Cambridge

Friday July 13, 2012
38 34.326N
76 04.450W

We fiddled around this morning, not sure of our plans. Anchoring out is easy (so long as the works) and the anchorages are usually pretty. But it gets a bit "lonely" after a while and I think we pine for a bit of humanity. We have decided that our favorite anchorages are where we can launch the dinghy and visit a town. So late in the AM we decided to head for Cambridge, on the eastern peninsula. It was about 35 miles away and there was the possibility of a free bulkhead to tie to.

Free bulkhead, Cambridge

The trip was uneventful and we nosed into the inner harbor by about 3:30PM. To our delight the free bulkhead was open and there was a spot for us in the shade of a couple of trees. Docking our boat without any help from shore is a bit hard for us - we are a bit long in the tooth to put a 1" line in our teeth and leap to shore. But it was very calm and I was able to edge the boat in close and Deidre lassoed a cleat. It is a steel and concrete bulkhead, but it does not have any nasty bits sticking out, so with the help of a few fenders we were soon comfortable.

We tidied up (I cleaned a bit of stainless) and headed out for dinner and a walk. There is a waterfront restaurant 100 yards away, you can see it in the photo. (Most people want to sit outside and look at the water, these days Deidre and I head for the AC! After dinner we walked around town - its about 12,000 people and quite neat. We discovered that Saturday is the "Taste of Cambridge" - which in this part of the world really amounts to 101 ways to eat crab. They are expecting about 5,000 to pack down town, so we should get a long lasting dose of "human contact".


Saturday July 14, 2012


We had a late night last night. We found a local PBS TV station that aired "Morse", "Mid-Summer Murders" and "Prime Suspect" in a row - we were not in bed till well after midnight. I woke up to good news this morning - no so good for Deidre. Collingwood thrashed Geelong.

Crab something

Sometime about mid day we headed off looking for a supermarket. Nothing "down town". We had read about a bus, but everyone we asked - including some cops - had never heard of it. So we found a taxi company and bought a ride to the local Food Lion. All that worked fine and we were soon home with another week or so's grub.

The local city library was just a block away and they had great air conditioning! While we cooled off in the library we discovered they were having their annual sale. We bought 8 great books for $2.00.

Can you see Deidre?

Coincidentally, Saturday night was the annual Cambridge crab bake off, and it was all going to happen 2 blocks from Tide Hiker. So we dressed up in out best shorts and boat shes and fronted up. For $25 each we were allowed to taste the crabby wares of the10 local  restaurants. The falling rain did not dampen our enthusiasm as we like crab, and since we spend a large part of our day dodging crab floats, we felt we were entitled. We had cream of crab soup, Maryland crab soup (tomato based), crab dip, crab salad, crab cakes, crab spring rolls and crab ice cream. I felt a bit crabby in the morning.