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Fishing Bay south of Deltaville, VA on the Piankatank River is a great harbor. After several turns on the Piankatank, Fishing Harbor opens up in a wide bay well protected on all but the south side. The water is 15-20 feet almost to shore. There's a marina and yacht club here but nothing else but residences.
We met some very friendly and generous locals - Bill and Margorie on Jubilant. That's a picture of Jubilant in the sunset. They moved here from Philadelphia and have cruised around for years. Now they live near Deltaville.
Marjorie suggested that we visit the local Maritime Museum - I think she's a docent there. We put the bikes in the dink and motored over to the yacht club to disembark. The bike ride was quite far but it was worth it! One of Deltaville's claim to fame is the that John Smith and his guys landed here at Stingray Point. The water was quite shallow there and Smith decided to spear stingrays with his saber. He got one and as he pulled it from the water, it stung him good in the arm. Served him right! On this July 17th, the citizens of Deltaville re-enacted the Stingray Point landing - we wish we could have been here.
Part of the re-enactment involved Smith's shallop or "barge" - a 30 foot shallow draft rowing and/or sailing vessel that came from England as cargo when they arrived at Jamestown. The folks at the Maritime Museum raised money and built an exquisite replica of the shallop and used it in the play. We saw it on the dock at the Museum - quite amazing!
The Museum has a vast collection of hand-built, from scratch, no kit, ship models. They are quite meticulaous in detail. All six of the original frigates the formed the initial US Navy were there. All kinds of bay work boats were also represented. The most common here is the Dead Rise - a sharp bowed, flat bottom, rounded stern work boat. There's a small wheel house at the front of the boat and the rest is open for dragging in clams, oysters or crab pots. Really neat looking boats.
In addition to the Smith shallop, they are restoring a old dead rise called the F.D. Crockett there. The workshop and docks are open to the public and on weekends, folks gather here to work on the boats. As we were leaving, a young teenage boy asked if we had seen the sculpture garden. He pointed it out and we went over and biked through the pines and honeysuckle looking at all the sculptures and benches commemorating the folks of Deltaville and its environs. Delightful!
I think we will stay here a few days and work on some boat chores we've been putting off.
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