Three days at home to do chores, re-provision, make some decisions about where we will moor Dot.Calm next year and plan another trip to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Then we are off. First stop: Oxford, a little town and former Colonial port with only about 650 permanent residents. Summertime population explodes and I’d guess that visiting boats at the local marinas add another 100 or so and the beach rentals add even more. The marina where we are staying is located close to a tiny beach and it has a swimming pool. So….if we can’t conquer our fear of necrotizing fasciitis, we’ll at least be able to take a dip there:-) We visited Oxford last year and had an extended stay as the result of a recalcitrant fuel pump and enjoyed it very much. Great restaurants. And a Scottish Highlands ice cream store. YUM.
Restaurant within walking distance….. 
And it’s next door to the ice cream shop!
Pretty view. 
Stiff wind! 
All secure! 
Flashy neighbors in the marina! And a beautiful, almost-full moon.
It’s lovely to be cruising these days without a schedule — no need to get from Point A to Point B by a specific time. First, of all, is the delight in NOT having a schedule. Second is the ability to plan our trips AROUND the weather instead of through it. Today, however, we ventured out with some rain clouds semi-threatening in the east. But the trip from Galesville to Oxford is short — just 3 hours — and we were confident we’d beat any storm in. We did. And the storm was a piffle….just a few rain drops amidst darkening skies.
The trip across was smooth as could be. We took the “short cut” through Knapp’s Narrows (where we stayed when Jassa visited). You get a completely different perspective going through this short, straight channel on Dot.Calm rather than the dinghy! We radioed the bridge tender for a lift — this is the lingo they use when you ask for the bridge to be raised — and made the passage from start to end in less than 10 minutes including the wait for the bridge.
I took this photo on our last visit to Knapp’s Narrows. It shows the eastern side of the bridge. We approached from the west. Remember my post about how narrow the Kent Narrows bridge passage was? The Knapp’s Narrows bridge above is about 1/3 wider!
We spotted this odd barge/tug (??) coming out of Knapp’s Narrows channel.
We’ll spend two days in Oxford and then anchor out in a nearby cove for a couple of days. If weather cooperates, we’ll head to Slaughter Creek (nicer than it sounds) to another marina that we visited last year.
It’s lovely!