Lewes Canal & Rehobeth Bay with River Dancer

We are getting a little better at putting River Dance in and out of the water.  We watch others detaching and attaching their boats, small and larger, one person jobs and two or more.  We fumble a bit but so far no major glitches.  

We ordered charts of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bay and tributaries.  Until it arrives we are relying carefully on our Garmin, depth finder and Google info.  And watching what other boaters are doing.  Rehobeth Bay is less than 2 feet in much of it and from a distance we watched people out of their boats apparently walking on water.  Dogs too.  Pretty cool.  

Initially we were going to run the Broadkill River from Lewes to Milton and back.  But since it was a quiet Monday we figured it might be a good time to run the Lewes Canal south to Rehobeth Bay to see what's what.  We were surprised at how few places there actually were to dock to eat from the canal.  That's probably a good thing for the environment.  The business part of Lewes along the canal was just not as large as I'd thought, somehow.  I don't know what made me imagine one thing or another.  We actually floated through stretches of the canal with no apparent development.  Other than the canal.  

Just heading out, south, from the boat dock.

Going under the bridge in Lewes. 

Then it got quiet and we started to see more wildlife. We saw blue herons and a green heron and lots of other shore birds I don't know yet. Lots of tiny crabs running for shelter as we passed along the mud banks.

We went south in Rehobeth Bay/Indian River to where we could see the Indian River Inlet bridge near the Delaware Seashore State Park & Indian River Marina.

We weren't sure whether we could slip through the canal into Assawoman Bay to Ocean City bayside.  Apparently it was last dredged in 2006, I think, and at one time was considered part of the intercostal, but not anymore.  Even with our shallow draft we weren't sure we should try it.  We are new to the area, new to our boat, and are just being careful.  

On our way back out of Rehobeth Bay we passed back through the relatively narrow jetties into the Lewes Canal again.  

A lone kayaker was in the canal.

It was a successful boat trip and we learned a lot.  We began to examine River Dancer's options for us and I began studying how to make screens for the back door and front hatch.  I tried laying in the forward berth for a while.  I haven't yet used the porta-potti that we had ready in the forward berth under the cushions.  I want to look forward to using the boat a lot and don't want to get dehydrated so I must explore this option at some point as well.  

Our next boat adventure will probably be back to Lewes to put in at their public boat dock and go north and west into the Broadkill River to Milton and back.   

Evening at Tower Road

Sunday evening, June 12, we drove to Tower Road to be in place for our Center For Inland Bays horseshoe crab counting which was to start at high tide and near full moon.  First, we drove to the ocean side of Tower Road and parked and walked the beach a bit.  The ghost crabs were out.  A few sun worshippers and romantics were still about enjoying the last of the daylight.  

When we drove around to the bay side (Rehobeth Bay) of Tower Road, there initially were lots of cars parked to watch the sunset.  Also there were a few people fishing and some kayakers coming in.  It was a nice evening.  We waited until we were the only ones parked there for a while, then our fellow horseshoe crab counters started to arrive and we took the water temperature, a sample, wind velocity and estimated wave height.  Then precisely at high tide we began counting horseshoe crabs with one team, and behind them we had another team, the one Dave and I worked on this time, to gather and tag horseshoe crabs.  Tagging them involves measuring and categorizing them by sex and estimated age in three categories: young, mature and old.  We gently put them back in the water after each tagging.  

It is so wonderful how nature works.  When we first arrived we could see a few of the rounded bumps of the horseshoe crabs near shore.  But as the time approached high tide the numbers really increased.  Amazing.  My eyes are being opened.  My mind is appreciating with each new thing I learned.  

River Dancing on the Mispillion

Yesterday we took our C-Dory for a spin on the Mispillion River.  The Mispillion runs from around the Milford, Delaware area out to the Delaware Bay.  We had it mostly to ourselves.  We encounter a couple small fishing boats just around the mouth of the river and one almost all the way to Milford.  There was one occupied house along the river and one small cabin, an abandoned and mud-filled marina. 

The Mispillion River is about 15 miles long. The reason we may have had the Mispillion mostly to ourselves yesterday could have to do with 1) we went out at low tide - we have about an 18-24 inch draft and 2) the drawbridge over the Mispillion in Milford was hit by a masonry company excavator being towed on a flatbed trailer.  It hit the bridge overhead so hard it knocked the trailer completely loose from the truck.  Lawsuits are pending.  Vineyard Shipyards is losing business.  Crabbers can't get out.  They are having their boats trailered out of Vineyard Shipyards.  

