Boating with Sunset Delight: VA: Tangier Island

Day 350 – Part 1

July 8, 2016

NM Traveled: 26

NM to Date: 5689

With a plan to make two stops today, we left Deltaville, Virginia shortly after 9:00.

Dozier's Regatta Point Marina
Deltaville, VA

Heading out of the Rappahannock River
into the Chesapeake

We made two stops today with Tangier Island being our first stop of the day. We heard that we definitely should not miss the unique experience of visiting this island community. After docking at Park’s Marina and paying our $5 “short visit” fee, we walked into town to grab a golf-cart tour of the island.

Coming into Tangier Island

Welcome to Tangier Island

Our golf-cart guide, Michelle, charged $5 per person plus tips to give us the “grand” tour in her covered golf cart. We asked how long the tour would take and she said, “Fifteen minutes!” I found it humorous that we had to wait for the traffic jam of golf carts to pass by us before she could pull out onto the road to begin our tour. Lunchtime rush? Michelle had a well-memorized, all-comprehensive presentation of the island history, population, industry, services, etc.

Guide Michelle on the narrow lanes of
Tangier Island, VA

According to Michelle only three-to-four hundred people live on the island. (She gave an exact number which I did not capture.) She said that most people keep their cars in Crisfield and drive golf carts, ride bicycles, or walk when on the island. That way they have a car to get around after taking the ferry to the mainland.

As we toured the island, she gave us tidbits of information. For example, from the sounds of it, this year’s graduating class of seven students from the one, K-to-12 school in town comprised a large class compared to some other years. According to our guide, some years have only two graduates in the class. I asked and she knew that of the seven graduates three are going to college in the fall, two joined the military, and two left the island to pilot tugs. In other words, no one from the class decided to stay on the island after graduation.

Michelle also told us about the mobile homes on the island. After arriving at the docks via barge, 50 to 60 men physically move the home to its final location by hand – literally pushing and pulling the home down the lanes until the home is in place.

After completing our short tour, we wanted to cool off and had two choices for ice cream. We went to Four Brothers restaurant first because they offered some ridiculously large number of flavors. When we got there, however, we learned that all flavors were ‘soft serve’ and not what we prefer.

Four Brothers Restaurant & Ice Cream

From there we walked about a block or so to Spanky’s Place where they served “dipped” ice cream. On the way we passed a few notable sites including the historical marker explaining the origins of the island starting with Captain John Smith's time here in 1608.

We passed a cemetery and were rather disconcerted to see Clark's name on one of the headstones.

As part of our golf-cart tour, Michelle explained that the island is only five feet above sea level. People are buried three feet down. The cement cover is part of the vault with the coffin inside. This prevents the bodies from floating away in times of flood.

Methodist Church - open to visitors but we did not go in

A short distance from the church we found another ice cream shop - this one had 16 flavors of dipped ice cream!

After our ice cream treats, we decided to walk across the street for a quick tour of the island's museum. When we asked how long a visit to the museum usually lasts, the greeter told us, "Anywhere from three days to three hours to thirty minutes depending on how much time you want to spend here." We figured the thirty-minute visit met our schedule, paid our $3 each, and walked around.

I understood as I walked around the museum why she said it could take three days or thirty minutes. The displays had a lot of written material explaining the island's history. To read it all would take me at least three days.

Clearly the townspeople take pride in their village. Even the garbage cans are decorative.