Day 281

Captain’s Log

June 14 2009

Niki is gone !! They say when the rats jump overboard the ship issinking. Well relax. Niki isn’t a rat and the ship’s not sinking. Besides she didn’t jump overboard. She stepped gracefully from the boatto the dock, a well seasoned (and tanned) sailor. She’s back in St.Thomas to have a long overdue adjustment from her orthodontist on thosebraces. She has been in pain for some time now since the usual 6 – 8 weekadjustments haven’t happened since Christmas.

Like all other things for ship captains (and housewives) I get to pick upany unfinished tasks which in this case is her Blog. I’m not much of ablogger. More a factual reporter of events (slanted perhaps toward myperspective). So I won’t be giving you a daily play by play but I willendeavour to keep you abreast of our whereabouts and wellbeing till wecomplete the voyage.

We arrived at Hampton Roads Public Piers across from Norfolk VA onThursday. Saturday we rented a car and drove to I95 to meet up with Kathyand Larry MacAulay and Maria. Niki is driving home to St. Thomas withthem. They have opted to leave their boat in Florida and return for moresailing in the fall.

We planned to leave early this morning to head up the Bay but the Bay wastotally fogged in. By the time it clears it makes for a very late startso we decided to relax one more day.

As we move around we are continually bumping into boats we’ve seen before.Last night a dinghy stopped by our dock to say hi. They are from theHudson River in a trawler and we last saw them in Georgetown, the Bahamas.

On the trip down I expressed wonderment at the number and size of riversin America. So at fort Pierce I thought i would start listing the riverswe travel on. Although the odd one is called a creek it is a river by anystandard we might have in Canada. These are only the rivers we actuallytravelled in the past month and do not include ditches that are simplylabelled on the chart as ‘Intra coastal waterway’. For the most part theyare wide and long but often shallow. I have also omitted the vast‘sounds’ we cross. These are bodies of water that lie between mainlandAmerica and the barrier islands, reefs and sand dunes that separate thesound from the north Atlantic Ocean. Here’s the list as far north asNorfolk/Hampton Roads.

Indian River
Halifax R
Matanza R
Tolomato R
St John’s R
Sisters Creek
Sawpit Creek
Nassau R
South Amelia R
Amelia R
St Mary’s R
Cumberland R
Jekyll Creek
MacKay R
Frederica R
Altamaha R
Little Mud R
Darien R
North R
Old Teakette Creek
Front R
Sapelo R
South Newport R
Johnson Creek
North Newport R
Bear R
Ogeechee R
Burnside R
Skidaway R
Wilmington R
Savannah R
Wright R
New R
Ramshorn Creek
Skull Creek
Chechesseer R
Beaufort R
Coosaw R
Rock Creek
Ashepoo R
South Edisto R
North Creek
Dawho R
North Edisto R
Stono R
Cooper R
Ashley R
Harbor R
Winyaw R
Waccawmaw R
Little R
Cape Fear R
New River
Newport R
Core Creek
Adams Creek
Neuse R
Pamlico R
Goose R
Pungo R
Alligator R
Pasquotank R
North R
North Landing R
Elizabeth R
Hampton R

And the sounds
Cumberland, St. Andrews, Jekyll, St. Simons, Buttermilk, Doboy, Sapelo,St. Catharines, Calibogue, Port Royal, Myrtle Grove, Masonboro, Topsail,Bogue, Albemarle, Currituck,

Wayne

Wayne Kentner
wkentner@amtelecom.net