On a more pleasant note, we live near Johnson Branch, which feeds into the Mispillion.  It's a homey river to us.  We have a vested interest, even more than what we usually feel for our beautiful natural areas. 

This was really our first outing in the River Dancer other than just two sea trial efforts.  I was nervous about putting it in the water and pulling it out.  A trailered boat is much easier and cheaper to maintain, all else being equal, but putting it in and out of the water is not as easy as pulling it in and out of a slip.  It takes more focus and thought.  We need to establish confidence and some muscle memory in how we do this.  We are learning.  And of course, having a four wheel drive truck now makes it a lot safer.  Our old dually Dodge was not four wheel drive and Dave was not confident about the emergency brake.  We dealt with it, with the 15-footer I called Dad's Little Dingy.  But once I saw YouTube videos of boats on trailers and the attached trucks sliding down the slick, mucky boat ramps, I announced we had to buy a four wheel drive truck if we ever expected to putz around the country trailering our C-Dory and expecting, hoping, to put it in and out of boat slips safely.  

In our voyage yesterday we also just wanted to play with the instruments and start to get a feel for this boat.  All went well.  I look forward to exploring the rivers on the Delmarva Peninsula and that could take us some time.  It's a good problem to have.  I'm excited.  They will each be great adventures.  I love seeing parts of the country that many people never see.  Rivers and lakes in this country have so many twists and turns that are not viewable from roads or trails.  I love seeing those.  I love seeing all the wildlife, all the vegetation that is taken for granted, not appreciated by so many people.  Having said that, I admit we forgot our binoculars.  Hell, they are boat binoculars.  Made for using on boats.  And there were so many birds I'd have liked to examine through the lenses. There were lots of jumping, almost flying fish too.  

When we were getting ready to put River Dancer in the water, we watched a a small flat bottom work boat come in with two women who had on waders showing evidence of mud.  Their truck was a University of Delaware truck with something on the side that mentioned entomology and wildlife.  I spoke to one of the women who said they'd gone out near one am that morning and had a drone that they were flying to identify potential Clapper Rail nests.  Clapper Rails used to be abundant but due to loss of habitat they are increasingly rare.  They are salt marsh inhabitants and make their nests near the high tide mark along the tidal creeks.  They may have 7-11 eggs that are pale yellow to olive colored with brown and gray splotches.  The young can fly in 7-10 weeks. They eat aquatic insects, small fish, mollusks, worms and frogs, maybe seeds sometimes. In courtship the male swings his head from side to side like an exaggerated  no.  Sometimes he stands stiffly with his mouth open wide.  Hmmm... He often feeds the female.  Now we're talking. Both help build the nest.  Maybe he does more building as her body builds the eggs.  I wonder how many nests the UD scientists found.   

Before we left our house, as we were prepping River Dancer to go out, Dave found a bird nest inside the back part of the boat on the starboard side tucked in the open cavity for storing items.  I believe it was a Carolina wren nest.  They eggs, five of them, were grayish white with mottled brownish or reddish spotting.  We carefully removed the nest and placed it into a roughly protected spot near the overhang of the back of our slide-in camper.  We hated to move the nest but couldn't imagine taking it out for a spin with us in the boat.  Can you imagine the wren parent watching the boat and the nest pulling out of the drive?  Before we left, I watched and the frantic wren did find the nest in it's new location but I didn't see whether it went into the nest.  I checked again this morning and the nest is still where I placed it on the back of the camper.  I didn't stand outside long enough to see whether a parent bird was attending it.  I'll try to do that today. 

Inside the pilothouse of our C-Dory, River Dancer.

I'd have loved to check out the hundreds of waterfowl we saw while underway. 

Sunken boat in the abandoned marina just outside of Milford.  That is mud in the foregrouund.

I assume this is the old marina office at the old marina.  The pictures don't do this  "cove" justice.  It is nearly full of mud, like a big rounded mound at the mouth of this cove.

The Dupont Nature Center at the end of Lighthouse Road near where Cedar Creek and the Mispillion River empty into the Delaware Bay.

