Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score   9.4

I came across Ocean Princess through my work.  Ocean Princess is owned by Victor Bunting whose family has an impressive pedigree in the tourist fishing business. Victor has expanded the family business to include specialty tours, including the wine tours. The wine tour is an evening excursion of sea and bay, while serving wine from local wineries. His tours have highlighted local wines from Salted Vines, Layton’s Chance, Windmill Creek, and Bordeleau. Bordeleau asked me to talk about their wines on Buntings recent tour.

The Buntings are the real deal and as local as it gets in Ocean City. Jackson Bunting launched small fishing boats right off the beach in the 1890s. Over the years, the operation became more sophisticated and shifted from commercial fishing to “passenger-fishing” in the 1960s.  The current iteration of the Bunting family business, the Ocean Princess, captained by Victor Bunting (Jackson’s great-grandson), has been in operation for over a decade. Victor has expanded the traditional family business by adding specialty tours unrelated to fishing, including; wine, fireworks, and custom tours. 

The Ocean Princess is docked at the end of the Dorchester Street Pier. Having never done anything like this before, I arrived at the pier well before our scheduled departure. The crew were washing down the decks and preparing for the evening cruise. Captain Bunting showed me around the boat and briefly described how the wine tours work and my role on the tour.

I was a bit nervous but I could not have picked a better night. By the time I arrived the late summer’s sun was already low in the sky and the bay water shimmered silver in the evening light. The air was warm and sultry with just a hint of salt in the sea breeze. There was just enough wind to keep it comfortable without making the water choppy.  The guests soon began to arrive and I was escorted to the wheelhouse, where I would get a front row seat next to the captain. 

The Ocean Princess was tasting four Bordeleau wines on this particular evening. My job was to describe each wine over the PA system as it was being poured. We left the dock and headed south to the inlet entrance. As luck would have it, as we passed through the inlet a pod of dolphins swam past us on our port side while a group of ponies grazed at the northern tip of Assateague Island on the starboard. We sailed up the beach for a while turned around and came through the inlet just as the sun was setting. As darkness fell, we sailed up Isle of Wight Bay, with spectacular nighttime views of Ocean City.

There is just something magical about being out on the water on a beautiful sultry summer’s evening. The fact that you get to sample local wine while enjoying the sea air, made it all the better. This was one of the most enjoyable evenings I have had in a long time. I can’t wait to do the next one. 

What else is there to do in Ocean City?

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