At Anchor at Chestertown

Watermen collecting crab traps on the Bay

Going Under the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the Patapsco River
(Key wrote the words to the American Anthem)

Friday, October 17: Chestertown

Yesterday we made our way up the long and winding Chester River - carefully watching the buoys to stay in the narrow deep water channel in this wide and pretty river. As along other Chesapeake rivers and creeks, the banks are lined with marshes, rolling farm land, or often quite lovely private homes. 

We anchored near the town dock in Chestertown and have easy access to the downtown area of the historic part of the town. Again, there is one other boat anchored with us - this time - from all appearances - another long distance cruiser complete with wind generator and solar panels. (Our auxiliary power is supplied by our small Honda generator which Bob runs for an hour or so each day when we're at anchor.) This is the end of the season for local boaters, so there are not a lot around.

I expect that somewhere, there are big grocery stores and shopping malls but none are in evidence from where we sit. We had a brief introduction to the town yesterday when we went for a first look after we set anchor. What a pretty place - again like other places we have seen on our trip so far there is a somewhat "Niagara-on-the Lake" look with well maintained historic buildings on the main street and carefully tended older homes - some quite small but with pretty porches and groomed gardens. 

After we climbed out of our dinghy, we went directly to "Play It Again Sam" - an Internet coffee shop that I had read about. I loved the ambiance there - people sitting about at small tables, a large kitchen type table or on a couch or easy chair - and talking, reading or using their computers. One fellow walked by and commented to us (jovially) that people don't work now a days - they just sit around and play on their computers. Bob did reply - that's true - we don't work - but I doubt that the passerby understood that we REALLY don't work.

We bought a few quite expensive vegetables at a Natural Foods store near the dinghy dock, but today we have to do a proper shopping and will probably walk the mile or so to the local grocery store - Acme Foods. We have shopped at a few Acme grocery stores along the way - they are like small IGAs - not a great amount of variety and of varying quality in fresh vegetables and fruit. The best store we've shopped in so far was a huge Safeway in Baltimore - but that was big city shopping. We are spoiled at home where we have great stores close by especially now with the new Longos in Markham. We'll likely walk both ways and will have to be somewhat selective about what we buy so as to keep our arms from getting too long - from carrying our grocery bags, that is :)

We'll be staying here until sometime on Saturday for several reasons: it's a nice place to be, I hope to go to the farmer's market here on Saturday morning, and we want to stay in this general part of the Chesapeake until the end of the week when the Annapolis Boat show will be over and we can visit the city without the boat show crowds.