Tilghman Island

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 51 - May 21, 2017

According to our Marine Weather app, the weather on the Chesapeake was finally going to be settled enough for us to head out, but it was only going to be calm in the morning and then there would be a Small Craft Advisory in the afternoon. So instead of going to Annapolis, we headed to Tilghman Island and the Tilghman-on-Chesapeake (TOC) Marina, which was only about 20 miles from Cambridge, and we are really glad we did, Tilghman Island is another wonderful place. Our friend Ray in the Pearson sailboat was already gone, having left at first light. We got away around 9:00 a.m. and arrived at Tilghman Island around noon, just in time for our margaritas and lunch of crab cocktail and deviled eggs!

Tilghman-on-Chesapeake causeway
and Yacht Club / Marina Office

Daydream at TOC Marina's wonderful
FLOATING DOCK!

Tilghman Island is literally the "end of the road" - Maryland Rt. 33 goes over a bridge onto Tilghman Island from St. Michaels about 15 miles away, and ends at the other end of Tilghman Island. The TOC marina is actually on a separate man-made island accessed by a causeway. The causeway used to be the location of a long pier with a freighter dock at the end. Then an oyster processing plant was built about halfway along the pier, and Avon Island arose from tons and tons of oyster shells discarded over the years! 

The TOC Marina has floating docks like we are used to back in Washington, where you side tie to cleats. Most Chesapeake marinas have fixed piers and pilings, which are virtually impossible to use with a small boat as low to the water as Daydream. Interestingly, many of the boats at TOC Marina had absolutely unnecessary lines looped around the pilings on the side away from the dock, since bow, stern and sping lines are all that is necessary to hold a boat in place on floating docks. I guess old habits die hard!

Tilghman Island Country Store - Grocery, Deli,
Liquor Store and Post Office!

After getting tied up to the dock, registering, and having our drink and lunch, we walked into Tilghman. Our goal was to see the Watermen's Museum, but the first thing we encountered was the Tilghman Island Country Store. This is a combination grocery store, deli, liquor store and post office, all rolled into one! After such a long walk (not really), we decided we had better treat ourselves to ice cream!  While the lady dished up our two-scoop black cherry ice cream cups, she told us how to find the Watermen's Museum. It would not have been too difficult anyway, since Tilghman appears only to have the main street.

Watermen's Museum

The Watermen's Museum was three or four blocks past the Country Store. The Museum is in a very nice Victorian building that was formerly a private home. It is fortunate we were there on a Sunday, since according to the sign, the Museum is only open on weekends! We were greeted by a volunteer docent, who gave us a private tour through all of the exhibits. There were many paintings, models of all the types of boats used by watermen, old documents and other artifacts relating to watermen and fishing, crabbing and oystering on the Chesapeake Bay.

At the Museum, we learned of the Harrison brothers, who built ships and ran packing plants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We got an explanation of the various types of boats, including skipjacks, bugeyes, and log canoes. These were all powered by sail, and very few remain.

Chesapeake Bay Deadrises at Dogwood Harbor

The most interesting was probably the log canoe, which was made from up to nine huge logs joined together side to side and then hollowed out. Amazingly, log canoes look almost exactly the same as the plank built boats, but were much more durable. Today, most watermen use long, narrow, diesel powered boats called the Chesapeake Bay Deadrise. I got a shot of a few Chesapeake Bay Deadrises at Dogwood Harbor on Tilghman Island. We have seen these workboats everywhere we have been on the Chesapeake.

By the time we got back to the boat, it was time for our G&Ts and toasted open face crab sandwiches for supper! We have just enough of the last pound of J.M. Clayton's "Gourmet Lump" for another round of whiskey crab soup tomorrow!