April 28: Reedville, VA

This morning, we had a rough but uneventful crossing of the Bay back to the western shore. Tom spent 30 minutes in the rain getting TNTY’s property docked at the Reedville Marina. I am glad we got in to Reedville when we did because this afternoon there are high winds in the Bay with a tornado watch until 8 PM tonight. It is nice to be moored safely in the harbor (even though the Crazy Crab restaurant is closed until the 1^st of May). We are docked right next to the Marine Police boat (seemed like a good place to leave the boat for a few days). Also on guard are about 25 assorted sea birds, so we might need to wash the boat when we get back!

We are in the tiny hamlet of Reedville on the Cockrell Creek off the Great Wicomico River. The criteria for choosing this location was to find a place to leave the boat, south of the Potomac, for our drive home to attend to some things in Raleigh. The town of Reedville is on the National Registry of Historic Places being named after Elijah Reed who moved here from Maine in 1874. When Reed found the Bay full of menhaden fish and no one was harvesting them he established the first Menhaden processing plant in Reedville. We came by a fleet of huge menhaden fishing boats as we entered the River. They were much larger than the shrimp boats we see in NC. At one time there were 60 ships working out of this area. By the beginning of the 1900s, Reedville was the Menhaden capital of the Bay, and had the largest per capita income of anywhere in the nation. We walked by several Victorian mansions including a beautiful four story brick house that was built in 1887 with fish oil money. They fished for Menhaden using seine nets and airplane spotters directing two small boats who encircled the fish and drew them up to the large fishing boat. Menhaden are a small oily fish used to create the Omega (fish oil) vitamin supplement that you should be taking.

Tom and I walked up to the Fishman’s Museum and saw some of the wooden boats that were once used in the unique herding / fishing process. Then we walked Sidney in the pouring rain and had to leave all the wet clothes on the back deck before coming in to get everyone dry. Tonight we are having dinner on the boat; the spaghetti sauce left over from the last Sunday School social was delicious partnered with Sharyn West’s home made bread, we were quite well fed.