Time: 21:30 local
Lat: 38º 7.4’N
Log: 76º 24.1 W
St. Inigoes, Maryland
Another day, another beautiful anchorage. Just up the Potomac River from where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, we are in a tiny tributary called Smith Creek. Bald eagle nests, wooded shorelines, protected and secure, it is another delightful place. It is hard to believe that we are just few dozen miles from Washington, D.C.
One of the great things about traveling here by boat is that it is a very, very “boat oriented” place. In the tiny town of Reedville where we were yesterday, there are at least three restaurants that have their own docks you can pull up to. I think that about equals the total number of places like that in all of San Francisco Bay. This is repeated in every town on the water here. Eating lunch at one of them we discovered that when the Cruising Guide Book describes an eatery as one that “should not be missed,” he might not be be referring to the quality of the food…
The Crazy Crab, one of three water front restaurants in Reedville, VA with dockside access for dinning.
Speaking of food… while exploring in the dinghy we came across this delightful family scene of mom sharing a lunch with her offspring. Black vultures, and a long dead fish…
Finally, here is a contrast between two businesses that couldn’t be more different in scale, even though they sell the basically same product.
First, is Omega Protein, Inc. This is the reason that Reedville lands more pounds of fish that any other port on the east coast. Over a dozen ocean going boats over 150 feet long harvest menhaden by the hundreds of TONS.
Omega Protein, fishing fleet and processing plant.
On the other end, is this local business who’s name I don’t know. Local watermen would pull up in their 20 foot skiffs loaded literally knee deep with menhaden caught in the bay. A vacuum system sucks the fish into the plant, where they are boxed, and frozen as bait for the local crab fleet.
Sucking up the day’s catch. In the door on the right you can see the fish landing in the boxes headed for the freezer.
fetchinketch 