Deltaville Maritime Museum, 287 Jackson Creek Road in Deltaville (Contributed)
by Bill Powell –
The holidays are almost on us and with Thanksgiving coming up, the Holiday Gift Market at the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) will ring in our Holiday shopping season on Saturday, Nov. 26. Vendors will line the multicolored arbors of Holly Point Park and some will be in a mini-mall setup in the open events pavilion. The Bistro Bloody Mary Benedict Brunch will be on the closed pavilion.
Begun in 2015 as a request from the fans of our monthly breakfast biscuits and egg plates, our first “Bloody Mary Bistro Benedict Brunch” began.
It all starts Saturday, Nov. 26, early at 8 a.m. The Bunchers will serve until 1 p.m. or the eggs and crab runs out, so make sure you get there early…
Skeleton George takes over the steering of the just finished “Wright Skiff” at Deltaville Maritime Museum and says, “Darn the torpedoes, full speed ahead for Halloween!” The two students in the photo are enrolled in the Carpentry II class at Middlesex High School and are Zach Justis, left, DMM Building and Grounds Director Chuck McGhinnis next, and student Elijah Brooks to Chuck’s right. Their instructor, Josh Sterns is on the right.
Ready or not, the goblins, ghouls, ghosties, and maybe a witch, warlock, zombie or two are beginning to stir, moan and generally raise a ruckus in the “Wailin’ Woods” and for the hayrides in the “Field of Screams” out at “Scary Halloween in the Park” at Deltaville Maritime Museum Monday, Oct. 31, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
There’ll be plenty of candy and levels of scariness for costumed folks (and real spooks) of all ages. Parking in our convenient lots and admission to this event are always free to the public.
“Scary Halloween in the Park” is being presented on the actual date of Halloween.
Our volunteers and staff work hard to make sure there is a “scariness” level to make all age groups comfortable. In the “Pavilion of Peril,” all comers will find a well-lit, less “scary” area in both north and south events pavilion wings with plenty of candy being handed out by DMM volunteers, local businesses and organizations in costume. Billz Bistro in the Pavilion will be open, Linny Lancaster and myself will be grillin’ up hot dogs and Marie Wilding will be serving hot chocolate, bottled water, chips and hot coffee.
Preparation for Halloween is hard under way but volunteers are still needed…
The young boat builders constructing a skiff at Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) are enrolled in the Carpentry II class at Middlesex High School (MHS) and are Zach Justis, left, and Elijah Brooks. They are joined by instructor Josh Sterns. Sterns’ goal for the MHS carpentry program is to generate student interest in different carpentry skills in order to grow both the Carpentry I and Carpentry II classes. Sterns and his students are currently working weekly at DMM’s maintenance shop to expand their skills. Building and Grounds Director Chuck McGhinnis and Boat Shop Director John England have both been adding guidance to the project. (Photo by Bill Powell)
by Bill Powell –
Join us for the re-starting of the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) and Holly Point Nature Park’s extremely popular annual “Scary Halloween in the Park” happening Monday, Oct. 31, from 6-8 p.m. This is the actual date of Halloween and the official date to observe Halloween as set by the County of Middlesex. All area families are welcome. The museum is at 287 Jackson Creek Road.
“Scary Halloween in the Park” offers a safe, spacious park for all on the Middle Peninsula to come and enjoy Halloween. You will find plenty of convenient, lit, parking, a less “scary” area in the “Perilous Pavilion” where volunteers and businesses hand out candy to all, hayrides through the ghosts, goblins and illusions of the “Field of Screams,” and the very, very, scary paths through the “Wailin’ Woods” for the stout of heart. There is always plenty of candy, candy, candy for all. Hot dogs and hot chocolate available in the pavilion kitchen.
All businesses, organizations and individuals are welcome to come out and staff their own table to hand out candy, either as a promotion or just plain fun. Interested? Then please call Kristen or Joy at the DMM office at 804-776-7200. Tables for serving candy are provided.
•••
A Taste of Middlesex
I feel the need to reach out to our community about one of the most fulfilling and satisfying events we have had at the maritime park. Everywhere I looked there were people enjoying themselves.
I am talking about this past Saturday, Oct. 15, “Taste of Middlesex” festival at DMM.
First I want to thank the more than 1,200 members of our community, friends and folks from all over who came, ate lots of food, listened to music, shopped, visited the boats and, from what I could see, had a great time.
David Moran, Rip Tide and Ray Pittman and the “Revival” kept the music flowing and going all day in the open events pavilion.
Captain Pete Cardozo took out four of the free creek cruises on the deadrise “Jennie May” and local Marie Wilding, who took her grandkids commented, “The Captain was awesome!”
The F.D. Crockett had more than 150 visitors and the boat shop with its two boats abuildin’ did about the same. Steady all day!
