Wednesday, October 16th

We woke up this morning in St Michaels, MD to a cloudy, 61 degree morning with little to no wind.  Our first project for the day was for me to haul Chuck up to the top of our  60’ mast.  He had to check the bulb on our anchor light which quit working last night.  While he gathered his climbing harness, bulbs, and other needed equipment, I took off the canvas connector between our dodger and bimini to make it easier for us to communicate.   If it weren’t for our electric winch, it would be impossible for me to crank Chuck up the mast by hand!  He was 60’ up for quite a long time.  Of course, nothing ever is easy when it comes to working on our boat…..and to make a long story short….it turned out that we had the correct festoon replacement bulb but Chuck broke the light.  Oh no! What do we do now since the anchor light needs to be on all night while on the hook!!

Walking around town.

A West Marine store is in Easton, MD which is a neighboring town to St. Michaels. So plan A was to walk to Easton until we found out it was 12 miles away and this town has no busses or taxis!  How can this be?   So we thought that maybe if the store had the part, they would deliver it…..right!!  Chuck called and West Marine lived up to their reputation…..no anchor lights.  Now we’re on to plan B….call the catalog and have the part shipped over-night to General Delivery in Solomon Islands, which will be our next stop.  What a brilliant plan!  However, the West Marine salesman informed me that he could only over-night  parts to a  “physical address”.  I didn’t question why but had him send it to the West Marine in the Solomons.  We could have just waited and purchased the light at the store but we were afraid if they didn’t have it in stock, we would have to stay in port until it was delivered!

After our boat parts were all taken care of, we wanted to go to the Maritime Museum.  Happy Hours II is anchored just off of this 18 acres of  “waterman” history.  We spent at least 4 hours walking around the grounds, inside buildings, and into the Hooper Strait Lighthouse.  Many of the 71 lighthouses on the bay were attached to the bed of the bay by large screws so therefore they are known as “screw pile” lighthouses.

Working boatyard shed

Inside the boatyard shed

Potomac Dory

Tools on display

Info on Potomac Dory

Inside the Potomac Dory

 

Another work shed

Mast for the Skipjack they
are restoring



Info on skipjack Rosie Parks

Skipjack Rosie Parks



She's being restored!



Launch track

Mast for a skipjack





                            



Hooper Strait Light looking at the Miles River

Info

Screw

 

Kitchen in Lighthouse

Sitting room in Lighthouse





Winding stairs

Fresnel Lense

 

Edna Lockwood

 

 

Thor a tugboat

A Matthews boat
made in Port Clinton OH!

Log Sailing Canoes
stilled raced on the Chesapeake



By the time we returned to our boat, we were both a bit tired from walking and climbing. However, we weren’t too tired when invited to dinghy over for boat drinks on Bob and Cheryl’s 42’ Valiant,  “sv New Passage” from San Fransico.  Kim and Kevin from their 40’Valiant, sv Loon, were also invited.  We had a nice evening sharing our sailing adventures.