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.