In the morning we motored about 5 miles north to Reedville arriving just as the sky was growing dark around 9:30 am and a brief shower fell on us. Reedville was founded by a Maine fisherman that recognized the abundance of fish in the Chesapeake. At its peak it was home to seven menhaden fish processing facilities and now has but one still in operation. What is a menhaden you ask? It is a type of herring. Today, they extract the alpha-3-omega fatty acids from the menhaden and put it in a pill, making cat food, or even some Pepperidge Farm cookies. We were warned that when the wind is out of the south, the town smells fishy and we experienced just this. However, it didn’t deter us from popping to the post office and then to a The Fisherman's Museum where the art of wooden boat building continues and we learned all about oystering and menhaden fishing once very popular here. Also, Reedville was a stop on the steamboat route and the musical “Showboat” was based on historical groups that would travel by steamboat from town to town to perform shows. We needed to push on so we left around 2 pm after fueling up. We headed north, crossing the Potomac that separates Virginia from Maryland, dropping anchor in quiet Smith Creek close to the mouth of St Mary’s River.
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| Classic Skipjack at the Reedville museum |
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| Another hitch hiker |
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| A modern menhaden fishing trawler returning to Reedville |
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