Emails From Bailey

From: John Bailey
To: Anja Baudler
CC: Damon F.
Subject: Re: "Segel"
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006

Damon: Anja and Wofgang Baudler are German sailors
located at an observatory in West Virginia who are
timesharing Segel.

Anja: Damon and crew were recently over to
Tangier and Smith Islands as well as Rippons at Hooper
Island and can give you first hand 'local'
information. I am not sure there is enough room to
actually anchor inside the islands but Damon will
know.

Please include me in your email exchange so I can also
benefit for the information.

Regards,Capt. John G. Bailey 
______________________________________________________________


> Damon wrote:


---------------------------------

Anja,

I took Segel to Smith, Tangier and Hoopers Islands
around Memorial Day weekend.

Tangier Island: Great place. Their economy is split
50/50 between tourism and crabbing, so there's more
for tourists here than the other islands we went to.
There's a beautiful beach which is, for the most part,
empty. You can rent a golf cart and jet around the
island. Just beware of the flies. Bring quality bug
spray! Entering is easy, but it might not be clear at
first where you can tie up. I don't remember anywhere
in Tangier to anchor, as there's just a small inlet
with a lot of crab boat docks. When you enter from the
western side of the island, look for the tourist docks
on the south side of the inlet (you'll see the name of
the tourist marina, but forget what it's called. It's
$35/night). Don't tie up to the ferry dock, or you'll
have to move the boat in the morning! Honestly, I
think you could enter Taniger at any tide and have no
problem with depth. Just keep an eye on the chart. One
caveat: lock the Segel while docked on Tangier (lock
combo 0026). Since alcohol is not for sale on the
island, there are some locals who will do almost
anything to get beer. They're probably harmless
people, but two guys actually flat out told us that
they'd come aboard and help themselves to our booze!
Oh, and Hilda Crockett's Chesapeake House is very
inexpensive and a genuinely nice place to stay. Four
of us stayed there for a night and it was $212 total,
and that included all-you-can-eat dinner and
breakfast! But beware of the boatloads of retired
folks who come in from the mainland for dinner.
They'll run you over!

Smith Island: This place is remote and poor. In fact,
it seems like a different country (a 3rd World one, at
that). There's nothing to do on the island, and
nowhere you can reliablly obtain good supplies. Seems
like most places close early. The main store is
Ruke's, which is interesting to confuse your English
language skills by listening to the local dialect. My
lord! Anyway, try and rent/borrow some bikes and ride
out to the end of the road. The scenery is spectacular
at sunset, even if it is marred by the occasional pile
of burning trash (no joke). As for entering Smith, I
would recommend going at high tide, if possible. If
you can't make it there at high tide, you'll probably
be fine, just make sure you power the diesel at hull
speed through any soft groundings ("bumps") and watch
the chart closely. I'd recommend tieing up to the dock
($20/night) which you can't miss when you enter.
Actually, I think you *can* anchor near the dock, but
it's so cheap to dock, so why not? 

Hoopers Island: This place consists of a church, a
couple of houses and a crab-picking shack. Nothing
else. You'll likely have to motor around the point and
up the Honga River to get in there. On Memorial Day,
it was so isolated that no one came out to collect any
money for our tie up! If you go, check out the church.
And by "check out", I mean "go inside". It's never
locked, and the locals don't mind if you go in. Read
the log book: it's only full up to 6 pages, and the
first entry was in 1976! And if you're really bored,
you can play the piano 'til your heart's content.
Anyway, there's nothing to do on Hoopers, but if
you're friendly with the locals, they might let you
watch the crab pickers (All Mexican women on H2B
visas). Last year, they let us borrow their 15-person
passenger van and drive it into town (Cambridge, MD -
1 hour) to get lunch. They didn't charge us anything;
just said replace the gas!) If you do get the vehicle,
there's a rustic seafood restaurant about 20 minutes
aways that's quite nice.

Not sure if you know, but there's a very good
Chesapeake Crusing Guide 2006 for sale (I couldn't
find it on amazon. Sorry!).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Damon