Day 59-Onward to Onancock

Monday May 17, 2021.
Temp: 70/51, Humidity: 41/86%, Top Wind: E11 mph, Precip-none, Miles Traveled: 48

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Onancock (oh-NAN-kok) is a small town on the Onancock River at the bottom of the Pocomoke Sound. And I thought Washington state had some weirdly named places. 🤦‍♀️. It was founded in 1680 and is one of the oldest towns in the United States. That was our destination for today, so we pulled lines at about 8:00 and headed out of Cape Charles.

We had beautifully calm Chesapeake Bay waters, with just a bit of breeze on our nose. So captain’s nose got a little chilly since it was only in the 50’s this morning. Along the way, it seemed like the engines were changing pitch, but then we realized that it was a fleet of helicopters chasing us. EEK! First there were three, and then another three went by just to our starboard.

Then a fleet of four chased up right behind us and went over head. We always joke when we hear helicopters that they’re chasing Kenny and that his witness protection program is failing and they’ve finally found him. 😵‍💫 HA!

The water in the Bay is nice and clean and pure looking, just like salt water should look. We’ve noticed that Island Girl’s ICW moostache is kind of fading a bit. Maybe this clean salt water’s abrasion qualities are sanding it off. 🤷‍♀️

We made the turn for the 5 mile channel into Onancock. It is a channel like we’re used to in Florida…. follow the markers and stay inside the markers, because the water depth outside of them can get way too shallow for this Girl’s props.

It started out squiggly even where it looked like we had lots of water around us, then it became more of a estuary and we squiggled our way to the marina.

Here is our full 48 mile trip today up the inside of the eastern peninsula. The tide was going out (current running south), so we had about a 1.5mph push against us, so our speed was less than 8mph. 🤦‍♀️. There were LOTS of crab pot buoys at the southern end. Buoys + current = buoys under water! 😳😩. Thankfully the water wasn’t too choppy, so we could watch for little eddys in the water where the buoy was just under the surface. When it finally looked like we were out of them, we put the pedal to the metal. Island Girl hasn’t gone fast since before the Dismal Swamp, so we figured she’d like to put her horses to work. We only went fast for about 15 minutes and found more crab pot buoys to dodge, so pulled her back to normal. At least the tidal current was slackening up a bit, so the buoys were actually buoying above the surface of the water!

We got backed in to our slip at the Onancock Wharf marina, and who should be there to greet us, but fellow Bayliner Loopers, Nick & Ginger on Ginger Gale. After getting settled, Ginger invited us to meet them at the Irish Pub in town. We took a stroll up to town and found several churches right on the main drag.

The siding was completely of these shakes! The Onancock Baptish Church, 1855.

And then this church was also old shakes, but not painted, and it had a real scandanavian look to it. It is the Market Street United Methodist Church.

Today’s flower portrait picture. 🌼

Just an old house that looks like it might be a duplex now.

This is a side street in town, where the Irish Pub and the Tap house are. Yes- we went to both. We met Nick & Ginger at the Pub and enjoyed great conversation. They are from Goosepond Alabama, and we just happen to know where that is, because we stayed there in 2018 on our side trip up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga. Their boat is fairly new to them, so Nick & Kenny talked about Bayliners and engines and all kinds of stuff. It was a fun afternoon. Then they had dinner reservations at a nearby restaurant, and we went next door to the Tap House to scope out what was on their menu.

We were surprised that this Historic Cokesbury Church is also a United Methodist Church! This one is the oldest church building in Onancock, built in 1854. A really nice lady saw us looking at it, and she joined un on our walk and told us about the church. Apparently the reason there are two UMC churches, is that in 1864 during the Civil War, there were both Northern and Southern sympathies within the members, so they formed two groups, and the Southern group formed a new congregation that became the Market Street UMC. Both churches functioned independently until 1996 when they recombined into one congregation. This Cokesbury building is still used for a variety of functions.

We had a nice sunset looked west along the channel. We are in slip #1, so we have a really nice view.

Tomorrow will probably be relaxing and just hanging out. They have free washer & dryer here, so of course I’ll do some laundry. 🙂. And there is a bakery in town that has LOTS of donuts and cinnamon rolls.