Mathews County has been the Memorial Day weekend destination for a group of friends for the past 30 years, but local businesses would never know it because they don’t see them.

The friends are members of Hampton Roads Fleet 30, and they sail into the East River and drop anchor at the mouth of Put-In Creek, then stay there because they can’t get into town.

That’s a shame, they all say, because they would bring business to downtown Mathews, shopping at the drugstores or the hardware store or the ABC store, buying groceries and gifts, eating at restaurants. They said they would love to have breakfast in town or listen to music at a restaurant in the evening.

“Ninety percent of these boats would go shopping,” said Arlene Connolly of Norfolk. “We bought 10 pounds of ice in Urbanna because we knew we couldn’t get it here. We would take jerry cans in and get fuel.”

Sandy Mitchell of Newport News said she and several others had walked five mi...