Adventures of Patito Amistoso: Chapter Five

Dear Children at Safe Passage and everywhere around the world,

Me telling my new friends about my adventures as we play on the kayak.

It has been an exciting few weeks since New York City and then visiting Deb's grandchildren.
It was way too rough to do a beach launch into the big surf on the Jersey Shore, so I was very pleased when Deb decided we would launch the kayak at the Shark River Inlet instead.  It was not a bad day out on the ocean watching the surfers as we paddled way outside of the waves.

Then we went in the Manisquam Inlet and left the Atlantic Ocean behind.  Deb thought it would be easy paddling in the inside.  Boy was she wrong!  There are high winds and string currents running through the bays and marshes on the inside.  We almost ran out of steam with the high winds before reaching Atlantic City.  I was trying to cheer Deb on by singing some of the songs the children at Safe Passage sing.  She said it helped a lot.  The locals say that this area is the windiest part of the United States, and we believe them!

By working so hard, Deb got run down and caught a cold.  She is coughing, coughing, coughing, so it hard to get a good night's sleep.  In the meantime I have found some other rubber duckies to play with.

The picture above shows us all lined up on the kayak as I tell them what our adventures have been like.  They were amazed at the stories I told (which were mostly true.)

Then they showed me how they play in the fish pond where they live.  They are very "cool" ducks with their sunglasses.

Playing in their fish pond and catching tiny fish

Today is a "Small Craft Advisory", which means the winds are near gale force and small boats should not be out on the water.  Three days on this expedition Deb has insisted we paddle during a Small Craft Advisory, but today she agrees with me that we should rest instead.

Tomorrow we are "crossing the Delaware".  It will be a bit of a challenge, but I have more confidence now that Deb can get us across.  Do you know about the famous painting of George Washington, the first president of the United States crossing the Delaware?

Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanual Leutze

At least President Washington had the good sense to cross it way upstream where it is just a river, and not where we will cross in the Delaware Bay.  Sigh...

Your Friendly Duckie,

Patito Amistoso