The folks from Colonial Seaport Foundation, in colonial costume, had the “Luna” on full display at the Deltaville Boatyard. They did not get the attention they well deserved so, please, make sure you all see them at the Urbanna Oyster Festival on Nov. 4 and 5. They will be at the bottom of Virginia Street at the Urbanna Town Marina.
Special shout out to Steve from the Deltaville Raw Bar and David and Roy from Delta Pie. Both of these restaurants came right into our events pavilion and served their own signature food right there next to our volunteers serving food from other area restaurants. It was wonderful to see them working with us side by side all day.
Farah Owen from J&W Seafood made a special appearance bringing, preparing, and frying her fried oysters right next to where I was cooking my “Kickin’ Chowder.” She had already prepared the shrimp salad and cole slaw we served.
At the bistro serving counter the volunteers were serving up “Ray’s Special Chili” from Virginia Street Café in Urbanna, also, Crystal from “Something Different” sent us her over the top buttermilk pies, Pam at the Galley made a special batch of her pulled pork on a ciabatta roll, Mike at Top’s China provided our General Tso’s chicken, egg rolls and pork fried rice, Chad and Allison from the Deltaville Market worked overtime to get their “everybody’s favorite” fried chicken to us, Santana at “Café by the Bay” went out of her way to prepare her tasty “Sailor Sandwiches” so I could assemble them onsite.
All in all we served more than 1,000 individual servings provided by local restaurants in about six hours selling out a little after 2 p.m. The Raw Bar and Delta Pie kept on truckin.’
Thanks and tip a hat to the “Bistrobunch” volunteers working out at the craft beers and bar. For all the “Bunchers” a special thanks. Not going to name anyone in case I miss someone. All the volunteers know how hard you worked. Bless you all.
It was an immensely satisfying warm and fuzzy day.
Doubling up: The keel and stem of Hull 105 rise next to “still a’buildin’ ” Hull 104’s keel, stem, and cross-planked bottom as the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) Boat Builders Shop builds two hulls at once in the new expanded facility. This marks a first in the history of the museum and its shop. Boat Shop Director John England (at bow of Hull 105) and his volunteers are now doubling down on the DMM mission to preserve the skills and techniques used to build the historic workboats of the Chesapeake Bay. Both hulls will be on display at the maritime park’s Taste of Middlesex festival on Saturday, Oct. 15. (Photo by Bill Powell)
by Bill Powell –
Join us for our new “Taste of Middlesex” festival at the Deltaville Maritime Museum and Holly Point Nature Park this Saturday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
There will be local food of all types, craft beer, wine tasting, oyster growers, a classic car show, the sloop “Luna” and Colonial Seaport Foundation exhibitors will attend. There will also be live music from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., free deadrise creek cruises, tours of the F.D. Crockett and the boat shop, which will display the new Hull 104 and 105 taking shape there. Add model trains from our own Rappahannock Railroaders and Karen Minter’s children’s games and activities and you have a day with something for everyone.
What’s on the menu:
Pulled pork from Galley restaurant
Cole slaw from J&W
Pork fried rice and egg rolls from Tops China
Shrimp salad sandwiches from J&W
Buttermilk pies from Something Different
Chili from Virginia Street Cafe
Fried oysters — check DMM website.
Sailor sandwiches from Café by the Bay
“Bill and Randy’s Kickin’ Chowder” on Friday for serving Saturday. We may move this out of the kitchen for serving.
Local musicians David Moran, Rip Tide and Ray Pittman and the Revival will be on the bandstand.
The Maritime Museum will also be offering freshly-pulled cups of Virginia craft and draft beers.
No ticket is needed, but there will be a per car parking fee of $5.
(Bill Powell is special events coordinator for DMM.)
Rappahannock Crossing includes Isaac Hyde on mandolin, Mike Nicely on guitar, Randy Crittenden on dobro, Spencer Atkinson on bass and Curtis Brizendine on banjo. The group will headline the 2022 Groovin’ in the Park season finale Saturday. (Contributed)
By Bill Powell –
The Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) and Holly Point Nature Park is capping off the Holly Point Market season this Saturday, Sept. 24.
We know a lot of you are planning to go to the Wings, Wheels and Keels event up at Hummel Field airport in Topping. Just remember, the market opens at 9 a.m. and continues to 1 p.m., so there’s plenty of time to swing by the Maritime Park and pick up that special something you need.
Capt. Pete Cardozo and the free Jackson Creek Discovery cruises will begin at 10 a.m. on the pierwalk on Mill Creek. Folks are coming from all over Virginia to get a chance to ride on an authentic Deltaville deadrise.
Live music will be featured in the waterfront park from 10 a.m.-noon.
The Rappahannock Crossing bluegrass band takes the waterfront stage that same evening from 6-8 p.m. at DMM’s last Groovin’ in the Park concert of 2022.
