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Lower Chesapeake Labor Day Cruise - part 2 - Onancock
Bob had intended to see if he could force water through the vent of
the aft head, but we were tied starboard side to the pier and it is on the port side and he couldn't reach it. It seems to be working better now anyway. Somer's Cove Marina, which was almost completely empty when we got there on Thursday morning, was about half full by Thursday night. The marina people are extremely efficient and there is plenty of water in there. The rates were $1.50/foot for Sun-Thurs, $1.75/ft for Fri-Sat, and $2.00/ft for holidays Friday Again Bob was up and about early - impatient to be off. He poured a glass of cranberry juice for me and left it in the cockpit. He told me to hold the spring line to the piling while he took the rest of the lines off, and after he got back aboard (unlike in Tangier), this time, I managed to pull the line off the piling without having it get caught. We were motoring out by 7:40. I knew he would want me to come back and steer so he could stow the lines and fenders, but I wanted to take pictures as we left, so I sat on the deck and ignored him for the 10+ minutes it took to motor out of the harbor as far as the Janes Island light. As we passed the condo, I looked up and saw an old lady in her nightgown at the window. I was chicken to take her picture but I wanted to. The people using the computer last night asked if we were going to take the shortcut to Pocomoke Sound through Broad Creek, but we were not, as I think it is too shallow for us and I don't think it would save us any time - especially if we ran aground. I had the radio on and mostly what was on it was Somers Cove Marina. I heard one exchange that went like this Boater - This is (indecipherable name) and I have a reservation for tonight SCM - Capn could you repeat the name of your vessel and what is your location? Boater - I just bought this boat and haven't put a name on it yet and I don't know where the hell I am. We passed the Tangier Island light about 10 (again too far away for a good picture). The wind was from almost directly behind us and was fairly light at about 8 knots. Bob tried with the jib and main and for awhile the boat was even heeling, but eventually he pulled in the jib because of the danger of jibeing. We passed Tangier light a little too far away for a good picture. Bob wanted me to take over the wheel so that he could pull in the main. When we got to the entrance to the Onancock River (pronounced Oh NAN cock), I started calling the harbormaster on the phone and on the radio. There was no answer. We motored all the way in (It is a very pretty little river.) and still there was no answer. It was about 12:30. The trip was 25.3 miles and took us about 4.5 hours. The harbormaster doesn't answer the radio (or at least I never saw him do so) and he only answers the phone if he happens to be in the office when you call. Without any specific directions, we started into a slip. The people on the next boat (TANGLE) helped us tie up, but it would be impossible for me to get off the boat as the finger pier was short and just barely above the water at high tide. And even if I could get off, I'd never be able to get back on. The dockmaster (who is a substitute retired guy with a dark lens on one eye of his glasses who apparently only works from7:30-12 and 1-4:30) got back from lunch and surveyed the situation and allowed as how he could put us on the face dock right outside the bathrooms. So we moved the boat over there being careful to keep the bow and the anchors on it back from the boat ramp. Starboard side to again. We walked over and had lunch at Mallards which is in the old Hopkins & Bro. store.. I had the chicken salad sandwich and Bob had the same except without the sandwich part. . The dockmaster said there was no internet except maybe at the library (which we found out was 4 miles out of town). We are across from Bagwell fuel docks. They had three large and one half size tank, a loading rack and a large and medium size horizontal tank all nicely painted dark green with yellow accents. As we watched they were washing one of the trucks. The dockmaster will go over there to let you get fuel if they aren't there. The people yesterday in Crisfield had told me about a place to eat called Shuckers where they would come and get you in a bus. But it was too new a place to be in the phone book, and the dockmaster couldn't find their phone number. So I was forced to call information for the number. Information first asked if the name started with an F or and S, and then she asked it if wasn't Shockers. I went and edited photos and wrote up emails. I also took a shower. In the meantime, several sailboats came in and a 50 foot boat called SEA BEAR from Florida tied up on the other side of the boat ramp. After the dockmaster left, a trawler from Solomons came in - they had two dogs and a bird on board. They said they had 3-4 foot waves and wind about 25 knots coming over. Probably due to tide coming up the Bay in opposition to the wind blowing down the bay. The folks at Mallards were loading all kinds of food on the Capt. Eulice which is the Tangier ferry - it was a wedding reception, and they also had two private parties over