DAY 4: DELTAVILLE, VA TO TANGIER ISLAND

"On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day". – Rumi

Short stay and an early morning rise in Deltaville saw us in route to Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake. Tangier is a place I always wanted to go to, explore and talk to locals. The winds are good and we make sail almost the whole way allowing ourselves to motor in just before the entrance to a canal that bisects the island.

Tangier is an old place. It's has a rich history of prosperity and loss. Countless hurricanes have collided with this place. For almost 400 years waterman have fished the Bay from it's port. Founded in 1608, many of the original settler's descendants still live here. An older English dialect is still spoken here. This is a place of families. It's not uncommon to see a couple of family grave markers in the front yards of the homes along the Island's Main Street.

Main Street

The crabbing season is not as good as it has been in the past and many of the crabbing boats sit idle next to weather beaten shacks. Cats, cats cats call this island home, perhaps with  lineage dating to the 1600's when that first mouser crossed that gangplank.

This is a tourist spot where one sees named tagged school children dressed in matching school t-shirts bound off the daily ferry that also brings goods and needed supplies. There are few cars here. The streets are barely one lane wide and the need for a car is, well, not really needed. But there are golf carts, everywhere golf carts buzzing down the road, parked in golf cart size driveways and for sale in the used go cart lot.

Everyone is friendly. Always a wave or a hello. It is obvious I am not from this place but it doesn't seem to matter, I am asked how my day is....and they seem to mean it. I will be back, but tomorrow is a long day on the water  Knapps Narrows at Tilghman Island

Hey! Who let the cat on the boat!!