Hudson Creek MD USA

Morning views from our position in Plain Dealing Creek

Our attempts to visit OCC members Jonathan and Dorothy Goldweitz and the OCC Port Officers for Oxford Jim and Margy Robfogel, had come to nought whilst we’d been anchored close to the town because they were all away on a Cruising Club of America cruise in company.

Motoring out of Plain Dealing Creek

But whilst we’d been at anchor, Jonathan and Dorothy had emailed to invite us to join up with the group.

Sailing down the Choptank River

So, our original plan to take advantage of the great sailing wind on Friday and make a long jump south down the Chesapeake Bay was put on hold and instead we aimed for a passage of just 20 miles to put us in a creek off the Little Choptank River, one river south of the Choptank River (the river on which you find both Oxford and Cambridge on this side of the Atlantic).

Great sailing conditions – but perhaps a little chillier than we have become used to

The sailing conditions were excellent and BV bowled along under a beautiful blue sky.  The Chesapeake Bay was full of yachts all making their way south.  For us it was over 70 miles south to Deltaville and Matthews where we had our next appointment and Friday was the only day with a decent forecast to cover that distance but it’s not every day that you’re invited on board one of the last few historic Chesapeake Bay Buy Boats for an oyster roast; hence our change of plan.

Creeping into Hudson Creek

Anchored “by the big house”

Our brief was to rendezvous in Hudson Creek, anchoring right up above the big house. We dropped our mainsail in a wide part of the Little Choptank River and then sailed in as far as we could under just genoa.  But there are several shallow patches in Hudson River so for the last few miles we crept in with a careful eye on the echosounder.  At least it was low tide and if we did run aground we could sit on the mud and wait to float off.  The rest of the fleet was coming over from the western side of Chesapeake Bay and so we arrived in the anchorage first.  We worked our way as far up the river as we could, ran aground and then, having backed off the mud, we anchored a bit upstream of “the big house” but not as far upstream as we had been briefed.  That, we later discovered, was a little too far up the river so we repositioned a few hundred metres south to anchor in a large pool about half way up the creek [Ed: and just below “the big house”] where there was more than ample room for a fleet of about 12 boats to anchor.

Top: Nellie Crockett motoring past Gratitude.  Bottom: Nellie Crockett

From there we watched as the rest of the yachts arrived and tinkered with the wiring for the wind indicator, which was still periodically informing us that the wind speed was 99.9kts.

The 95-year-old Nellie Crockett one of the last remaining Chesapeake Bay Buy Boats

Checking the wiring connections to the instruments

With the oyster supper set to start at 5pm we had plenty of time for a bit of fault finding.  I found a couple of loose connections which I remade and I also put in an order for some new plugs to be sent to the boatyard in Deltaville.  With a new length of wire and some shiny new plugs I hope that the wind instrument’s gremlin will be tamed for good.

Ping moored alongside Nellie Crockett

Gratitude

Throughout the afternoon more and more yachts arrived often briefly coming alongside Nellie Crockett to cross-deck food and wine ready for the evening’s party.  Each section of the CCA has a special rum cocktail recipe and a huge wooden barrel that it is served from so one of the big events of the afternoon was watching that being transferred.

It was great to see Jonathan and Dorothy Goldweitz again.  They were sailing on Gratitude, owned by John and Susan Devlin, and they anchored close beside us.  Jim and Margy Robfogel also arrived on their yacht Ping, mooring in prime position on Nellie Crockett’s starboard side.

Left: Ted Parish

Current CCA Regional Commodore, Ted Parish, who owns and restored Nellie Crockett to her former glory was our host for the evening.  As the rest of the food was laid out, Ted set to shucking and cooking a whole bushel of oysters.  There were several more bushels on board to be served if the need arose and so, whilst Ted explained the history of the boat, we ate more than our fill of the oysters, all served in a variety of ways, and jolly good they were too!

To preserve the stocks, in Virginia oysters may only be harvested under sail which created the role for the Chesapeake Bay Buy Boats.  At one point there were around 2000 of them, each with an expected working life of around 10 years.  The fishing regulations allowed them to be motorised, so the buy boats could quickly circulate amongst the skipjacks, buying the oysters that they had harvested and taking them off to market.  This permitted the slower, wind-powered skipjacks to focus on harvesting the oysters rather than wasting time returning to port to sell them.  Nellie Crockett was built in the early 1920s and was one of the largest of the buy boats ever built.  Interestingly, during WW2 she was purchased by the military for $1000 and used as a fire and rescue pump boat.  After the war, her previous owner bought her back for $100, sold the pumps and oversized engine that the military had fitted for a tidy profit, and returned her to her buy boat role.  Ted had bought her as a half sunken wreck in the early 1990s and has since painstakingly restored her and used her as a family holiday boat.

Blue Velvet at anchor in Hudson Creek

With her large deck area Nellie Crockett is a perfect party venue.  It was a pleasure to meet so many CCA members and to catch up with our OCC friends once again.  The great company, superb oysters, interesting venue and beautiful clear blue skies all made for a truly memorable evening.

On board Ping for an end of evening for a nightcap.  Left:  Jim and Margy Robfogel

Hudson Creek, Maryland, USA