on the menu in talbot county

No matter the season, Talbot County is the Eastern Shore’s culinary hotspot. Explore our coastal towns, fabulous restaurants, and elegant inns. Or bike, kayak, and sail the Chesapeake Bay.

4 tbsp. butter

1 large onion, finely diced

1 large Idaho potato, diced & blanched

1 stalk celery, diced & blanched

2 tbsp. ginger, peeled & micro-diced

4 oz. lemongrass, chopped

2 cloves garlic, micro-diced

½ tsp. Old Bay seasoning

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground white pepper

2 c. whole milk

2 c. heavy cream

2 c. clam or oyster juice

1 tsp. parsley

1 tsp. lemon zest

½ tsp. ground mustard

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

16 oz. smoked oysters, undrained

Heat butter over medium heat in heavy bottom 3-quart saucepan. Add diced onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add potato, celery, ginger and lemongrass, garlic, continue to sauté for another 1–2 minutes, being watchful to not burn garlic.

Add Old Bay, salt, white pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Reduce heat to low, add milk, cream and oyster liqueur.

Cook over low heat until mixture is hot and beginning to steam, and bubbles just start to appear around the edge. Do NOT allow to come to a boil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add oysters and continue to cook over low heat until oysters begin to curl on edges. Finish with lemon zest and parsley.

The big difference between Defiant’s past record-breaking passages and the one Lawson is currently charting is that Lawson will be singlehanding the boat. But is he nervous about screaming around the world on a boat that can cruise at 28 knots in high seas? Not particularly. “I look forward to having the chance to just go, do my thing,” he says. “When I’m by myself, I’m very calm. This is an opportunity for me to show what I can do on the water.”

That Lawson is comfortable sailing by himself is an unfortunate consequence of his sailing background. As an African American man, he frequently did not see anyone who looked like him out on the water. “When I first started sailing, I didn’t have any sailing friends,” he says. “If I wanted to go sailing, I went by myself.”

Lawson found a community within Baltimore’s Downtown Sailing Center, which was more inclusive than many of the yacht clubs in the area. He received his captain’s license and started delivering boats as well as racing. “A lot of the sailing I did at an early age was focused on technical topics and passagemaking,” he says. “Those skills translated into making boats go fast, and far.”

Lawson and Defiant are currently in San Diego, Calif., where he is completing final training runs and learning the boat. Lawson’s wife, Tori, helms the boat on training runs so that Lawson can study polar angles and adjust rigging. They take notes and collect video footage from the runs, anticipating scenarios in the Southern Ocean when Lawson will be working alone.

“I’m not doing a fun cruise around the world,” he says about the endeavor. “I can’t stop and play tourist in fun countries. This is a sporting event, and no other sporting event pushes you this hard.”

Lawson’s chosen field is in fact so demanding that only five sailors have attempted a trimaran record. And Lawson will not only be the first African American to attempt it, but also the first American sailor. “There’s a lot of pressure and responsibility,” he says. “People look at you, see the boat you have, the records you’re going for, and the level of scrutiny is so intense.”

Lawson thrives under this pressure because he knows it means he’s doing something right. “My father once compared it to being in the military,” he says. “When you choose to be in the forefront, it means that you’ll be shot at first. When you’re in the lead, trying to do something that hasn’t been done yet, everyone comes at you first.”

A significant aspect of Lawson’s mission is to bring representation to the sport so that other sailors do not experience the same exclusion that he felt. As a chairperson on U.S. Sailing’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity committee, he works with the U.S. Sailing board of directors to implement change within the sport. U.S. Sailing is the national governing body for the sport of sailing. “When I started sailing, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me. I don’t have any role models,” he says. “My goal is to ensure that’s not the case when I retire.”

Lawson and Defiant will be returning to the Chesapeake in early spring of 2023 to gear up for the solo attempt in October. Defiant will be sailing along the Eastern Seaboard on a tour aimed at bringing awareness to diversity in sailing. Schools, businesses and organizations are encouraged to connect with Lawson about partnerships and educational opportunities before he sets off for his record attempt.

“This passage is a dream of mine,” he says. We have no doubt it will soon be a reality.

