A Tale of Two Chemists: Close encounter

Close encounter

Sunday, May 23, 2021

After the usual morning rituals, we went to shore and tied up to the outside of the dinghy dock at the sailing center for St. Mary’s College. Just after we reached the street, we stopped to identify some birds on the wire. Then suddenly a bird flew toward us and landed on Mike’s backpack. It was a Chickadee. It sat on top of his bag while I fished my phone out of my backpack and started taking photos. Mike was even able to shrug off his bag, set it on the ground and take a couple of shots with my phone. Finally, it did fly off. We reckon it must be a young bird on one of its first flights. We’ve never seen anything like it.

We walked around the very quiet campus of St. Mary’s College, clearly the semester finished some time ago. The college is now a public liberal arts college that was founded in 1840 as St Mary’s Female Seminary. I’m not quite sure what that would have meant about the programs of study at the time. Too bad there is no one around to ask.

The campus is adjacent to “historic St. Mary’s City”, the site of the first colony in Maryland and it’s original capital. There is an archeological field school here. In fact we walked by an area that appeared to be a dig—tarp covered trenches with heaps of soil nearby. There are several reproduction buildings that we hoped to look at later today when it cooled down a bit, but it stayed hot so we’ll save it for tomorrow. While we were ashore we visited the Maryland Dove a pseudo-reproduction of one of the first ships to land in Maryland. The vessel wasn’t actually open today but a very charming guy was willing to allow us onto the dock. His name was Will Gates, he is involved with preservation of and education about historical vessels.

He told us that he was originally from Massachusetts and had previously worked on the Mayflower. He spoke to us about his many experiences captaining various schooners, working on tall ships, doing day-sailing charters out of Rockland, Maine as a young man. Clearly, this is a man with a lot of sailing experience on a wide range of vessels. He advised us to go to the maritime museum in St. Michaels, MD, where a more accurate (hopefully) reproduction of the Dove is currently under construction. It’s at a stage where part of the planking is on so the final shape is becoming obvious. The sections that are not yet planked allow you to view the structure beneath. As St. Michaels is on our list to visit, hopefully we will be able to take advantage of the display.

This afternoon we lazed in the cockpit with all our sunshades up. One of us (not me) had the courage to take a dip off the boat before showering, but he wasn’t in the water for more than a minute. I just settled for the shower.

Gloria

38 11.595 N, 76 26.002 W

The young chickadee on Mike's backpack (photo: Gloria using her iPhone)

Close-up of the Chickadee (photo: Mike using Gloria's iPhone)

The Maryland Dove at StMary's City. This vessel is actually a recreation of a typical coastal trader of that era rather than a copy of the which sailed from England. An attempt to replicate the original is underway.