This is a “bring your own lawn chair, cooler and picnic” rain-or-shine event.
Tickets for this Groovin’ are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. Children younger than 12 are admitted free. Get yours at the DMM office, on the DMM website or at Nauti Nell’s store in Deltaville.
(Bill Powell is special events coordinator for Deltaville Maritime Museum.)
I am happy to announce for 2022 the appearance of the five-piece bluegrass band Rappahannock Crossing at the Groovin’ in the Park set for 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept 24. Gates open at 4 p.m. I am working on a special musical treat for the opener at 5 p.m.
In 2011 five seasoned musicians from Virginia’s Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck got together to play bluegrass and have a good time. They made good music too, so Rappahannock Crossing came to be! Rappahannock Crossing’s music is a mix of traditional, contemporary, original and Gospel bluegrass music. The five members of the band specialize in close vocal harmonies and driving instrumentation. All five members contribute both instrumentally and vocally.
Members of the band include Curtis Brizendine on banjo, Bill Richardson on stand-up bass, Randy Crittenden on dobro, Will Snow on mandolin and Mike Nicely on guitar. All the band contribute to vocals and harmonies.
Groovin’ in the Park 2022 is Deltaville Maritime Museum’s casual, “bring your own lawn chair and picnic,” outdoor music series. This is the last concert of the Groovin’ 2022 season.
Tickets for Groovin’ are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Get yours at the museum office, on the museum’s website or at Nauti Nell’s store in Deltaville.
Labor Day weekend’s coming up and it’s time for our annual bonus Groovin’ in the Park on the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) waterfront stage. The Groovin’ concert is set for 5-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. Deltaville hornman Toby Gillie opens at 5 p.m. with his very unpredictable Unpredictables band. Gates open at 4 p.m. and all 2022 Groovin’ tickets will be honored at this event, which is a bring your own lawn chair and cooler type of concert.
Josh Walker is an internationally known musician with strong Middlesex County ties and he will be performing at this Groovin’. Josh Walker has performed internationally as far away as Japan. Josh is a multiple-award jazz guitarist who has played at both the Montreal and Toronto Jazz Festival! He composes, plays in multiple groups and he is a professor of Jazz Guitar at Shepherd University in West Virginia. Josh will have his original CD, “Inertia,” available at the concert. For all things Josh, check out www.joshuawalker.net.
The unusual, wacky and fun combination of Toby Gillie and his Unpredictables band will open for Josh and Carla, 5-6 p.m. Toby is known for his skills on both the trumpet and tuba. Who’d a’ thunk it!
(Editor’s note: The Deltaville Maritime Museum’s [DMM] restored and nationally historic registered log buyboat F.D. Crockett is one of eight restored buyboats and other historic craft that are this summer visiting visiting Onancock, Horn Harbor in Mathews, Smithfield Station, Smithfield and White House Cove Marina in Poquoson during their annual Chesapeake Bay cruise, which continues through Sunday, Aug. 7. The mission of these annual trips is to bring an understanding of these historic vessels to ports where they were once numerous, but now are often forgotten. The boats are being hosted by Smithfield Station, Smithfield, up until the morning of Friday, Aug. 5. The final weekend of the cruise will be at White House Cove Marina in Poquoson Friday-Sunday, Aug. 5-7. The boats will welcome the visiting public for limited hours during their time in port. To mark the special occasion, DMM Events Coordinator Bill Powell of Deltaville requested the Sentinel re-run his column from several years back explaining what a buyboat is. An updated version of it appears below.).
The Deltaville-based buyboat F.D. Crockett is one of multiple buyboats on display at the Urbanna Town Marina last summer. (Photo by Tom Chillemi)
by Bill Powell –
At the Deltaville Maritime Museum, folks come by to see the buyboat F.D. Crockett, and the buyboat exhibits, and models in the museum — and they all ask, “What the heck is a buyboat?”
According to longtime Sentinel Reporter Larry Chowning’s definitive book “Chesapeake Bay Buyboats,” buyboats “range in size from 40-100 feet, have frame-built hulls, some are log built and most are deadrise” The Urbanna native continued, “The distinguishing characteristics are that there is a mast and boom configuration forward of the hold, the pilot house or house is aft of the hold, and the hull is decked over.”
Okay, now we know what it looks like, but why is it called a buyboat?
Well that’s pretty simple and just a little misleading because “BUY”-boats were called that because one of their many uses was to “buy” seafood from watermen off smaller boats and sell the seafood at one of the major markets such as Crisfield or Baltimore. This was only a small part of what they did!
Pound net boats needed the open hull for both the extra leverage it afforded the crew for pulling in the nets and the easy stowage.
Run boats or “runners” was the term used if the boat was owned by a seafood dealer and used mainly for running seafood from watermen to market.
