Day 330, Sunday May 18th

Day 330, Sunday May 18^th

We head out of Fisher’s Bay very early to get a jump on the days movement.  Turns out it was a dumb move as the winds were building and scheduled to stay strong in the wrong direction until about noon.  It was blowing over 12 knots right on the nose.  By noon we had already been underway for 6 hours and were exhausted from being bashed about.  We could not even make very good headway into the wind and waves under motor, so reefed our main and our headsail and tacked way out into the bay to keep our speed up.   We had planned on making it to Solomon Island but decide we have to look for alternatives.  We decide to head in to Reedville although it means we only made about 20 miles on our journey to Annapolis.  It is an easy anchorage to access, and by 1:00 we have anchored just down the creek from another Caliber 40.  We have lunch and launched the dinghy so we can enjoy wandering around a new town.

View of fishing ships as we come into port

On the way to shore we stop and chat to a fellow couple in their dinghy who own the other Caliber 40.  They invite us to drop in later so we agree we will visit after our tour of the town.

Julie in front of a bank that has closed down 

Our town tour takes us to the museum which at first we struggle to access as the doors do not open so we peruse the grounds which have many boat displays and talk about the fishing and oyster industries.  We try the doors again, (all of them), and with no luck even though the big “open flag” is flying we head off to walk up the street and take some pictures and making up stories of where the museum employee has gone and what they are up to that caused them to leave the museum locked when it was clearly advertised as open.

The walk is quite nice with a number of older homes to look at boarded by beautiful hard wood and pine trees.  We also spot a bluebird which we photograph so we can confirm it species.  We turned around from our walk and as we were passing the museum we see a car there so decide to head in and try again.  The car belonged to the curator and he assured us the museum was open and sure enough, he could work the door.  We were greeted by the 2 employees who had not heard us trying to get in earlier.  We paid our entry fee and then enjoyed an hour being toured around by Linda, through the historical home.  Linda was also a sailor who had undertaken adventures offshore.  We also got to see a video and the many models, and displays of the museum.  It really was an excellent museum.  The village of Reedville’s economic boom of fishing Menhaven, continues today and we watched a 12 minute promo video of the industry which was quite ensightful. 

Julie with Linda from the museum

We really have enjoyed many of the small towns, and the many welcoming people.  We have found the Americans to be super friendly and helpful to us travellers. 

Gable inn, impressive

After the museum we head to the dinghy dock restaurant for a beer to say thanks for letting us tie up to their facilities.  Next stop is our boat to grab an appetizer and a drink to take with us over to “Aurora”, the Caliber 40 in the bay owned by Lidia and Bob.  We have a lovely visit and tour of their boat.  They even invite us for dinner which we oblige.  Lidia and Bob are from an area just south of Reedville close to Deltaville.  Again they show fabulous hospitality inviting us to join them for dinner aboard Aurora.  We did have an interesting conversation though about gun laws.  Julie started that conversation and given it is a controversial subject we had an interesting conversation.  Lidia was also able to provide a different perspective having been raised in Poland during the communist regime and was involved in the solidarity movement and escaped as a refugee to the United States.  It reminds us of how our perspective is developed from our environment and it takes listening to other situations to sit back and try to understand differing attitudes and opinions.  Needless to say both Lidia and Bob very much supported the second amendment of the constitution, about the rights to bear arms (or is it “the right to arm bears?”, Bob was not to exciting by this comment) based on the ability to defend yourself from Tierney.  Having always been raised in a peaceful democratic country we have never imagined needing guns to protect our rights from the government.  The USA on the other hand has lived through a war of independence from Britain, and a civil war.  Not to say we agree all their points, however their perspective shed that we have not previously thought about.

Jazzebelle at anchor

We get back to the boat well after boaters midnight, hoist the dinghy and jump into bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawsonr