We finally awoke and we’re happy to announce that the boat is in the same location as it was when we finally got to sleep the second time. The boat was a mess. Ropes, mud and stuff scattered around. We cleared out the mess to the point that we could get a pot of coffee going and start breakfast. The menu was bacon, eggs, blob strawberry muffins enhanced with fresh blueberries and apple juice.
After breakfast we began the task of cleaning up the boat and getting ready for the day. We planned to go to Rock Hall which is really only about a mile away from where we were anchored. Stuart Harsberger had mentioned that they have there a unique marine railway that some guy built to move boats around his boat yard and it sounded like something that I would be interested in. They also have a couple of museums that we may be able to take in.
Under way at about 9:00, we left our windy anchorage heading for the open water of the main bay. I assumed that with the wind blowing down our creek, we would encounter rough seas in the open bay. That was amazingly not the case. As we left the river, the wind was still following us but it was quite light and so I unfurled the jib and sailed Panache as a cat boat all the way to rock hall. By water the trip was maybe 2 miles.
Two Panaches side by side
Upon entering the breakwater in which the marina is located, I called the marina to request dockage. When doing so, you give them, on the initial call, your boat name and intentions. The guy at the marina paused for a moment and said, “Uh, aren’t you already moored at the end of A dock?” I said, “Uh, No. We were here a couple of weeks ago.” He then enquired as to the type of vessel we were and in informed him that we were a 26 foot sailboat and he came back with a dockage assignment of A-22. I thanked him and headed for our spot. As we approached and turned in, the boat at the end of the dock was a large 35 foot motor cruiser and we realized that her name, painted boldly on her stern was “Panache” and hence the confusion. As we passed the, we commented to the woman sitting of the aft deck that they had made a wise choice in name selection for their boat.
We tied up and had a good laugh with the dock manager when we discussed the coincidence of two boats with unique names sitting next to each other in their dock. Back at the boat, we took over some of the cups with the Panache name on them that we had picked up in Chestertown. We struck up a conversation and spent considerable time talking about all types of things boating.
From there, we walked to the Rock Hall Railway Marina which according to the dock master where we were staying, is the oldest business in the area. He mentioned that they are now in the 3rd generation of family that started the business. We entered the office/marine supply store and approached the owner who was a quiet soft spoken unassuming man of few words and told him that we had heard about unique set up and would like to see it. He said, “You can look around. It’s out back.” Basically, it was a systems of railways that lead from the water back into the middle of two rows of boat storage and repair buildings there were probably 12 or 14 or so individual buildings in two rows each with a set of rails coming out of them. Down the middle between the two rows of buildings was a single track that was perpendicular to the one that came out of the water. On that center track was a carriage that that rolled back in from the main track to all of the tracks coming out of the buildings. This thing was old, but according to the man in the office, it all still worked. The whole system was driven by electric motors. They would pull a boat out of the water on a cradle, roll it to the carriage on the middle track then that carriage would move the boat and its original carriage to a set of rails going into a building. When the tracks lined up, they would roll the boat into the building.
We walked to town and had lunch at the Java Rock Coffee Shop again. I had the roast beef Panini bread special sandwich and Janine had a ham and cheese Panini bread sandwich. They do some special things the make these sandwiches really good. From there we went to Durding’s Store. It is a restored soda fountain shop that has worked had to relive the era of the soda jerk. We both had a dip of butter pecan ice cream. They had a the two soda fountain spickets – one for water and one for carbonated water with which they still make ice cream sodas.
Next we traveled to the local grocery. We have finally run out of fresh meats so we decided to pick up enough for a couple more meals. The only meat that really appealed to me was in the form of precut paddies of Bob Evans Sausage. I have found two more packages of gravy mix so I thought I would treat my loving wife to two more days of Sausage Gravy and Biscuits.
The museums were closed – only open on weekends – so we went back to the boat, got on our swim suits and headed for their wonderful pool. We took along our books and spent the remainder of the afternoon reading, cooling down in the pool and having a shower!
We ran into the folks from the other Panache and asked if they would be interested in going out somewhere to dinner and they said that the Bay Wolf restaurant was coming to pick them up at 6:30 and they would enjoy our company. We agreed, put on our most unwrinkled duds and rode to the Bay Wolf for a wonderful meal. I had Crab Imperial with a twice baked potato and green beans and carrots. Janine had salmon with rice and the beans and carrots. The Imperial was truly outstanding. It is wonderful way to prepare crab.
Back at the boat, our new found friends, Bill and Sherry invited us to join them on their boat for some fresh strawberry shortcake. I must stop accepting invitations like this. Janine sees how other folks live on these big luxurious boats and I am not sure where that will lead. Their boat was truly nice. But I saw one real draw back. At his cruising speed, he burns 35 gallons of fuel per hour. He has two 100 gallon fuel tanks that he can burn out in about 5 hours. Fuel on the water is $4.00 plus per gallon so he can go through over $800.00 worth of fuel a day. YAH! We had a wonderful time talking about boating and telling tales. We said our farewells and headed back to our Panache and bed at about 9:30. It was a relaxing day.
Abnchorage at Leeds Creek - the best!
Sunset on Swan Creek before the anchor drag
Drawbridge at Kent Narrows
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