Oxford, MD

We are now on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay, on what is called the Delmarva Penninsula. "Delmarva" sounds like it could've been the name used by Native Americans, but it's not -- it's something people around here made up because the peninsula has parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Clever people, these chesapeakans. As we were heading into Oxford yesterday, a lady on another catamaran ran up to the front of her boat and started waving frantically at us. We weren't sure what was going on but we turned our boat toward them to see if they needed help. Turns out that the couple also owns a Manta catamaran down in Florida. Yesterday they were sailing their other boat, a 34 foot Gemini catamaran. They were waving just to say hi and introduce themselves. We ended up anchoring in the same creek and they invited us over for drinks. Leo and Betty have owned two Manta catamarans -- the first one got gored by a tanker while they were at anchor in the Bahamas; it put a hole right in the side of their boat a few feet from where they were sleeping. Luckily, when the tanker backed off the hole kind of closed itself up and they were able to save the boat -- no one was hurt. Mantas are tough little boats.

It was interesting to hear them talk about their sailing adventures. They have been all over the place -- Belize, Mexico, Bahamas. They are planning to sail their Gemini up the Hudson River and through Canada over to the Great Lakes area. Whenever we meet older retired couples on boats, it never ceases to amaze us how much more adventurous they are than us. This couple was in their sixties and we felt like old fogeys in comparison.

Today we walked around Oxford a bit. There's not much going on in these sleepy little towns, but it's nice to get ashore and stretch your legs. They did have some nice bike paths though so we are going to try a bike ride tomorrow if the weather is nice.

Where we are:
Location=Oxford, MD
Lat=38 41.488
Lon=76 09.907