12. The Last of the Chesapeake

We left Solomon Island the day after the time changed. The sun is up earlier and it gets darker faster. We had thought we would make Mobjack Bay but we were tossed about so by the time we reached the Great Wicomico River and sure enough, our anchorage was named Mill Creek again. It was a beautiful scenic anchorage and the next day we made it to Deltaville.

We have several guide books and in one of them it says that the Fishing Bay Yacht Club, near Deltaville, had reciprocal privileges with other yacht clubs. I called them and lo and behold they said yes they would be glad to accept a Canadian Yacht Club Member.



The yacht club was on a beautiful piece of land stretching from Fishing Bay off the Chesapeake Bay to Jackson Creek. It was great to have hydro again, although we found that we had become quite used to watching our power consumption. Our wind generator and the two solar panels generate a lot of power when there is wind or sun. And that really varies from day to day.
Our boat was at the end of the dock. You can barely see our red dingy hanging off the stern.

We rode our bikes to a neat place called “Naughty Nells” that specialized in nautical items. We met Peter and Sue there as well as Ray and Irene who had gotten a ride to the store from their anchorage on Fishing Bay. The best part was the consignment and used items area. We spent a lot of time browsing and we all bought charts and this and that. Ray was particularly pleased with a spinnaker pole that he bought.

One of things that we have noticed about small towns in the States is that there are no post office boxes. Everyone goes to the local post office to mail letters. Towns often stretch for several miles along a highway or main road. For the past several stops, we were not near any post offices so we made a point of riding several miles to the Deltaville Post Office to mail Roman’s mother her birthday card.

One of the best parts of sailing are the wonderful people you meet along the way. Fishing Bay Yacht Club was a wonderful example; the manager, Dickson Cole, went out of his way to be helpful. He lent us his car for shopping and helped us with the computer and invited us to attend their Wednesday night potluck social where we were warmly welcomed. One of the tasty things we had was Grits. Roman usually does not like them but he loved these. You might want to try this recipe.

Cook I cup grits (cornmeal) in 4 cups water. When cooked, mix with one egg and one cup grated cheese (cheddar or whatever you want). Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until set. Delicious! We even got some to take back to the boat and enjoyed it the next day.

Although it was warm, it was very windy, and the forecast was for small craft warning on the Chesapeake Bay with wind gusts to 40 knots so we ended spending three days at the Yacht Club. I had time to play with the blog programme and learn several “how to” s and managed to post some blogs. That's why you now see our picture and the little picture of our boat on the side of the blog. Can you find me in the corner of the clubhouse typing away?

This is a picture of C-Drifters and Superior Grace at sunset in Fishing Bay from the yacht club.

One of the interesting things we found out is the county in which Deltaville sits taxes boats at hefty 3% of their value yearly. This is calculated as of January 1 so many boaters take their boats out of county and even out of state to avoid paying the tax. Many of the boats were already gone from the yacht club. Boats in that part of the Chesapeake Bay can be left in the water all year long. There might be frost but the creeks do not freeze over.


We left Deltaville passsing many shrimp boats very early in the morning as we wanted to make Norfolk that day. Our last trip on the Chesapeake was quite uneventful. We had a nice sail with both sails up and then only the jib all the way to Norfolk. Finally we were going to enter the Intercoastal Waterway!

Here is a typical shrimp boat.