And here we are, below, with River Dancer successfully back out of the water after what amounted to our maiden voyage, the beginning of what I hope to be many safe adventures in the waters around this vast country.  Starting with the Delmarva Peninsula, of course. 

A Wedding, A Protest, A Hike and A Llama Farm

Evening in the Appalachian Foothills

A New England wedding.  A protest in front of the Supreme Court.  A hike in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.  Taking care of a llama farm in Maryland.  We like variety that is for sure. 

What fun, going to the wedding of a niece.  She converted to Judaism a year ago.  Her husband is Jewish and so are many of their friends.  Our niece and her husband first met getting their PhD's in writing and literature in Cincinnati, Kentucky.  In fact, the first time he and a friend of his saw her was at a Black Lives Matter march in Cincinnati.  She was carrying a bullhorn and was fearless.  They later started dating and moved in together during the lockdown phase of the pandemic.  They graduated a couple years ago, mid-pandemic and are now working in the New Haven, Connecticut area.  

It was fun attending the wedding, seeing the birch Chuppah, draped with lovely flowers, that Dave's brother, a Catholic and father of the bride, made for the ceremony.  I was stunned and touched when  hearing the groom's mother and the rabbi sing. And isn't it nice when people of different religious views can get along and stay loving and connected in something as important a wedding rather than split families forever?  

We stayed in Milford, Connecticut and took a nice long walk to the water front of Long Island Sound the morning of the wedding.  Here are some pictures of Long Island Sound from Milford, Connecticut.

And the wedding was fun.  Below, the mother of the bride was having a moment with two of her best friends when I approached and asked if I could join them.  They said yes, so I did.  OK, so alcohol was a factor too.  This was towards the end of the reception party.

And below, here I am with my daughter earlier in the evening. 

The day after we returned to Delaware from the wedding in Connecticut we drove to Hampstead, Maryland to farm sit a llama farm.  We've farm sat this llama farm a few times before so we've done it when there were a couple dozen llamas, donkeys, sheep, goats, a pig, several chickens and even a couple kangaroos.  Now there are only two llama's left, three donkeys, three chickens and a bunch of cats.  Barn cats, front porch cats and house cats.  The owners, friends of ours and animal lovers (except fox - they hate them because they've finagled their way in the the chicken coop and wreaked carnage in times past) are attriting the animals and plan to sell the farm and move to Delaware, perhaps not far from us. 

This is KC.

And this is Portia

And here we have Johnny and Ellie in the foreground and Barry in the background.

Basing out of the llama farm where chores were much easier and requiring much less time than in the past,  we went to Washington, DC to see what the group, Continue to Serve, was up to with their protest in front of the Supreme Court in anticipation of the overthrow of Roe V Wade and thus ignoring precedent of past court decisions and in fact setting precedent to ignore them if it doesn't suit politics of the majority conservative justices who were forced through under a criminal supported by roughly half of voting Americans.  

Continue to Serve is a veteran's group that supports Black Lives Matter, LBGTQ and women rights issues. They are anti-facist, which means they are anti-Trump and anti-sedition. Continue to Serve members walked through the DC area the night after Trump's January 6 2021 effort to overthrow the government and picked up dumpsters of trash left behind by Trump's insurrectionists.  

Continue to Serve wants people to know that not all veterans are far right extremists.  

This lady was not a member of Continue to Serve but she showed up with her wagon and her  flags and posters and music.

Speakers and organizers at our Continue to Serve protest.

2 Predators, + 1 Karen Work Here

# Pro-Choice IS Pro-Life

Keep your Religion out of My Vagina

So this is my handiwork - "Equal Justice Under Law My Ass"

A couple days later we hiked in the Cotoctin Mountains of Maryland.  We saw a snake in our trail.  

It was a beautiful day. 

And I am always cheered when reading placards at Wolf Rock that describe the Weverton Formation and how it formed 550 million years ago when the Appalachians were maybe the highest mountains on the planet. The softest top layers have eroded and the sand compressed and crystalized.  The quartzite remains and is very weather resistant but the height of the mountain is gone. I like looking at the land here and thinking about the millions of years that have gone by and how my life exists in just a speck of time.  Shit like the behavior of the Supreme Court and polarization of Americans and incredible greed and hate that people justify and feel righteous about are but just a moment in history. I prefer to focus on the natural world at times like this.