Solomons, Oxford, St. Michaels

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May 22nd 2015

Published: May 22nd 2015

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asmilingshark

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St. Michaels, MD

Solomons Is. is an old oyster outpost on the bay. It is touristy and offers meticulously maintained old houses with docks, a few blocks of board walk along the mile-wide Patuxent river, some nice galleries and small souvenir shops, owners of which often aren't local, coming from NY or NJ. The heart of the island is a great maritime museum, worth a visit. The oyster industry that Solomons was once famous for is long gone but the local watermen supply enough still for local restaurants and bars. There has been the restoration of the oyster beds under way in the region and so after the total collapsein the 70th-80th the oysters are now gradually coming back. And Patuxent oysters are believed to be the fattiest and the tastiest ones as compared to their NY or the west coast sisters. We picked up a mooring ball at a Zahnizer's marina - one of the best marinas anywhere. The guests are provided with bicycles, free of charge, and we put them bicycles to use. Amazingly Natalya didn't knock down a single mail box along the route which was rather highly irregular and we enjoyed a bit of exercise.

The next stop was

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Oxford, MD

Oxford, MD. It's a small town, on the Eastern shore that dates back to the late sixteen hundreds. We came by a great boat shop (Cutts & Casey), some really great boat builders and craftsmen here who build and restore the old Chesapeake skiffs, Bug-Eyes, Skip Jacks, and all sorts of other historic water craft. One of the town's founders was Robert Morris Sr. from Liverpool, a canny merchant who made his fortunes on the tobacco trade. In 1750 the town was treating him with a cannon salute in his honor when an errant wadding from a cannon maimed and killed the honoree. His son Robert Morris Jr. left and never returned to Oxford. He used his father's fortune to help the American Revolution. Ironically the Revolutionary war ended up destroying tobacco trade and his buiseness ruined he died a pauper. It's still a very pretty town!

The next great boating hub was St. Michaels. It's an upscale retirement community with expensive gift shops, galleries and great restaurants some of which we tried having saved money on anchoring out. The place has an unconfirmed story as their claim to fame. When the townspeople got the wind of the upcoming

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Solomions Island

British attack in August 1813, they devised a novel strategy: they hung the lanterns high up in the treetops and on the masts and extinguished every other light in town. When the British skulked in under the cloak of darkness they saw the lights, assumed St. Michaels sat on a bluff and overshot the village with their cannon fire! The locals have been congratulating themselves ever since!

Tomorrow we are sailing to Annapolis, once the Capital of the Colonies, the city of the U.S. Naval Academy and of the best Boat show. We better get our seamanship together😊!

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