day thirteen - Little Annemessex River to Crisfield

After a clear night light rain showers arrive before dawn.  I flip down the top of the bivy and go back to sleep.

Morning is dark grey clouds and a strong southwest wind.  Spartina has swung in the deep pool with the wind.  Mizzen already up, I raise the jib.  Slowly I haul in the anchor line, the bottom feels like mud and I want to pull Spartina to the anchor, not the anchor to Spartina.  We fall off the wind and slide out into the river.  

Scrapers, waterman in small boats dragging nets across the beds of grass in search of blue crabs about to shed their shells, work the shallows, oblivious to the low overcast, chop and wind.

No need for the main this morning, we sail downwind towards Crisfield.  Not an hour later we enter the cut between the condos and the crab house into Somers Cove.

As soon as I tie up to the dock the clouds give way to sun.  A crabber, get ready to haul his deadrise out of the water, looks at the sky and says "just what they forecast."  

An elderly woman and her adult daughter come down near the ramp to feed the seagulls, something they do every day.  They had noticed the jeep and trailer parked in the lot for almost two weeks.  "I was worried about you," says the mother.  The daughter laughs, says "I told her you were out there having the time of your life."  I thank the older woman for her concern, and tell her that her daughter was absolutely right.