The night was as dark as a tomb and I was wet and cold. I felt lucky to be alive and I couldn’t believe my good fortune in finding a tattered blanket in this rusted ship’s hold. I pulled it higher over my shoulders and dozed.

We shouldn’t have tried to fish today. The weather forecast called for building winds, but we thought we could get out for a few hours to catch some of the big stripers that always migrate into the Chesapeake Bay in late October. The blow arrived soon after we launched into the Honga River from the Hoopersville ramp. By the time we rounded Nancy’s Point into the main stem of the Bay, we were well into the teeth of a full northwestern gale. We decided to call it off, but just as my friend Phil turned his center console back east toward the river, a rogue wave hit us broadside. The boat rolled hard and I went overboard. Read More!

Friday morning we had an earthquake.  It wasn’t a very big one, only 3.6 on the Richter Scale.  I didn’t feel it, but apparently some of my fishing buddies found it unsettling.  The epicenter was 3.1 miles underground near Gaithersburg.  Earthquakes are very rare in Maryland.  The last major one occurred in 1758. Some people reported it woke them up at 5:04 in the morning.  Some even said it shook them out of bed.  (Take it from someone who puts a lot of importance on sleep, that’s pretty unsettling.)  The quake was also felt in Virginia, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas of Washington DC and Maryland. The event generated lots of curiosity and some panic among residents who aren’t used to feeling the earth move, but the only real consequence was a tsunami of bad jokes.  Someone cracked that for the first time in years there was actually movement in congress. One of my Facebook friends posted a picture of the shockingly severe damage at her house. Read More!