We both love small towns…so calling it Deltaville RFD (read Mayberry) is an enormous compliment. The sincerity and charm of small-town folks is hard to beat. Deltaville supposedly has a stoplight now but we‘ve not seen it, no tourist (terrorist) newspaper advertisement boxes lining the streets, and everywhere is a back road. Wonderful!
The anchorage in Fishing Bay is enormous and deep at 17-20’. Lots of room for privacy and well protected. Much better than Sarah Creek in Yorktown. It was a skinny trip up the northeast branch…but leaving, that is another story that involves the anchor chain in a knot and running aground (which was nice because we knew we were not moving so we could work together to undo the knot…bittersweet serendipity) Needless to say the deep water route into Fishing Bay was a welcome bit.
Out trip here was very nice. It was sweltering hot on land but underway it was nice and cool not to mention quite foggy and hazy. We had a nice breeze from the beam and got up the jib, staysail, and mainsail. We had forgotten to hook up the halyard to the mizzen and it was supporting our sun shade…we’ve got it at the ready for tomorrow’s trip, thought.
But back to Deltaville. We took a walkabout one morning before the rain and wound our way through country roads lined with wheat fields, a friendly puppy dog that followed us for too long a distance despite our numerous attempts to shoo it away and explain why it needed to go back home. It just looked at us in the sad puppy sort of way that says “Why won’t you love me?” That’s why I like the indifference of cats…but that’s beside the point.
We found a neat place called “The Sweet Shoppe” and bought a loaf of sourdough bread that kept us snacking on high carb baked dough half the afternoon…we stood and talked to the proprietors for a few minutes when one offered us a ride back to the waterfront. What a pleasure.
CoCoMos Restaurant came very highly recommended so we decided to splurge and take an evening meal in town. We called to see if they were walk-able, explained where we were anchored, and they said “Call us when you’re on land and we’ll send a car ‘round for you.” Again, wow. Heather had the largest crab cakes we’ve ever seen, 2, each like half pound hamburgers and NO filler. Even lump crabmeat on top for garnish. The fried flounder was simply amazing too. They gave us a ride home.
A word on penance... Brian has always eaten and loved seafood. Almost immediately after moving onboard Holding Pattern, I (he) discovered an allergy to shellfish. It kills me at watch Heather eat all the things I can't. In order to justify it, I just count it as penance. Everything good comes at a price...and that is the price I pay to live a dream. Okay, then...
We were in the mood to get a few groceries as we had eaten like a crew of 5 lately. We called Deltaville Market and asked the quintessential question, “Where are you? How far are you from where we are?” The manager, Linda, responded with “When do you want to be picked up?” WOW! SO we walked through West Marine (next door) and looked at everything we don’t need and can’t afford, bypassed the Dollar Store (next door, too), and then went to market. They had a nice selection of fruits and veggies and we splurged and got some bagels and cream cheese (which we rarely buy in the summer months because the trek back to HP in hot weather tends to have a negative effect on most things dairy.)
We’ve got the mainsail cover off, staysail attached, mizzen ready to go…tomorrow we’re off to an overnight stop at Sandy Point in the Great Wicomoco River and then on to Solomons, MD.
Ever book and every person disagrees on where to anchor in Solomons so we’ll drop the hook where there are the least crowd.
Last, we’re trying to decide where to go for the 4th of July. Last year we greatly enjoyed celebration in St. Mary’s, GA. This year we’d like to find another small town to revel in the joy if Independence. If you know of anyplace good and accessible in the Chesapeake from northern VA to mid-MD please let us know.
