Ruffled Duck Inn
110 N. Morris St.
Oxford, Md.
410-226-5496
ruffledduckinn.com

Inspector gadget, I’m told, is staying in the next room. Not actually the bumbling cartoon character with gadgets built into his anatomy, but the man who created him. The cartoon creator and veteran Hollywood producer is in town with his wife to pitch a new show about kids and money, starring an animated Warren Buffett(!), to execs at PBS in Washington. That, and he also recently purchased Walter Cronkite’s old yacht, Wyntje, which is undergoing restoration at an Oxford marina. (The boat was rechristened Gadget.)

I quickly learn that the Ruffled Duck Inn is a destination B&B for sailors of every stripe, even those with Hollywood pedigrees. “We wanted to create a synergy with the boating crowd,” says innkeeper and boat captain Danny Cole, who notes that many guests are acquaintances he and his wife, Libby, met at sea. “Oxford is such a salty town, we get a lot of cruisers that fit right in.”

I admit to Danny that I’m not much of a sailor, but when I notice in the living room a replica of the “leg lamp,” that famous fishnet-stocking-clad light from “A Christmas Story,” I know the Ruffled Duck and I will get along just fine.

THE INNKEEPERS The Coles run the inn along with Libby’s parents, Joyce and Dennis Buttner. All hail from Chicago and picked Oxford to open the B&B five years ago because “it was halfway between New England and Florida,” says Danny, who, along with his wife, crews an 80-foot yacht along the Intracoastal Waterway for a client during winter and spring.

THE ROOMS In keeping with the inn’s boating theme, Libby refers to each of the four guestrooms as cabins and each is decorated to reflect favorite ports of call. My bunk is the Savannah Room, with its eggplant-colored walls, framed photos of crape myrtles, and gauzy canopy above the bed. Other rooms visit the West Indies (palm tree motifs and bamboo chairs) and Cape Cod (beachy shells, light blue walls, and white furniture). The three-bedroom Suite Oxford, with a separate entrance and full kitchen, boasts a nautical theme, contemporary leather furniture, and a fun second-floor loft.

SPECIAL TOUCHES/DIVERSIONS Using his local sailing connections, Danny can arrange tours of nearby Cutts & Case or Hinckley boatyards or sails along the Tred Avon River. The inn also has several bicycles and a two-person kayak for use. Sailors—or sailor wannabes—can peruse the inn’s sailing library and its impressive collection of artifacts, including a 1860 spyglass from a Union frigate, a unique sword made from the bill of a swordfish, and a section of anchor chain from the legendary Spanish treasure galleon, Atocha.

WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST I finally meet Inspector Gadget (he’s hard to miss in a brown velvet suit and dark sunglasses) and his wife at breakfast, which is served in the inn’s red-walled dining room or on the garden-side sun porch, weather permitting. I.G. passes on breakfast (naturally) and instead downs a handful of vitamins with a half piece of toast. I, on the other hand, have no qualms about pigging out on Joyce’s excellent eggs Benedict.

ROMANCE FACTOR The West Indies, Cape Cod, or Savannah all qualify as romantic locales, right?

COST $135 and $145