May 14

We left shortly after 8 and headed back up towards Annapolis, we took the Solomons Island Road for  the trip, so as to see some different country from yesterday.  The sky was blue, with hardly a cloud in the sky.    We reached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge around 9:30 and paid the toll to use it.

The Baybridge is a 4.3 mile span that connects the eastern and western shore.  It was originally opened in 1952, and a second span was added in 1973.

There were a number of boats out on the bay.

On the  eastern shore we went through Kent Island continue to the town of Easton and then turned  west  and went another 9 miles to St. Michaels.  We arrived at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum at 1030.  http://cbmm.org

Our first stop was the boat building yard, where a group of staff along with volunteers are building a  hooper island draketale, similar to this Martha boat, making one piece at a time.

They started the boat in January and hope to have it completed by early August.  Another exciting project at the museum is the restoration of the  Edna E. Lockwood which is an example of a Chesapeake Bay nine-log bugeye, which was used for oyster harvesting.

This will be a 3 year project and the logs which will form the base came from North Carolina and are currently soaking in the bay.

The Edna Lockwood was built in 1889, and the proof is the silver coin attached to her mast- we were told that this is a practice of shipwrights  to date the boats.   Once the restoration in complete in 2018, a silver dollar will also be added to the mast.

Other areas at the museum included the hooper strait lighthouse, which was somewhat of a similar design to the lighthouse I had toured in Edenton NC. But at this museum I was able to wander through the entire lighthouse.  Here’s the actual light in the tower

 

There were also a number of other types of boats, which were designed for a specific purpose or type of fishing.—here’s some information on them.

there were also primitive boats made from a single tree.

There was also  a replica of a  crab picking plant, and a display of all the different Oyster  and crab cans.  

 

I also finally saw a live Blue Crab.

On the way home we passed both a wheat and canola field, already in bloom.

We also stopped at an Outlet mall.  Before we reached the Bay bridge- they skies opened and we had our daily shower.

It was a very informative day, back at the boat there were some ominous clouds, and the winds picked up throughout the evening.

May 15

Sunday was a  quiet day, we drove to Prince Frederick to shop on the way home we found this street.

which reminded me we also bought the McKendry  history  in an Irish store in Annapolis.

When we got back we  watched an Osprey catch a fish and eat it outside of our boat on the shore.

The plan is to leave sometime in the morning and continue our trek northward.