June 7, Tangier Island, VA

Tangier Island

This is our marina

Molly and Linda as we exit Chesapeake House Restaurant with family style meals.

Main Street

Pretty homes on Tangier Island

Ken Horner with some crab traps

Fishing boats and crab shanty's built out over the water

Fishing boat with his traps

Historical marker commemorating events of the 1600's

Went about 50 miles from York, VA directly up the Chesapeake Bay to Tangier Island, VA, a small (1.5 miles wide, EW, by 3 miles long, NS) island of crab fishermen and their families. The fishermen catch the blue crab and put them in the shedding tanks. There the crab's shed their shells. The fishermen check the shedding tanks 3 times a day and dip out the crabs that have just shed and market them as "soft shell crabs". These crabs can be eaten shell and all. Tangier has been rated as one of the soft shell capitals of the Chesapeake Bay for many years. Lots of shanty's built over the water to house the crab shedding structures. Very quaint look to the whole thing. Does not look like it can survive a hurricane.
Settled early and always a fishing center, it also welcomed the British navy to make Tangier a British staging area for operations during the War of 1812. British cut down every tree on the island to repair their ships and there are still not many trees around. Whole place reminds me of a Bahamian village.
We had a good place to dock with power and we enjoyed a nice family style dinner (servings of food placed in the middle of the table and passed around like at home) and enjoyed walking the streets of the small town in the evening. Lots of people out walking and in golf carts socializing.
One note on navigation. We entered the harbor from the west and had the red markers on the right, and exited the island the next morning to the east and had the red markers on our left. Usually a channel, which is continuous, has red markers on the same side all the way through. Not here. "Red on right returning" from both sides. Confusing, but once you get used to it, you can see the logic.