The winds have finally calmed, the water has lost its anger, and from horizon to sky are long silver clouds that appear to be stuck in place. Captain Ed and I have been docked at Grand Manor Marina in Belhaven, North Carolina for the past six days.
Belhaven lies about 150 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia. We were making our way back to Stuart when Ed and I sought refuge from the massive nor’easter. Belhaven is the perfect place other than the pesky flies that find their way into the boat no matter how hard we try to keep the doors shut. I pride myself on not killing any of God’s creatures, but over the past six days I have became a lunatic with a flyswatter.
Finito cruised Chesapeake Bay for exactly one month. This was by coincidence and not by design. I prepared by re-rereading James Michener’s novel Chesapeake but I still wasn’t finished when we arrived in the bay. Completed in St. Michael’s, Maryland, the book again brought the history of this magnificent part of America into focus: the native people, the religiously persecuted Europeans who immigrated here, the pirates, the slaves, the wildlife that was brought to the brink of extinction, and the lands that sustain, but storms can bring crumbling into to the bay.
My favorite characters, besides the geese, were the Paxmores, Quakers, who became expert ship builders and leaders in the anti-slavery movement. The family evolves through the 1600s to the 1970s terminating in the character of disgraced Pusey Paxmore who is part of the Watergate scandal. This character was certainly inspired by the fall of President Richard Nixon who was raised a Quaker, as was Michener.
How does this happen? How do we lose direction even when we have a compass right in our hand? How is the destruction we inflict upon Nature symbolic of this? How can we do better?
These are the questions the trip made me think about, all the while having another Finito journey with Ed. But there are also lighter things. It has been quite fun watching Diesel grow up on the boat and watching Okee rule-the-roost. Whether the animals or us, there is certainly a closeness that occurs while traveling on Finito that is difficult to achieve while living at home. Nature’s rhythms help support this and become the fabric of every life. Perhaps most important, Ed and I have become very comfortable operating, communicating, and docking.
We will be leaving Belhaven, tomorrow and one of the places we will visit for the second time is Southport, SC just 120 miles south of here. A few weeks ago, an active shooter took his victims via boat in a waterfront restaurant Ed and I have visited in this tiny, sweet old fishing town.
No matter where one is, there is no escaping the world.
Finito’s journey has been both educational and beautiful. The bay borders both Maryland and Virginia; sometimes it’s hard to tell what state you’re in! Its enormous watershed drains multiple states. I’ll talk about that later, but first the fun part.
~The Chesapeake Bay journey has included Yorktown, (York River); Deltaville, (Piankatank River); Colonial Beach and Washington DC, (Potomac River); Solomons, (Patuxent River); Annapolis, (Severn River) and St. Michaels (Miles River.) St Michaels was the sole eastern stop and lies in on the Eastern Shore featured in Michener’s novel.
~First things first: WATER QUALITY
The Chesapeake Bay Program created, in 1983, falls directly under the United State’s Clean Water Act (Sec 117) and was established with a mandate to restore and protect Chesapeake Bay’s watershed spanning seven states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The Chesapeake Bay Regulatory Program provides funding to improve accountability assessment and enforcement programs.
Our Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program in Florida, by contrast, is an outgrowth of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program created in 1987 under the Clean Water Act. There are 28 Nation Estuary Programs today; the Indian River Lagoon Program was established in 1990. Because it’s part of the National Estuary Program, its mandate is non-regulatory, but science-based.
Both programs are slowly making headway and both struggle to meet nutrient reduction goals of phosphorous and nitrogen. The IRL’s algae blooms and seagrass crashes are linked to an overabundance of nutrients, as are the millions of sea nettles – jellyfish floating throughout Chesapeake Bay’s waters. Ed and I saw hundreds, maybe thousands of jellyfish just about everywhere we visited in the Bay.
Nutrient pollution is the leading cause of water quality problems and is linked primarily to agricultural and urban runoff, it’s a frustrating predicament as it is non-point and coming from “everywhere.” The answer? Getting involved and voting in elected officials who care to tackle this issue.
