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| Historical Marker |
Our visit to Tangier while not a full week deserves its own
post. Captain John Smith stopped here
during his 1608 exploration of the Chesapeake and about 80 years later John
Crockett settled the island. The Crockett name still exists on the island along
with only 53 other surnames, which occur among the approximately 700+
residents. Five seniors graduated from
the only school on the island in a graduation celebration while we were there
(the two girls are going to college while the three boys are taking up their
father’s trade – fishing or crabbing more specifically).
When entering the channel, that currently divides the one by
three mile island, you will see small white crab shanties where crabs are
managed until they molt becoming “soft shelled crabs” at which time they are
packaged and taken to the “main land” for distribution far and wide.
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| Crab shanties under a stormy sky |
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| Sandy learning more about soft-shell crabs |
The island boasts several gift shops, a few restaurants
(Lorraine’s and Matilda Crockett’s Chesapeake House), a couple ice cream
parlors and the charm only a community sheltered from much of the “outside”
world could offer. The Tangier History
Museum offers a glimpse into the early days of the island, resident culture and
a waterman’s way of life. We walked the
streets and dodged golf carts and motor scooters (the preferred mode of
transportation for locals) while enjoying the sights food and endless
discussions from Tangiermen who still speak in a form of language thought to be
directly associated to the original Elizabethan settlers.
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| Sandy's gift shop |
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| quaint narrow streets and golf carts ready for an Island tour |
While we intended only a single overnight, sufficient to
take in most of what Tangier has to offer, once again Mother Nature had a
different idea. We stayed two additional
days to wait out one of the most severe thunderstorms and the unsettled Bay
that followed we had ever seen. In fact,
a sailboat docked next to us clocked winds in excess of 50 mph at the height of
the storm. Mr. Parks, owner of the
marina and long-time crabber told us later that one of his friends clocked a
gust nearly 70mph.
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| Mother Nature about to unleash her wrath |
Needless to say, as
the stormed howled, we slept uncomfortably, surging into the dock and awaking a
couple times through the night to snug lines and reposition fenders. Fortunately, we were able to chock the
experience up to a lesson of watching the weather without damage to the boat or
injury to either of us.
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| watching the storm roll over our neighbor sailboat |
After a pleasant three-day visit we were on our way to
Solomon’s Island for a reunion with Marsha and Allen.
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| Sandy and Mr. Milton Parks (82 yrs young with 60 years as a crabber and owner of the Parks Marina) |
Loved getting caught up on your cruising adventures. Sorry to hear about your time on the hard with repairs. But! Always remember that cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places. Hope you are back in the water and living the dream...Alyse & Chris Caldwell
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