We still have a couple weeks before we are due in Annapolis, so we are taking advantage of some delightfully cool and comfortable weather to explore the Chesapeake Bay some more on a cruiser’s schedule. Which means, whenever, wherever. Since leaving Urbanna we made a quick, unplanned, stop in Henrys Creek to run and hide from an approaching line of thunderstorms. Nothing to see here 🙂

From Henrys Creek we moved to a very isolated, out of the way, spot called St Marys City. Today, there is nothing at all there except St Marys College, a very small (1600 student) liberal arts school, and a museum complex. The stop was recommended to us, and it was fun and relaxing (Thanks Jeff!)

How small is it? There is not a single place in town you can buy food–except the college dining room which “welcomes visitors.”

That’s now. Back in the day (we are talking the early 1634’s) it was actually the first settlement by the British in Maryland, and was the capital of the colony until the political capital was moved to present day Annapolis in the 1690s. It was never a particularly large settlement, the estimates I saw had a population of about 200 at its peak.

The museum was closed when we were there, although the replica of the original statehouse was open to walk through. Unfortunately, there is very little descriptive material on the layout of the original town, so the buildings currently extant are a “best guess” as to what would have been there.

I am sure there were any number of interesting people who lived here. Certainly anyone with the ambition to sail from the (relative) comfort of England would be an interesting person. Certainly one of the most unusual people in St Marys City in the 1600s was Margaret Brent, a single woman, landowner, lawyer, business woman, and one of the most influential people in the young colony at a time when most women rarely left the home.

The Dove is a replica of the original vessel that the colonists brought with them from England. Only 57 feet on deck, she was used trading both locally and with England. The economy was driven by the trade in tobacco.

From the quiet of St Marys City, we have moved to the much busier port of Solomons, a major yachting center in the central Chesapeake. We had planned to be on the move, but we are planning to stay here for another day or two to catch a local festival. More on that soon!