DAY 5: TANGIER ISLAND TO KNAPPS NARROWS, MD

"Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves."

Queen Victoria

This leg of our journey is a long one with a distance of about 60 miles. It was a motoring day at an average of about 5kts. Not too bad, in fact relaxing with great weather all day. I am impressed with the little diesel that powers Liberty. It's only 15hp yet keeps pushing us along. On Rufus, my 30 foot Bristol, I have a 30hp gas motor which seems to take the same effort as this little diesel. Like I said, the weather is wonderful and it's easy to fall asleep to the rhythmic beat of the motor.

Knapps Narrows is located on Tilghman Island, MD. Not quite as isolated as Tangier Island, Tilghman Island is a place of waterman whose livelihood depends on  fishing and crabbing as it has for generations. I had read that entry from the west side of the island can be tricky at best. We decide to enter on the safer, more navigable East side. 

Soon after entering the island's channel we come upon a draw bridge. We contact the authorities that be and the bridge is lifted (though after an odd delay...What are you guys doing up there?). We are informed by one of the local watermen that a near by restaurant will allow overnight docking with the purchase of a meal....no problem!

Draw bridge at Knapps Narrows

We dine at the Bridge Restaurant (yes, it is next to the draw bridge) after tying up for the night. Very good food with a low key atmosphere. Crab boats come and go like the tide. This is a working town. For those of you that like history, here you go:

" The Tilghman family owned it for over a century, beginning with Matthew Tilghman in 1752, and they were the last family to own it. It has remained Tilghman's Island ever since. The island was occupied briefly by the British invasion fleet in

John relaxing

1814, primarily to acquire provisions of fruit and livestock. The present community was established in the 1840s when James Seth purchased the island from General Tilghman and began selling parcels to farmers and oystermen in the area. When oyster dredging began in the Chesapeake Bay, the watermen of Tilghman's Island were quick to join in. Boat-building and blacksmithing were important businesses, as well as fishing, oystering and farming. Selling oysters to Washington and Baltimore became much more profitable in the 1890s when steamboat service was established. Many seafood processing enterprises sprang up, as did a robust hospitality industry. Many families escaped Baltimore's summer heat by coming to one of the fine guest houses on Tilghman's Island; husbands came over on the weekends. Other watermen took out hunting and fishing parties, and their wives provided guests with friendly accommodations. The island became—and remains—a popular get-away for vacationers, drawn by superb fishing and the hospitality of island residents. Although the seafood industry is now much diminished and the shucking houses and processing plants replaced by up-scale housing, Tilghman's Island remains an interesting and enjoyable place to visit—out in the Bay at the end of a long peninsula."  Ok Ok,,,,enough history.

Tomorrow another long day to Town Point on the Bohemia River. This will be out last stop before entering the Delaware Canal and on to Cape May, NJ.