Thursday, September 27, 2012

Wye, oh Wye, St Michaels...

Monday:  09/17/2012 => Wye River
Lower Cheese!!!  The Wye River is a wide river with a bunch of tributaries across the main land of Baltimore and Annapolis.  We decided to anchor in a little bay, called Shaw just off this river, as further (south) into it is St. Michael's,  a well reputed town of cruiser’s and guides alike. We kept track of the weather (thank you Sprint and Poppa McF) very closely, as there was some severe weather headed our way…exspecially the area we are in/wanting to go to.  Accuweather predicted the storms (rain is just a part of life, however when cruising with a 45’ metal rod sticking up in the middle of a bay with nothing around, we get a little nervous about “storms”), we were a little apprehensive.  We rowed to a little shore right after we anchored and let salty run as much as possible:  aka she went crazy puppy time and ran from one end of the beach (only about 100 feet) to the other without provocation. 
 
09/17-18 => St Michael's, MD
St Michael's is a little town, just up the Wye River;  we had heard from numerous sources that this was a DEF place to stop while going south.  Mike originally looked up the marina’s/dockage there, and only found 3.00 a ft/night…which was extremely unacceptable to me…We paid that in CT and Block Island, southern states should be a different economy altogether!  So, once again I am awesome, and found the “mom and pop” marina just inside town, right across for its famous restaurant and museum!!! (yes, I am awesome) for only 1.00 a ft/night!  We knew there was a possibility of having to wait our storms for 2 days, so the cheaper the better..and this marina I found had an Acme at the end of its road, right in the center of “town”…again, tooting my own horn I am an awesome first mate!  (jk)  I would love to say the storms never reached us, as in previous blogs, but alas, that is not so; we docked in rain, took salty for a walk in rain, and went to sleep assuming we would be here for the next day…which we were.  We woke up to some more awesome reports of high seas, horrendous storms, and massive rain…and called it a day.
(if at any point this whole blog deal sounds a little tooo…”fun and chipper” its cause I write them on Word about 2-3 days post them happening, so can take a look back, and see what really ….wasnt that bad…if that makes sense!  But as I am far from rational in most “moments” I will gladly insert when I go slightly “insane” and all is not happy aboard “You and I”)
As we were stuck in port (the Marina was actually kind of nice, without all the thrills), we made a day of it, and tried to explore St Michael's as best as we could!  We went to the Crab Claw (recommended by many) for lunch-  salty was allowed to join on their pier dock dinning as well!  Mike tried their Clam Chowder and Soft Crab Sammie..which looked really good! We explored the little town (really not impressed at ALL,just a small main street, with makes Woodbridge Main Street, NJ look like a shopping tourist Mecca) and I went into the Acme to pick up essentials:  wheat bread, skim milk, eggs, (normally a protein like steak, chicken, etc…but their prices were SUPER high).  We settled on the boat around 2000, expecting some crazy rain and storms.
Well, we didn’t get the expected storms (once again, could see the lighting going nuts just NE of us) but did get some crazy W winds!! (FYI wind is measured in the direction its ORIGINATING FROM..so a West wind means its blowing towards the EAST)  Around 2100, I heard the rain come to a stop and decided to take Salt for her walk…as I walked to the end of the dock towards land, I noticed the whole end of the dock, as well as the land was dark…like water dark…Salty and I sloshed through slowly and sure enough, the wind had blown enough, combined with the amounts of rain, and a high tide to raise the water level about 4+ feet above highest tide!  Salty and I were sloshing through water that reached my mid calf…and if it wasn’t for the crushed clam shell parking lot of the marina, I don’t think I would have tried to even walk through, otherwise it was very hard to tell where the docks ended.  About 2200, the owner’s wife came out onto the docks with galoshes, a rain coat and as she said “her husband’s boxers” to check on the 3 boats she has as transients for the night…making sure we were okay, and that we shouldn’t rise higher than what was already…they have rarely seen thing minus major Tropical Storms/Hurricanes! 

09/19/2012=>   Wye River, further East of Shaw Bay
We attempted to leave St Michael’s early, however the Bay was pretty rough, so we decided to head back up into the Wye River and find anchorage for the day.  We ended up a little further east than we were 2 days ago at Shaw bay, but were able to row to an actual shore.  The tide was out, so much of the mud was exposed and the water only about 1’-0 for some span.  Salty had a blast running around, and we made a nice little afternoon of just being outside and exploring this random little spot.  We had another boat anchor a little off our port side, which was nice to have some company at night!  The sunset here was beautiful! We could see the moon just starting to shine as the last rays of sun were dying down!  Overall, this was a quiet, relaxing stop;  much better than our previous stay in Shaw Bay.
 
 
 

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