been a Tilghman destination for years and years. They were one of the first places to take boarders in the 1800′s. Dinner was good but it started us remembering other dinners that we have had on this trip. Some of our favorites were Susan’s Birthday dinner in Atlantic City at Docks (with the puffed potatoes), Dinner at the top of the CN tower, our first Fish Boil in Door County, and 2”Pork Chops at Patti’s. One that stuck out was from a year ago today, doing the lunch truck rodeo with my Sister in Rochester.

We cycled home happy and contented. Just 60 miles to go to the mythical Loop Crossing, wonder if there will be a buoy at the mouth of the Bohemia.

We work up to a great morning. Our marina is tucked well back of the Potomac so there was no wave action. The rainstorms that were predicted went well north of us.

We got off the dock early and our last 10 miles of Potomac was a mild chop. We turned north to go up the Chesapeake and ended up with a 1 foot following sea, the winds and waves predicted for today didn’t show up either.

Around 11 AM we turned into the Patuxent River and started our way up to Solomons Maryland. On our port side was the Navy Patuxent River Air Station. It was a busy day over there, lots of planes taking off and landing.

We got fuel for the next to the last time on the trip (one more fillup at our home dock). Pretty happy, looking at around $3.70 per gallon for the trip. Pumped out and filled our water tanks so we are good for the next week.

It was a hot day here on the boat so we stayed in for the afternoon. Susan found a really good place, the Ruddy Duck that was a bike ride away. I tried their local beers and we had great appetizers of crab cakes, cheese puffs and their signature Duck-a-dillios.

The temperature drop during dinner made the ride home easier and the boat was nice and cool. We only have a few more days to go we are only 98 miles from the Bohemia River.

Another early start, today because we wanted to tour St. Mary’s Maryland.

The good news was the winds were from the South, so we would have following seas for the trip North. But the winds were up so there would be 2 foot waves the entire trip. Saying that the trip out into the bay took longer since I needed to go South some (waves on the starboard quarter) vs full abeam. Once out in the bay I could head north and put them on the stern.

While there was some sailboats out the only other traffic was a small container ship and two tows. One was pushing their barge (with lots of bow waves crashing over it). The second was actually towing the barge. This is the first time I’d seen an actual “tow” since we we left last April. It had to be hard for him to keep the line from taking up slack as they traveled over the waves.

At 11 AM it was time to make the turn into the Potomac River at Point Lookout. Again I needed to make the turn to put the waves on the Aft Port Quarter to keep us from tossing around. A few miles up into the Potomac River the waves broke down into moderate chop. By the time I got to the mouth of the St. Mary’s river the wind had dropped and we were down to swells.

St. Mary’s Maryland is one of the earliest settlements in Maryland and is where the first capital was. In 1634 Lord Calvert and 140 settlers plus crew to set up the first English settlement. The Dove was their scout boat, all of the families were aboard the much larger Ark.

A replica of the Dove is anchored outside the recreation of the town of St. Mary’s. We sat just outside the dock and got some great pictures. From there we went around the corner to St. Mary’s College and docked at their wharf. Graduation had just ended so there were lots of families taking pictures of their children. Wonder how many shots the “Quo Vadimus” is in? Talk about a photo bomb!

We walked through the very pretty campus into St Mary’s. There is a recreation of some of the original buildings. A few are on the former site and there is sections of the floor that are cut away so you can see the original basement floors (mostly brick). They have also set up the frames of a few other buildings so it’s easy to see what they looked like. St Mary’s reminded both of us of Fayette MI, the steel town that was abandoned in the 1800′s. They still have the frames of some of the buildings up so you can sort of visualize what it would have looked like.

One of the things I found interesting is that the fireplaces are in the center of the house so it heats from the center out. The chimney is more of a trapezoid type shape, so it was easy for the 1630′s settlers to build without them falling over.

We did a quick tour of the Dove. The mate said that there was no recreation of the Ark, it would take millions to build it and maintenance would be a problem. They did a demo of the “salute gun” that they used to signal to the other boat.

We walked back through the campus and made a quick stop at the coffee shop for a snack. Frozen microwave food is just the pits. But with most of the students gone it made sense to not have the cafeteria open.

We got back on the boat. There was one Gold Looper anchored out in Horseshoe Bay, but we couldn’t get the name of the boat. We cruised back up the St Mary’s and turned into our marina at Dennis Point. There is a huge fish tournament here, so we will take our time getting off the dock in the morning.

We got some gusty rain so I needed to run out and furl the Looper flag. When it rattles it sounds like the entire bow is coming apart. Likewise Susan adjusted the fenders to keep them from slapping around like a freshly boated fish.

We’ll do two slow days up the river and then spend some time in Alexandria VA. Next stop is Colonial Beach.

One year ago today we were starting our five day stay in Ilion NY Like here it rained, but unlike here it where it rained only an hour in Ilion it rained 2 days in a row and flooded the Erie Canal. Once the Canal was closed we had to spend the days in Ilion until it opened up again.