there - which is one reason why we were going to Shuckers for dinner. Bob went out to wait about 5 for a pickup that was to be between 5:30 and 5:45. I looked up at the sky and said it looked kind of cloudy, but he ignored the hint, which I admit was very gentle. The weather report said 20% chance of rain. It hasn't rained much all summer. The Shuckers van came driven by the manager because the guy that drives it wasn't there yet. As we pulled up to the restaurant, it started to rain. It rained buckets, and we had left the hatches open. But we couldn't get back to the boat to fix it, so we went on and had dinner. Inside there were billiard tables and a large extensive bar which had sections in several rooms. They told us to go into the other room which was where the band (from Philadelphia) would be playing later. After we were seated, two couples of 'old people' came in and also a large family group with the grandmother on oxygen. That made us feel better as everyone had emphasized that Shuckers was 'a redneck bar' (and emphasized that there was excellent security) and I'm not sure I know what they meant by that. Bob had the prime rib special with mashed potatoes and green beans which he said was excellent although he could not eat even half of it. I had the fried fish basket (also a special) with onion rings, and I couldn't eat all of that either. We shared a home-made apple dumpling for dessert which was scrumptious. Much better, really, than my mother's apple dumplings. Moist flaky delicious crust and the apple inside had no spiky pieces of the core in it. It was still pouring down rain when we were ready to leave, but stopped when we reached the marina. Everything on the boat was soaking wet. One hatch over Bob's bunk had soaked the foot of his bedding through, although it all dried out Saturday. Everything in the cockpit was also soaked and the bimini was draining down onto the computer box with the computer in it. The TV and DirectTV controller which were next to the hatch over Bob's bunk were OK. Saturday September 1 Today we weren't going anywhere, so after we cleaned up the boat, we started out to walk up into town. The bench beside the dockmaster's office which faces the launch ramp is full of old men who sit there and kibitz people putting their boats into the water. It's a nice little town with old Victorian homes lining the main street at least one old time general store (House of Deals - Trust Worthy Hardware) which sold a little bit of everything. Bob said they had steamer clams (manoes) in there and there were vegetables, fruit and flowers displayed out front. We passed a plaque which said that here used to be the home of Francis Makemie, who established organized Presbyterianism in America. We saw a sign about the Scott Hill Cemetery, but I'm not sure where the actual cemetery was. Across the street was the Cokesbury Methodist Church (1850) which was a historic landmark and right after that a marker commemorating General Edmund R. Bagwell. Across the street from that was the Robert Lee Custis Memorial Garden. I gather that next weekend is the Onancock Harborfest which includes an arm wrestling championship, horseshoe tournament, rock climbing, kayak race, a rubber duck race, bands, a raffle and an auction. The hotel in town said they had a wireless internet for their guests. It was almost 11:00, so we stopped for lunch at Bizzottos, which was a combination art gallery (jewelry, pots etc.) and restaurant. Bob had a tuna salad plate which included a big heap of tuna, slices of yellow tomatoes, five large black olives, some canned peaches, thin slices of apple and two of those yellow-green hot peppers (whole). I had a pastrami wrap which had the yellow tomatoes in it, and one of those corkscrew macaroni salads. While we were eating a man and woman with a dog parked out front, leaving the dog in the car, and were rearranging the jewelry display. They provided us with our amusement while we ate. As we walked back to the boat, Bob pointed out to me that the drug store had a snap hook on the window frame which was labeled "Dog Tie" I went into the harbormaster's office to use his phone for the internet, but it was too late in the day for me to do much. He was anxious to be off. After he left a bunch of boats came in and we told them just to go into whatever slip they wanted. We were going to walk over to Mallards for dinner - I had noticed that the desserts looked good. Bob started getting antsy about it saying that people were standing in line at about 5:30. They weren't. Steamers were on the menu, but we didn't know what kind. They called them 'middlenecks'. So I ordered some to see. They were little squashed oval clamshells about the size of my thumb to the joint with tiny thumbnail sized clams in them, not the manoes that we really like. They came with some bread rusks and were tasty.. Bob had a plain crabcake for dinner, but he forgot to tell them broiled and so of course he got it fried. With it was a little plastic cup of bean salad. I got a lobster roll, which was drippy to eat, with the same little cup of salad and a bag of those organic potato chips. We both had Smith Island blueberry cake for dessert. It was very dense cake and sweet. |
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