We were only going about thirteen miles, so we weren’t in a hurry to leave in the morning, besides I still had to pay for our slip. I walked Frank and looked around for Mr. Parks. I didn’t see him, so we hung out for a while. I kept looking for him and eventually saw him looking out the door of his house which was right behind the marina. I walked a little closer and gave him a wave. He waved back and I made my way over. He had disappeared from sight for a moment, so I figured he was getting dressed. I was wrong. He opened the door and had no pants on! He was in the doorway and I was a few steps down, but I never lost eye contact. The bill was $35, but we didn’t have exact change, so I handed him two twenties and tried to make a quick exit. He chatted with me a bit, keeping me in the awkward situation, but I was eventually able to get back to the boat. I told Lauren what happened and we had a laugh. Mr. Parks is an amazing and wonderful man who made the visit to Tangier Island one we will never forget!
We shoved off about 8:45am and made it to Crisfield in little over two hours our destination was an anchorage we saw on the charts, in a protected cove in the middle of town. As we got close we followed the channel in to Somers Cove. There are several marinas in there, as well as a Coast Guard station. We dropped anchor and were the only boat on the side closest to the Coast Guard. There was a boat ramp nearby so we could have shore access too, so that was good for Frank. I put out plenty of scope and we hung out for a while making sure the anchor had set and we were secure. I took Frank for a walk and explored the area a bit before returning. Once back at the boat, Lauren and I loaded up the bikes to take to shore. We went to one of the marinas and filled up the dinghy with gas, then used their dinghy dock. I checked in at the office and they told me it was ‘no charge’ since we were only going to use ot for the afternoon and they technically weren’t fully opened yet from the corona virus shutdown. Sweet! Off we went to explore the town!
Our first stop was the pier which wasn’t far away. We checked that out then went and got some lunch at Captains Carryout. We had some great crab bisque and a seafood sandwich which we shared. We really wanted some Smith Island cake, which is Maryland’s State Dessert. There is a bakery, called Smith Island Bakery: “Smith Island Baking Co. specializes in Authentic Smith Island Cakes, Maryland’s State Dessert” located in Crisfield. We looked it up and rode the bikes there, only to find out it was closed. This was a bummer. As we tried calling the number on the door to see if there was anywhere we could get some of this cake , I looked down and noticed something on my leg. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a tick that had buried in. Wtf! I was trying to talk on the phone and show Lauren what I just found! After hanging up I decided I needed to remove this ASAP. I lit a cigarette and did exactly what I probably shouldn’t have done- I burned it (and my leg) until it backed out so I could pull it off. I was kind of freaked out, but figured since it was out, I should just carry on. So, no cake for us. Crisfield is also referred to as “The Crab Capital of the World.”, so we thought maybe we could find some crab to take back to the boat. All the fish shops were closed. No cake, no crab- other than our lunch. We stopped and got beer though! At least we weren’t going back empty handed. We made it back to the boat and saw we now had a neighbor in a small boat anchored near us. We had dinner and hung out, only going back to retrieve the bikes as we were planning on departing tomorrow. Frank was walked again and I chatted with our neighbor. They were from Maryland and were out for an overnight excursion and this is one of their favorite places.
Lauren and looked at the charts and weather, and decided tomorrow would be a good travel day to go to an anchorage in St. Mary’s River, which is just up the Potomac River…