For more information, visit captaindonaldlawson.com.

Boston Whaler 360 Outrage

Transom Deadrise: 23 degrees

Bridge Clearance: 9'11" (w/ radar, 15' w/ upper station)

Persons Cap: 14

For more information, visit bostonwhaler.com or one of the company’s three Chesapeake dealers: Chesapeake Whalertowne, Grasonville, Md., whalertowne.com; Chesapeake Boat Basin, Kilmarnock, Va., chesapeakeboatbasin.com; and Lynnhaven Marine, Virginia Beach, Va., lynnhavenmarine.com

600-hp Mercury Verado outboards with dual, contrarotating propellers and two-speed gearcases. The big engines sat on rigid, vibration-damping mounts, with only the gearcases rotating for steering.

These engines turn dual-mode 48V/12V alternators to feed Navico’s integrated, digital Fathom e-power auxiliary management system, including lithium-iron-phosphate batteries and an inverter (120V), allowing features that would otherwise require a generator. The Fathom system drives digital steering and controls (including a joystick), air-conditioning for the cabin and helm, a Seakeeper gyro stabilizer, lighting and plumbing, a pressurized freshwater system (45 gallons, 6 hot), a refrigerator/freezer, an optional electric grill on the transom, a stereo system with satellite radio, a bow thruster and an anchor windlass. A monitoring system at the helm keeps track of everything through a complex wiring harness based on a marinized version of the electronic cables that undergird our cars and trucks. It’s housed in twin Simrad electronic displays (16" or 19") connected to a GPS, detailed digital charts, a VHF radio with Automatic Identification System (AIS), highpower sonar with down-scan and 3D display, digital radar, thermal night vision and a theft deterrent system. Our test boat also included a full upper helm with steering, joystick, controls and a single Simrad display. Optimum cruising speed for this boat/ engine combination is 30 knots with top speed over 50. With a fuel capacity of 415 gallons, cruising range at 30 knots is over 300 miles, assuming a 10% safety margin.

Our sea trial showed this highpowered, big water beast is civilized enough to excel at simpler angling challenges. Rick Boulay, Jr., of Chesapeake Whalertowne and I took our tester up to the Eastern Stonepile at the Bay Bridge off Annapolis and up the Severn River. Jigging for rockfish and big white perch at the former requires maneuvering carefully through the eddies formed by powerful currents and holding position to keep anglers’ lines vertical in that deep water. For that job, the 360 was a sweetheart, with the huge but silky-smooth Mercs idling quietly, shifting in and out of gear smoothly. She was even maneuverable enough to position for an angler in the bow to cast and swim a bucktail precisely along the underwater ledges of the bridge pilings. Up in the Severn, she held perfectly over corners and patches of fish on the river’s restoration oyster reefs in 12–25' of water.

Yes, we throttled her up to run from place to place, and the 600 Verados are remarkable. They’re amazingly quiet and smooth, thanks to Mercury’s dedicated Noise/ Vibration/Harshness (NVH) engineering laboratory. The torque from the big-block V12 powerheads and the dual propellers comes on immediately, thanks to the low first gear in the two-speed transmission. As the boat accelerates, the transmission shifts imperceptibly to the higher gear, as smoothly as the best modern automotive transmissions. We’ll take it on faith that they’ll push this 20,000lb. rig over 50 knots, since we were happy cruising in the 3200–4000 rpm range (15–30 knots), where Mercury’s Active Trim system kept the hull cleanly on plane. The 360 Outrage clearly showed a wide range of efficient speeds that will allow her skipper to adjust to any sea conditions she should be out in.

Base price for the 360 Outrage with twin Mercury 600-hp, V12 Verado outboards is $700,956. Adding options mentioned in this review like the Seakeeper ($77,737), the upper station with controls and Simrad display ($56,657), the Fathom e-power auxiliary management system ($40,084), twin 19" Simrad displays and related sensors at the lower helm ($18,918), cockpit sunshades ($16,482), thermal night vision ($18,043), and smaller items like the bow table ($4,315) plus destination charge ($16,979) bring the price of a fully optioned new boat to around $990,000.

Direct Access to the Chesapeake Bay