We spent a few days with friends on the Northern Neck, in the village of Morattico on the Rappahannock. We shared an old farmhouse built in the early 1900s, like many you still find all across Tidewater, with a good dock on a broad and winding tidal creek – perfect for paddling and small boat sailing.
I brought a Melonseed, but it rained the first two days, so didn’t get it in the water. Instead we spent relaxing days on the big wrap-around porch, reading in swinging sofas and doing puzzles. Like the best country homes, there’s as much living space outside as in – outdoor showers, a fire pit, and patios under the trees. In the evenings we went for local oysters at Merroir, and ice cream at flower shop in White Stone.
Morattico has a history that goes back thousands of years as home of a Native American tribe. John Smith stopped here in 1608. It later became a plantation of the same name until the Civil War, and the village included several homes, a general store, and oyster packing houses and supporting docks still used by crabbers. The general store is now home of the Morattico Museum.
The great hurricane of 1933 flooded most of the homes in the village, covering the first floor. The same storm prompted many residents to flee low lying Tangier Island out in the Bay, who settled in the similar marshy lands of Morattico. Like Tangier, the roads here are often under water during spring tides and storms, so I’m sure it feels like home.
Lancaster County is still mostly rural farmland. We pass through miles of corn fields, lush with rain and long hot days of early summer. I swear the field across from the house grew a foot in four days.
The weather cleared up with a little breeze on our last day. Doug and I sailed his March Cat back across the creek to the ramp, exploring the creek as far as we could go. One storm hung around to make a bold statement at sunset, dragging a skirt of rain and lightning through the sky.
Was a lovely sail, as you can see from the video: