Coinjock

Tangier Island Docks

We haven't had wifi since we got to Tangier Island.  No cell service either.  That's just the kind of place it is.  Tangier sits on the eastern side of the Chesapeake, an island unlike any other.  There is only one marina where transients can dock for the night and it is run by Milton Parks, an 82 year old retired crabber, the last of his generation on the eastern shore.  Milton could fill a whole book with his stories!  All the other docks that line the channel through the island are occupied by work boats and their accompanying sheds that we assumed held all manner of parts and/or equipment required by the watermen.  Town is a short walk from the docks and consists of a few restaurants, a health center, a school, a post office, and houses that date back to the time of early settlement.

The residents (about 500) ride around in golf carts and scooters or bicycles.  Some have cars that they leave in the mainland town of Crisfield.  We tried to hitch a ride with the mail boat to Crisfield but they couldn't find room for us.  Didn't really have time to sail there since we had to get back to the other side of the Bay to get our friends back to their car on Saturday.  We thought a "ferry" ride might be fun but it just didn't work out.

The garbage bins on Tangier are quite nice

After two days on Tangier Island we were ready to move on. There were two options as to where to go since we had two cars waiting for us in separate places. Our car was in Irvington and the Groening's was in Kinsale, an hour's drive away from ours. So either place would work.

Urbanna waterfront

Since we had a north-ish wind we decided on Irvington, the more southerly port. We had a wonderful sail across the Bay in 15-20k winds, no assist from the engines, and an incredibly beautiful day.  We made a last minute decision to pull into Urbanna for the night since it was a more interesting town and just across the river from where our car was parked in Irvington. There we spent a pleasant evening with a cool breeze keeping the bugs away and making for a very comfortable sleep.

In the morning we hauled in the anchor chain and were surprised to have some difficulty dislodging the anchor from the bottom, usually not a problem for us. We finally managed to get the anchor up to the surface of the water and found it attached to a very odd assortment of “something.” It took three of us to deal with what turned out to be a medusa-like tangle of old rope and rubber tubing, all entwined with a small anchor and line. We wound up cutting the line attached to the anchor so we could untangle it from our anchor and haul the whole thing up onto our bow. It was a muddy, smelly mess. Apparently a smaller boat had tangled their anchor up in this rubber stuff and been unable to haul it up, ultimately cutting loose their anchor to free themselves. It's anyone's guess as to where the rubber originated. We then pulled over to the town dock to pump out the heads and get rid of this detritus. It took what seemed like gallons of water to clean up ourselves and the trampoline of our boat, which required some additional scrubbing to eliminate the grime left behind. Unfortunately, we were too overwhelmed to take a picture. It would have been a good one.

Tom with one of the dogs at Dog and Oyster that keep
 other critters (like deer) from eating the vines

So off to Irvington we went to off load our guests' things into our car and head off to the Dog and Oyster for some wine tasting (it was Sunday after all and we just could not pass that up). After that we had lunch and drove them to their car and headed back to our boat for a calm night at anchor.

Grapes almost ready for harvest

Sunset in Carter Creek, Irvington, VA

Tom had tried to line up crew for another week or two of sailing (Pat had to be home by August 30) but could not work out the details, so after some debate we decided to take the boat home ourselves and come back for our car after getting Kentris to Jordan Creek. A bit inconvenient but better than having Tom left to single hand the boat later. So we are making our way down the ICW, heading home. We are docked for the night at Coinjock about 80 miles from Jordan Creek.