THE JOURNEY
I. NORFOLK, VA, Elizabeth River (Tidewater Marina)
Chesapeake Bay measures about 200 miles long and has a maximum of 35 miles across. Its multiple incoming rivers provide great stopping points for boaters. The first place we visited after passing through Norfolk was Yorktown, Virginia, on the York River. People were swimming in a designated area by the shoreline and when I read about the river’s health it was better than others, but facing tremendous development pressure.
The town itself is a museum. The streets still have the same names as they did during the Battle of Yorktown that determined our nation’s independence from Great Britain. The local museums and historic buildings are outstanding and bring this history to life. Such as the humiliating account of Britain’s General Cornwallis and his troops who attempted escape as they desperately rowed across river. To be docked upon this place of such history was quite remarkable.
III. DELTAVILLE, VA, Pianakatank River (Fishing Bay Marina)
IV. COLONIAL BEACH, Potomic River (Colonial Beach Yacht Club)
After eating the best crab cakes in all of Chesapeake Bay, Ed and I left Deltaville, Virginia, an unspoiled town cradled in a beautiful cove of the Piankatank River.
Colonial Beach, Virginia, along the Potomac, followed. It is the birthplace of a boy who loved the river, George Washington.
Today’s Voorhees Natural Preserve provides sanctuary for birds and wildlife. One morning I awoke at sunrise. I was out on the bow when I heard a noise I had never witnessed. It sounded like a heavy whistling falling wind. And then I saw it. A huge swan! So heavy it could hardly fly! It made its way acoss the river and I knew I would never forget that moment. Swans, geese and ducks once here in the millions were almost eradicated by the long-guns that hunters used, unregulated, for decades. The birds’ comeback and the regulation on hunting practices is an inspiration.
V. WASHINGTON, DC Potomac River (Capital Yacht Club)
Solomon’s lies in Maryland along the Patuxent River, the longest and deepest entirely within the state of Maryland. In its hey-day the late 1800s, Solomon’s was named for a man who opened a profitable oyster cannery. Those days are long gone. Today tourism dominates this quaint retreat.
The Patuxent River Keeper, and the local museum tell the story of abundance, and eventual over-harvesting. This is a familiar story throughout the United States including our St.Lucie River and IRL.
VII. ANNAPOLIS, MD, Severin River (Annapolis Yacht Basin)
~Road trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For me, the best part of our visit to Annapolis was driving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to visit my niece Nat who is getting her PhD. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She and her roommate live about thirteen blocks away from Independence Hall, the birthplace of America! What a place to call home! It was a wonderful visit.
ST. MICHAELS, MD (St. Michael’s Marina)
St. Michaels, Maryland, was the only city we visited on the Eastern Shore.
This adorable little town with roots in the 1600s is living history. It was here where James Michener chose to research and write his famous novel Chesapeake. It was from this region that abolitionist Frederick Douglass ran to freedom in Philadelphia just across the bay.
St. Michael’s gets its name from an Episcopal Church that predates the town, but Ed and I decide to visit a Methodist Church service as it was dog friendly. Diesel was not on his best behavior but since the sermon was on patience, Ed and I just looked at each other and let it go. Fun!
Sea level rise is a major issue, especially on Chesapeake Bay’s eastern side. During our visit both docks and the shoreline areas of the town were partially underwater. Locals did not make a big deal out it, and when I thought how this area was once a marsh, it really did not seem a surprise. All this water mixed with storms means erosion…
Even Michener’s book written in 1978 ends with Devon, the lands of the ruling family, crumbing over time and then falling into the bay after a hurricane. The novel begins with a Native American determining not to build on this same land hundreds of years earlier because he could see the instability. A foreshadowing…
Since St. Michael’s we’ve headed south on the bay through Solomon’s, Deltaville and Norfolk. We are now 150 miles south of Norfolk in Belhaven waiting out the weather. Ed’s making cookies and I’m swatting flies! It’s just another beautiful day!
*Thank you to Ed for helping me with this post 🙂
