Day 24: To Tangier Island, VA

May 9, 2017

I got up at 7:45 and ate the crap breakfast at the motel, then more crap at a gas station going through Pocomoke City. I stopped to look at the downtown waterfront on the Pocomoke river.

Pocomoke river waterfront park in Pocomoke City, MD.

There is a nice back roads route from Pocomoke City to Crisfield. It's a delightful low traffic ride. It's a fairly popular cross country bike route because many cross country cyclists want to start or finish at the Atlantic ocean rather than where the ACA TransAmerica route starts on the west side of Chesapeake bay.

The ACA *TransAmerica* bike route starts in Yorktown, VA on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Some cyclists prefer to start at the Atlantic ocean and take this route to ferry across the bay.

The area does not look prosperous. Many abandoned and poorly maintained buildings.

I had a headwind all the way to Crisfield but the terrain is flat. Traffic was light. It's an easy ride.

Needs a little work, like paint and windows.

Crisfield is more prosperous. It seems to have a big commercial fishing industry. MD 413 dead-ends at the ferry dock where I will take the mail boat to Tangier Island, Virginia.

The road ends at the dock in Crisfield, MD.

The mail boat is the main connection to the outside world for the 727 souls who live on Tangier Island. It's in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, far from the mainland. There is no car ferry. During summer there are tourist ferries but for much of the year there is only one ferry per day, the "mail boat".

Fare is $20 each direction. I suppose the regulars negotiate a better fare. The mail boat can take cargo as big as a golf cart. To transport anything bigger you must rent a barge for $2000.

I will take the mail boat to Tangier Island.

The roof of the passenger area was covered with a bulk delivery of annual flowers. The ferry is well decorated today!

Per USCG rule, the passenger cabin of the mail boat is signed *No Smoking*. The photo shows the legs of the chain-smoking captain. His smoke blows through the cabin.

The boat transports U.S. Mail but that makes up a small fraction of the cargo. The front of the boat is an enclosed passenger cabin. The rear is a covered cargo area. The mail boat had only 10 passengers but the cargo area was pretty full.

Cargo area in the rear of the mail boat. This is the primary supply line for 727 people.

The mail boat makes one trip per day, departing Tangier at 8 AM and departing Crisfield at 12:30 PM. The crossing takes 45 minutes. As expected it was a smooth ride in the sheltered bay. We unloaded at a small dock and walked a narrow path into town. When I got into town the path didn't get much wider.

Tangier island was settled in the late 1700's. It has always been an isolated fishing settlement. I imagine it looks about the same now as it did 100 years ago.

The pavement on Tangier's main street is only 12 feet wide. Other streets are even narrower. Most people get around in golf carts, but some people use motor bikes or bicycles. I saw a couple of cars but they aren't practical because of the narrow roads and lack of car ferry service to the mainland.

This is the main street in Tangier Island. The gift shop on the right was closed, despite the open flag.

Many houses have an elevated wooden platform for parking the golf cart. That prevents the golf cart from getting salt water damage during the highest tides. The entire island floods now and then.

Tangier island is shrinking. 2/3 of the island has disappeared since it was settled. The north and west parts of the island have experienced severe erosion. The west shore now has a rock jetty to reduce sand loss, but the island is still shrinking.

The east side of the island seems to be the highest ground, maybe 3 feet (1 meter) above sea level. The middle of the island is a tidal marsh. The west side is lower and more flood prone.

My Bed and Breakfast is on the west side. I checked into the room soon after arriving, but spent most of the afternoon exploring the island. First on the bike, later on foot. The inhabitable part of the island is about 1 mile long and 1/2 mile wide, with maybe 4 miles of streets.

I had breakfast in the house but the rooms are motel style in the back.

It seems like everybody in town knows everybody else, and when they pass each other in the street they inevitably talk for a while. The long term residents speak a very peculiar accent that is similar to a 17th century English "restoration" accent. Linguists love to come here and study how this island has a dramatically different accent than the surrounding world. All I know is that it is very peculiar and sometimes difficult to understand.

Roadside conversations are common. Everybody knows everybody and they aren't in glass cocoons.

Flooding is a regular occurrence and getting steadily worse as sea level rises. In the last 10 years the health center and public school were raised 5 feet. Few houses have been raised. Nobody knows how long people will continue living on Tangier Island. One informed estimate is that the island will be abandoned in 50 years when sea level is 1.5 feet higher than today. Raising houses won't stop the island from disappearing.

