Life in Tangier Island

We are on the move again...going South. Our first stop was Tangier Island, Virginia. The island was founded in the 1600's..The town still has decendants from the original settlers. The main industry has been crabbing/fishing but tourism (ferries from the main land) helps when the fishing is slow. We came into Tangier on a blustery day and major concern that the depths going into the channel would be very shallow. We bounced off the bottom once coming in...not bad. We were glad to see Mr. Parks (79 year old owner of Parks Marina) waiting to help with the docklines. We had tried consistently to get him on the phone or VHF to no avail...His wife answers the phone but she is a bit challenging to talk with...he affectionately refers to her as "Fang"...as in Phyllis Diller. Anyways he helps us to tie up...our depth reader at the bow read 5.6 feet (we have a 6.6 foot draft---amount of water under the boat)..We were not going anywhere in a hurry. Then we assisted our friends on Blue Blaze...luckily uneventful. Then Mr. Parks, who was a crabber for 40 years took us on a golf cart tour of the island. What a character...he calls every guy on the island by the name of George...and every woman is Sweetie..The tour took about one hour...We met the local cop, known as Da Cop...he has a great sense of humor, definitely a half full glass kind of guy. His one daughter is the PA (Physicians assistant)on the island, the doctor comes once a week. In emergencies, a helicopter would arrive and whisk you away to Salisbury. The island has 3 resturants that basically close for dinner by the time October comes around. The internet and cell phone service is non operationalon the island. Despite how caught in time the island is, they have a part time resident who pilots his helicopter to his home on the weekends from DC....He also created a Tangier Island Museum that had closed by the time our tour ended. Here are some pics of the island and of course a pic of Mr. Parks...