Publish Date: Monday, September 1, 2008
Coordinates: 38° 41.46′ N 076° 10.22′ W
It’s Labor Day weekend, and everybody’s out celebrating the waning days of summer. We decided to go for an overnight to Oxford, MD, one of the most beautiful towns on the Chesapeake. Oxford and Annapolis were originally the only two “ports of entry” in the Chesapeake Bay, and while Annapolis continued to grow and change, Oxford exists pretty much the way it did two hundred years ago. There are beautiful white cottages with wrap-around porches, and it feels like a sleepy little colonial town. The ferryboat that crosses the Tred Avon River from Oxford originally began operation in 1683, and it has been in continuous operation since 1836. I grew up on Harsens Island in Michigan, where I think the ferryboat has been in continuous operation since the 1940’s — I always thought that was a long time!
Mechanical: We’ve developed a problem with our port stabilizer fin. I neglected to center the fins before we docked in Oxford, and the port fin ended up “over rotated”, and now it won’t correct itself. I was able to physically center and lock it for the trip home, but I’ll have to work with the Trac people this week to diagnose and fix the problem. I’ll write about the resolution in a future post.
Hey, David. When you get to the NYC-metro area, and especially the Long Island Sound, give me a ring. My family would love to meet up with you.