Crustacean Travels

 Retracing our steps, we travel down the Tred Avon River to the Choptank River and out to the bay. We will travel mostly north up the bay to get to Annapolis.  Weather is quite favorable for the crossing and as it is Sunday there will be less shipping traffic.   As we reach the bay and head north we pass Tilghman Island which is also a fishing/crabbing area, but less developed than St Michael’s and Oxford.  We the passed the Sharp Island Lighthouse in the bay. This lighthouse was damaged in a severe ice storm in the 1979’s so it tilts about 20 degrees from center.  We learned that these mid channel lighthouses were built on screw piles that were actually screwed into the bay floor to anchor the lighthouse down.  Over the years ice storms have caused these mid channel Chesapeake lighthouses bases to shift and move.  One lighthouse shifted so much it actually toppled over.   We also passed the  Bloody Point and Thomas Point Lighthouses on ...

 Last night took drone shots of our anchorage on St Michael’s. Today we are going on a short run further up the Choptank River to the Tred Avon River and an  anchorage near Oxford,MD.   The creeks we traveled to return the Choptank River are filled with crabbing boats that either drag their baskets on the side of the boat or using small nets to dip into the water.  When the baskets fill, they are hauled up and picked through with the small crabs returned to the water. Oxford was established in 1683 as a port town that thrived through the Revolutionary War. Like St Michael’s, the town was built on shipbuilding, sail making, farming tobacco and vegetables, crabbing and oystering.  You can still watch the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry pick-up or discharge it’s passengers as it has for over 300 years. Oxford’s famous resident, Robert Morris built a house here in 1710, which has been incorporated into the Robert Morris Inn.  His son Robert Morris Jr was considered one t...