The Work Continues

Today, both Peter and I were quite busy. Our crew--our friend Shalako--called us right after we got up this morning, saying he would be arriving at our boat, via his nephew's power boat, from Annapolis around 7 a.m. Tuesday. We wanted to get a lot of jobs done before his arrival. After I made breakfast and cleaned up, Peter went on deck to finish making Brummel splices and installing new life lines starboard and port. We have been sleeping in the aft cabin, so I needed to strip the bed there and also the one in the forward cabin, where our friends Lori and Germán had stayed. Of course, it has been a week since I did laundry, so there were also towels and clothes to add to the baskets.

I postponed the laundry until later so that I could clean the cabins, saloon, galley and bathroom. This took a good deal of time, but it was warmer today and the sun was shining, so I was able to open the hatches and let in more light. In the process of cleaning, I removed everything from the nav station and laid everything on an old towel on the saloon table, and I put all the boxes and bags and paraphernalia on the couch so, after scrubbing and dusting, I could wash the floors. The mess is getting more contained!

Peter's stuff off the floor and other areas and contained in one place

All the stuff from the nav station

Peter and I both finished our work after 2 p.m. and decided to walk into town to get lunch at ice cream. We ate lunch from the Oxford Market and Deli in the park and then enjoyed our delicious ice cream--there are always new flavors to try!--on a bench in front of the shop.

Peter and Sherri in the park

The Scottish Highland Creamery

We separated after that, with Peter returning to the boat to get back to work and me extending my break to stroll around town and finish the walking tour. One stop was the Oxford library, which was founded in 1939, the year after Oxford High School closed. It has been at its current location since 1956. For 86 years, it has been run entirely by volunteers, who also contributed to construction costs of the one-room building.

The Oxford Library

Saint Paul's Church, built in 1856, was the town's first Methodist Church. Before the Civil War, all Methodists in Oxford attended church here, but after General Lee surrendered to the Union Army, the congregation segregated into those who had supported the North and those who were Confederates. The lovely building is now privately owned and hosts concerts and other social events.

Saint Paul's Church

Maplehurst, built in 1880 by Edward and Margaret Stevens. Of their seven children, two daughters, Ida and Nellie, never married and inherited the home. Beloved local school teachers, they shared a passion for botany and planted trees and other plants on the property. Nellie successfully cross-pollinated a Chinese and a native holly. The tree still stands in the yard and became nationally registered in 1952.

Maplehurst

Further down Morris Street, which extends the eight blocks through town and still has brick sidewalks on both sides of the road, is the stone Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Designed in 1853, it was not actually finished until 1903 due to financial setbacks and the disruption early on of the Civil War.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church

Heading back to Oxford Boat Yard, which has been a site of construction and maintenance of boats since the mid-18th century, I passed the two-story red Odd Fellows Hall, builit in the 1890's and situated in what used to be the heart of the self-contained neighborhood of Black families. (Whites lived along the Strand and Morris Street.) The residents had their own markets, school, barber and beauty shops, taverns, churches, pool hall and gathering places, including the Odd Fellows Hall. The bright building, with its distinctive pressed tin siding and cupola, now leans noticeably to the east.

Odd Fellows Hall

The lean of the building apparent in relation to the house across the street

I passed a small fleet of watermen's boat across from the docks of the boat yard, which we watch returning six days a week. (I am not up at 4:30 to see them depart.) Active year-round, these boats are used to harvest crabs in the summer and fall and oysters in the winter and early spring.

Watermen's boats

Around 5:30, back on Mantra, I set to work cleaning, as requested by Peter, two of the large deck hatches, a job I thought would surely take less than an hour. Alas, I ended up cleaning all of the deck hatches and then the durade cowls, and the sun was setting by the time I finished.

I still had to do the laundry! I made us a salad for dinner, which we ate on the aft deck (the only place available) and did the dishes. Peter helped me load all the laundry and supplies into a dock cart and we headed to the marina clubhouse. Peter planned to take a shower and return to the boat, while I planned to shower and then settle in for a couple hours. I got two of the four loads started (There are only two washing machines and two dryers) and then realized that I could not find the roll of quarters I had picked up earlier in the day. I walked back to our boat, but I couldn't find the roll. I was not going to be able to dry the linens and clothes! Perhaps they had gone into one of the machines, but, no, when the cycles finished, they were not there. What was I going to do? I called Peter on the boat and after looking in various places, he finally found the quarters and brought them to me. I started two dryers and two washers. Then I realized that I didn't have enough money to dry the clothes I had just started to wash! I will have to take them back to the boat wet and bring them back here to dry in the morning after the marina store, where I can get more quarters, opens.

To top it off, I was so distracted by the quarter fiasco that I put the towel and washcloth I had brought for showering in with the dirty clothes, so the shower will have to wait for the morning also.

It's approaching midnight, so I will add a few photos and put the laundry in the baskets and wheel the dock cart back to our boat, where I will still have to make the bed before we can sleep!