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Bits and pieces from around the region
In St. Michaels, one of my favorite towns on Delmarva, we stopped at the Crab Claw to eat a few hardshells. Tied up along the waterfront was this rig - a first for me. About 24 feet long with four 300-HP Mercs bolted to the stern. A crew member told me the runabout was a tender vessel for a 140-foot yacht that stayed behind in Annapolis. "How long did it take you guys to get here," I asked. "About 20 minutes," he said. (It took us 90 minutes.) "How fast were you going?" "We sat right on 40." I didn't ask the next question which would have been: "How much fuel?" Exxon loves these people. BY DENNIS FORNEY
September 3, 2012
Contrast the rig above to this one - a full-size replica of the shallop used by John Smith back in the 1600s for his famous exploration of the Chesapeake. A little difference in technology, though this vessel - which could be taken apart in the center for compact stowage as two pieces on the deck of the Smith mother ship - was state-of-the-art for its time. It is also living for the time being in St. Michaels.
Two more Chesapeake explorers: a matched pair of C-Dorys (almost) tied up at the public dock in St. Michaels. The inside vessel is Becky's and my Nellie Lankford. The outside vessel is Jamma which belongs to my sister Mary and her famous husband, James Paterson. Jamma is what her grandson Ian calls Mary. It reminds me of the famous Cuban revolutionary vessel which carried Fidel Castro and his insurrectionists from Mexico for an attack on their island nation. The vessel - of all names - is called Granma (you got it, just like grandmother) and is on display in the Revolutionary Museum in downtown Havana. How wild is that!?"!
Here's a bow shot of the twin dories.
Here's a photo of Mary's famous husband with the author's most recent book, in a book shop on the main drag in St. Michaels. Hey wait a minute! Mary's last name - and her husband's too - is Paterson with one T. That doesn't stop cashiers from whispering when Pat hands them his credit card. ("Shhh - I think it's him.")
In Baltimore, on another recent trip for a ball game, we saw this floating garden - designed to help clean up the nutrient rich waters - floating in an offshoot of the Inner Harbor. Appropriate that it's in front of the hard Rock Café plea: Save The Planet. I'm itching to get back to Baltimore this weekend to catch one of the Orioles-Yankees games. Good race.
If you're wondering whether many people trailer their boats through downtown Lewes, take a look at this telephone pole at the corner where drivers with their trailers turn right from Front Street onto Savannah Road. It won't be long before this pole has to be replaced.
Here's an unusual morning rainbow that I saw recently along Freeman Highway in Lewes.
I keep a collection of photographs going until I can write a blog about them or put them together for a poo poo platter of images. These are from the past few weeks. Some of them were made while we were touring the upper Chesapeake Bay in mid-August. Others came from wanderings around Delaware's Cape Region.
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. Like his Barefootin' Facebook page to get notified of blog updates.
