SORRY for no 'blog' updates for the past few days. We took a little break from our cruising schedule to spend time in St. Michaels, MD on the Miles River with our friends, John and Carol Nyland. John and I were roommates at MSU and go back to high school days. I was the best man in their wedding over 30 years ago.
We had been hoping to anchor in front of their home but had trouble locating it from the water. As we travelled back and forth along the shore with the binoculars trying to find them, John came running down the dock waving an MSU flag. A true Spartan......Soon John and Carol were in their small Whaler heading out to greet us. With more wind predicted than we liked, we headed for the harbor in St. Michaels to anchor for our stay.
We dropped the hook off of the Chesapeake Maritime Museum. This is one of many buildings on the site. It backdrops the beautiful Matthews cruiser whichc has been restored by the museum. We toured the museum and were impressed by the projects to restore old boats and to keep the heritage to the Bay alive.
When Monarch comes to town, they throw a parade. In this case it was a Presidential motorcade, as President Bush helicoptered in to announce legislation to help protect the Chesapeake Bay, and more importantly, to have lunch at VP Cheney's cottage here. We were all set to have a ringside seat to the happenings but it was not to be. When we got up in the morning, the boat had swung and was partially in the channel - so we lifted the anchor and moved about 25 feet forward so as to avoid a possible ticket and unsafe situation. We no sooner had the anchor down and the Coast Guard was there to tell us we had to move as we were violating the 500 yard security zone (we were probably less than 100 yards away). It appears that if we had not lifted the anchor we would not have had to move, as we were moored before the security zone was established. But then we probably couldn't have come and gone from the boat as we planned. So, we moved in front of John's house and anchored for the day. When the security zone was lifted later that afternoon we came back and anchored in our old spot.
This resort was off our stern and for those officianados of fine films, you will recognize it as the location that The Wedding Crashers was filmed.
John and Carol were gracious hosts. Not only did they taxi us all over the countryside getting marine supplies, groceries, going to the post office, fine dining at local establishments, etc - they also took us around the area to see the sites. Here John, Carol and Marty are on the ferry between Oxford and Bellevue. This area is resplendant with many beautifully restored historic homes.
We so appreciated seeing John and Carol, and look forward to stops here in future years.
No comments:
Post a Comment