The Health Center building was raised 5 feet to make it storm proof. The cemetery is not storm proof.

The island seems to be proudly holding its own for now. Fishing and crabbing is the mainstay of the economy. Tourism is a smaller and very seasonal business. The island has maybe 30 rooms for rent during summer.

The population of Tangier is about the same year-round. The fisherman never leave and there are almost no seasonal residents. Most of the houses seem to be built before 1900.

I imagine this was a thriving fishing community in the 19th century. Unfortunately the oyster and clam populations collapsed a long time ago. Striped bass and crab population are currently collapsing. Great efforts have been made to reduce fertilizer runoff from farms and reduce sewage and oil runoff from urban areas. But water quality in Chesapeake Bay is still getting worse.

The Tangier business district consists of two restaurants and the grocery store. Lorraine's restaurant was open. Fisherman's Corner was closed.

Tangier Island has a very large population of cats. I saw cats everywhere, often more than one. One cat quickly ran into my room when I left the door open. A fishing village is probably an ideal place for feral cats to scavenge.

A lot of crabbing is done directly from the docks.

Late in the afternoon I ventured south of town down a dead end road to the beach. I had the beach to myself and walked half a mile barefoot down the beach. It has dunes and tides, but the water is calm because this is the middle of Chesapeake Bay.

I had the beach to myself. It's the best place to camp on Tangier island.

The narrow sand spit continues 2 miles southeast and has an automated light station at the end. I could see it in the distance from my turnaround point.

Tangier Beach and Chesapeake Bay. It has tides but no real waves.

The view inland from the beach shows that the island is barely above sea level. 100% of the island is subject to flooding from king tides and tropical storms.

There are 4 wooden bridges across the tidal basin in the middle of the island. The bridges are only 10 feet wide but are named streets.

One of four roads across the tidal marsh in the middle of the island.

Dinner was at Lorraine's restaurant. The only food in town. It wasn't crowded. Tangier Island is sleepy on a weeknight in early May. The ice cream shop and one restaurant were closed. The 2 gift shops were closed, open only on weekends.

Tangier Island has essentially no wireless phone service. I was able to get a very weak Verizon signal from the elevated deck at the B&B. There I was able to send and receive text messages but not make voice calls or access the Internet.

My bed and breakfast has wooden boardwalks because the ground floods during the highest tides.

My room cost $129, with a nice home cooked breakfast scheduled for 7 AM. The mail boat departs at 8 AM. The Bed and Breakfast is criss crossed with wooden boardwalks because the ground frequently has an inch or two of standing water. There appeared to be only one other room rented tonight, to a woman who must be a bird photographer.

Sunset view from the B&B's elevated deck overlooking the airport and water treatment plant.

Today was a beautiful crisp day. Sunny, high of 65F with a steady 10 mph northwest wind. Not as windy as yesterday. The inland wind keeps the humidity relatively low.

My front tire was soft in the evening 36 hours after I last pumped it. I should be able to finish the final 3 days of the tour without repairing the slow leak.

During summer a tourist ferry serves Tangier Island from Reedville, VA on the west side of Chesapeake bay. Cyclists can use ferries to cross the middle of Chesapeake Bay. Ferry from Crisfield, MD to Tangier, then ferry from Tangier to Reedville, VA. Unfortunately the Reedville ferry doesn't always run as scheduled. The ferry is cancelled if they can't get enough passengers. This is a major source of consternation for the lodging operators on Tangier island. Sometimes guests have a lodging reservation but can't get to Tangier because the Reedville ferry didn't have enough passengers. Cyclists should keep that in mind if planning to ferry across Chesapeake Bay. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the slow days.

Alcoholic beverages are not sold or served on Tangier island but visitors are allowed to bring alcohol on the ferry. The restaurants and grocery store have limited hours. There is no campground but the beach is an ideal campsite when the weather is calm.

Tangier island is a special place. I enjoyed my visit and think it is worthwhile even if, like me, you have to make a big detour to see it. It's totally bike friendly. The clock seems to turn back 100 years when on the island.

Here's a 25 minute documentary film called Tangier - The Vanishing Island. At 14:42 and 17:40 are excellent examples of the Tangier accent.

Distance: 28.8 mi. (46 km)
Climbing: 190 ft. (58 m)
Average Speed: 9.2 mph (14.7 km/h)

Today's ride: 29 miles (47 km)
Total: 1,094 miles (1,761 km)

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