Great Loop & Cruising Adventure Blog

Leaving Jackson Creek fairly early this morning to head through Norfolk and then just a little south of that to Great Bridge where there is a free dock we hoped to tie up to tonight. It was a beautiful sunny day as we passed all the majestic battleships, cargo ships, barges and Coast Guard Patrol Boats.

I never knew that they had PINK bottom paint, did you?

Our trip south starts from the Chesapeake Bay with the first stop being an anchorage near Deltaville. We heard from our friend Wade that he and his friend John were heading north, up the Chesapeake, on his boat Miss Happ, we arranged to meet at an anchorage in Jackson Creek for the night.

We got up the creek first and Wade arrived about an hour and a half later. Jim went over to hang out with the guys while I took a quick shower and enjoyed some alone time.

We didn’t have much time to enjoy Oxford, but this time of year there is not much open anyways, the restaurants were closed, but we did find the small bookstore and grocery store open. We anchored in the harbor and dinghied to the town dock to tie up, then we had a walk around town as we felt the first effects of a warm fall day as it descended on this tranquil little town.

Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Until the American Revolution, Oxford enjoyed prominence as an international shipping center surrounded by wealthy tobacco plantations. Oxford today, as it was back in the late 1800s, is a waterman’s town, but is enjoying a new resurgence based on tourism and leisure activities.

Ever since the boat show it has cooled off here considerably. We have once again donned long pants, gloves and windbreakers but today was sunny and as the streets of Oxford show everyone’s thoughts here have turned to the golden colors of fall.

Lisa sold books on Kismet while Bill, Rick and Jim sold the many benefits of becoming an owner of a Fathom Yacht. I (Lisa) enjoyed being one of the “guys” for four days, we met lots of interesting folks  and had lots of fun on our off time. Even though the weather was gloomy, three days of cold and non-stop rain, the turnout was incredible.

 HarborView’s excellent sales team. (Above: Jim, Rick & Bill)

We left on Sunday to head north to Oxford, Rockhall and Annapolis for the Boat Show. After the show we will start to head south towards Florida meeting up with our friends Louis and Diane, in North Carolina, to head towards the St. Johns River where we will spend a month exploring this highly rated Florida treasure.

This was our favorite lawn art (above: left) during our daily walks around Solomons.

Trawlers, trawlers, trawlers. That’s all you could see at the Trawler Fest in Solomons last week. Our friend and cohort Rick Garton (above), Lisa and I took the Pilothouse Fathom (that’s for sale) and our flybridge Fathom (that’s not for sale) just up the creek to Calvert’s Marina for the big event. Rick and I showed off the pilothouse Fathom while Lisa sold our book When The Water Calls…We Follow from the cockpit of our boat. The show was a success in that we had three great weather days, lots of trawlers on display and the interest in boat buying has started to improve, much like the economy and stock market.

Our friends Wade and Susie from New Bern came for the show and ended up making a deal on a Marine Trader, we took a deposit on an almost new Fathom and Lisa sold some books… so it was a great three days. If you like trawlers this is the place to see them, all in one place. We  took several tours ourselves on the new 49 American Tug, 65 Queenship, 68 Nordhvn, 42 Kadey Krogan, 45 Cherubini and more.

The first night’s festivities included picking a table where these three men were seated and then the fun began. We enjoyed meeting (left to right: Ed, Tweezer and Paul. Jim is next to Rick (right), trying to get some point across.

 We had fun meeting people as they stopped by the boat including Gordon (BoatUS) and his partner Susan.

The 8th annual Solomons Watermen Festival is a great taste of the local culture and one we’re glad we were able to attend. Scott, Angie, Lisa and I went by dinghy to the county docks where the competition was being held, so we could witness the standing room only Watermen Docking Competition.

Here’s how it works… one at a time a watermen boat backs into a slip to wait for the signal to start. After the signal the waterman’s goal is to power his boat as fast as he can out of the start slip, slam it into reverse and back into another slip, stop and (one person doing all this) throw four looped lines onto four pilings, all the while sending cascading waves around the harbor and up onto shore. It’s the equivalent of a rodeo’s lassoing of a horse. Nineteen boats broken down into four categories so everyone seemed to win something. An astounding new festival record was accomplished in just nineteen seconds… fun entertainment to provide our guests on their first day in the Solomons.