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Free waterfront fun at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md. is thanking the regional community by hosting its free, annual Community Day on Sunday, May 20, 2018, with all festivities taking place along CBMM’s Miles River waterfront. The event includes free admission for everyone, plus live music, regional foods and drinks, family activities, free boat rides, and more.

The day’s events kick off at 9:00 a.m., when festival guests are invited to attend the Bay Hundred Covenant Churches’ tent service, and continues to 5:00 p.m.

The Covenant Church service includes leaders and congregations from area churches, with participants engaging in gospel singing and prayer. Covenant Churches works to unite the Town of St. Michaels and surrounding Bay Hundred community by connecting African-American and Anglo-American churches from throughout the area.

Community Day coincides with CBMM’s 12th Maritime Model Expo, with pond demonstrations, model races, special exhibits, family activities, and more. From 11:00 a.m. to noon, guests can watch radio-controlled model skipjack races along Fogg’s Cove, sponsored by CBMM’s Model Sailing Club.

Through a Bay Explorer Challenge activity, children can participate in a scavenger hunt to explore CBMM’s exhibitions and grounds. Children will also have the opportunity to build, paint, decorate, and then sail their own small model in a small pool. For $3.00, they can select and build a sailboat or rubber-band powerboat, assisted by a CBMM Model Guild member.

While enjoying the festivities, Community Day guests can climb to the top of the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse, talk with shipwrights and apprentices engaged in wooden boatbuilding and restoration in the shipyard, and explore all of CBMM’s 12 exhibition buildings and historic structures, all situated in a park-like setting along the Miles River and the St. Michaels harbor. CBMM’s waterfront campus is within walking distance to the specialty shops, restaurants, inns, and bed and breakfasts in St. Michaels’ historic district.

Throughout the day, Community Day guests can take free scenic river cruises aboard a number of CBMM’s historic vessels, including the 1920 buyboat Winnie Estelle, or get out on the water rowing or sailing aboard one of CBMM’s small craft. All boat rides are offered free of charge for this event.

While at Community Day, guests can also watch the log-hull restoration of the 1889 bugeye Edna E. Lockwood, now underway in the shipyard through her re-launch at OysterFest on October 27, 2018. Special exhibitions include Exploring the Chesapeake: Mapping the Bay, which opens May 17, 2018; Kent’s Carvers and Clubs: Guides, Gunners and Co-Ops; and Bob Grieser’s Lens on the Chesapeake, which closes June 3, 2018.

Established in 1965, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a world-class maritime museum dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay, with the values of relevancy, authenticity, and stewardship guiding its mission. CBMM offers free and reduced admission programs throughout the year, including its Free in February program, and as a Blue Star Museum and Museums for All participant. For more information, visit cbmm.org