The mast and boom configuration on the buyboats was used like a crane to load or unload seafood or other cargo to and from her holds and deck. On some occasions wood side panels were added to allow the vessels to pile seed oysters or other cargo in mountains on their decks.
In the real world of the working waterman, actually running a buyboat, the “buying” was a small part of its working day. “Captain Johnny” Ward of the buyboat “Iva W” out of Deltaville, kept his engine running 24 hours a day, six days a week.
On a typical week, Captain Johnny would fire up the Iva on Monday and “fish” (whatever was in season) all day, putting his catch in the hold. He would stop his fishing in time to rendezvous with other watermen, buying their catch until his hold and deck were filled with seafood.
The Iva would then run all night to Crisfield, Baltimore, or any market necessary to sell his catch. Rather than deadhead back, he would then act as a freight boat, bringing back any order he could carry. Building supplies, cloth, tools, engines, food staples were common freight. After dropping off its goods, the Iva would start the cycle all over again until Saturday evening when she would return to homeport for maintenance and church on Sunday.
OK, now we have read why it’s called a buyboat, what it did, and the other names it went by. If you really want to get a feel for what the watermen who ran them experienced, their history, and what their work was like, visit the Deltaville Maritime Museum. When she’s not carrying the museum’s living history message around the Bay, the F.D. Crockett is always on display at the Museum’s “Pierwalk.” You can walk her decks, peer in her holds, examine her rigging, stand at the helm and squeeze into the cramped quarters where a captain and two crewmen worked and lived 24 hours a day, six days a week. You really get a feel for what it was like!
Inside the museum, you can see intricate models of other historic buyboats and workcraft. There is a complete photographic record of the restoration of the Crockett from her arrival in Jackson Creek in 2005 through her current level of restoration. You can also learn what a “deadrise” is, see workboat building techniques and learn about the men who built them.
Deltaville Maritime Museum and Holly Point Nature Park, an all-volunteer, all-donation, non-profit organization, is located in Deltaville at 287 Jackson Creek Road and by water on Mill Creek. To get to the museum and park, follow General Puller Highway (Route 33) east through Deltaville and turn right across from the Chris Mart Citgo convenience store. Visit by car or boat. Holly Point Nature Park is open all year from dawn to dusk.
The Deltaville Maritime Museum June 25 car show-cruise-in was a success, organizers say. It featured more than 70 cars — some from as far away as Delaware.
The next DMM car show-cruise-in is set for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. It is being offered in conjunction with the Taste of Middlesex Festival.
The show is open to all classic cars, trucks and tractors. Pre-registration is not required and there is no fee to participate in the show. All participants will receive one voucher per entry for one menu item at Bill’s Bistro and free admission to all DMM buildings and exhibits. As part of The Taste of Middlesex Festival, there will be free creek cruises on the museum deadrise “Jenny May,” as well as tours of the historic buyboat, “F.D Crockett.”
As this is a non-judged show, no trophies will be awarded, but there will be a drawing for door prizes. “This is a great venue for a family day car show as there will be vendors at the festival and children’s activities, as well as the chance to explore the Holly Point Nature Park,” a show spokesman said.
DMM is located at 287 Jackson Creek Road in Deltaville.
It’s July at the Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) and Holly Point Nature Park Park and here comes our musical friend Steve Bassett to play for us at a very, very special “Groovin’ in the Park.” Relax in the “Sweet Virginia Breeze” as Steve says, “Take Me Away” to “Virginia in the Springtime.” We’ll have all your favorites and new stuff too! The anniversary reception, featuring Groovin’s first performer in 2009, Clayton Neal, starts the celebration at 4 p.m. Gates open at 3:30 p.m.
Groovin’ in the Park is DMM’s “bring your own lawn chair and picnic” musical event offered in its waterfront park. For those who don’t have time to pack a picnic, hot dogs, chips, funnel cakes, Hartfield’s Marty McCauley’s Swine Skins, bottled water and a full bar will be available next to the DMM tea house.
Groovin’ will happen, rain or shine. In case of rain, Bassett and his band will perform in the new events pavilion’s south wing on the new stage.
(Bill Powell is the special events coordinator for the Deltaville Maritime Museum.)
Family Boatbuilding Week begins at Maritime Park: The 17th annual Family Boatbuilding Week (FBW) at Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) is in full swing under the open events pavilion at the park. The skiffs begin to take shape as the four “build teams” in the picture set the shape of their future watercraft. Come by and see the teams hard at work all week. (Photo by Bill Powell)
by Bill Powell – 
Family Boatbuilding Week begins at Maritime Park: The 17th annual Family Boatbuilding Week (FBW) at Deltaville Maritime Museum (DMM) is in full swing under the open events pavilion at the park. The skiffs begin to take shape as the four “build teams” in the picture set the shape of their future watercraft. Come by and see the teams hard at work all week. (Photo by Bill Powell)