Since our departure from Rock Hall just over one week ago, we have sailed 150 miles down the Chesapeake Bay.  We sail somewhere between 40-50 miles each day, stopping at quiet creeks along rivers emptying into the Bay, or visiting towns.  We  try to depart each anchorage just as the sun is rising to make use of shrinking daylight hours.   As we have neared the mouth of the Bay, we have seen dolphins and pelicans!  We have visited historic St. Mary's City -a reconstruction of Maryland's first capital city before it was moved to Annapolis.  The last few days have been spent at the marina, York River Yacht Haven. so we could catch a shuttle bus that visits the three historic towns of Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg.  Walter & I have enjoyed the tours conducted by the National Park staff who have made American history  come alive for us.  It has also been an opportunity  to hunt down a new motor for our anchor windlass that suddenly quit working.  If all goes as planned, we shall soon be leaving the Chesapeake Bay and  entering the Intracoastal Walterway-over 1100 miles of canals, rivers and bays extending from Norfolk, Virginia to Miami, Florida.

A hogshead of tobacco at historic St. Mary's City-the first capital of Maryland

Replica of John Smith's vessel that mapped the Chesapeake Bay in 1608.  

Williamsburg-Virginia's 18th-century capital  city

Captive captain

Milnary in Williamsburg

Silversmith making spoons and wine cups

Home of  George Whythe who taught law to Thomas Jefferson.   Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence

Cannon overlooking the Yorktown Battlefield where George Washington with the help of the French defeated  the British General Cornwallis in 1781.  

Model of Jamestown in 1607-the first permanent English-speaking settlement in North America.  

Ongoing archeology at Jamestown

Statue of Pocohontas-who married  Jamestown settler, John  Rolfe.  Rolfe cultivated the first tobacco grown in Virginia.  He later takes Pocohontas and their son back to London where she becomes ill and dies.