Continued from Part 1
The next week was spent sometimes completely isolated from the hustle and bustle of this day and age. We spent long days paddling , making our way farther and farther down river, only taking breaks for the increasingly stronger incoming tides, all the while, having a time.
Random log entries from the crew…
‘Day 1-Slow floating, fast towing thanks to rick, Debbie, Debbie, and PeeWee. Made it to Dutch Gap. Ate pork and beans, drank some whiskey, sleep.’ -Brian
‘This river gets sketchy at night’ -Jay
‘I’m going to kill you, survive you and kill you again’ -redneck boater
‘Day 2-Woke up to 30 vultures peering at us, Dutch Gap, potatoes, dried eggs and coffee too’-Evan
‘Walking vine fine as strawberry wine. S.S. We don’t give a shipwreck. I ate a hot dog today but it’s ok because I’m on vacation. April towed us as far as she could until the tide started to flow against us, damn near pulled the boat apart. Shit got hectic for a second. Tied up to a cable ferry at Turkey Island until the river flowed our way again. I’m the type of sista that knows a drink is not an engagement ring. Handled our first industrial wake courtesy of the Johnny Clay. This river is going to push us wherever it wants. You can do your best, hold your course, paddle your ass off if you want, but she’s gonna pull you downstream however she wants, just float.’-Kitt
‘Outa the can into the man, major rager, LIFE’S A BEACH, BITCH’-Franny
‘Day 3- City Point, Hopewell. Crossed the channel early dodging a 300+ ft.tanker and tugboat. Boats are getting bigger and we can’t fight the incoming tides, taking a break at low tide 1:00 pm, leave with high tide at 7:45pm. Going on a walk to try and find a cold beverage.’-Evan
‘Day 4- Crabby Mikes marina. Girl got pissed at us this morning(for staying at the marina) Slept on a million dollar yacht(sick). Ashley brought us a trolling motor, now we are covering a lot of grou… water. 3 bottles of wine for breakfast, super chill day on the James.’-Jay
‘Passed same tanker as yesterday and his little brother, safe distance, good sight. Dropped the trolling motor, working great, looking for spots to pirate power for recharge. Slept on a pontoon boat lifted out of the water,found vodka and V8 in the cupboard, bloody mary! Police came and we played the freeze game, worked out fine.’-Evan
‘Day 1 for me. Deciced to call in to work and ditch the food stamp interview, good decision. Never been on a boat trip before, exited, good tunes and good dudes.Saw a bush that looked like giant bear and a bug that looked like it was wearing armor and had a mean sting. Snpped a picture of it.’-Ashley
‘Feels like we are lost in the Pacific somewhere exotic. We are saving fish bones and scraping the bugs off our food., all the while the Richmond traffic report still comes in on the radio. It took Ashley and Abbie 30 min. to drive to us last night.’-Kitt
‘Walked some miles through corn and soybean fields on a big ass plantation, ran into Franny and Kitt, also exploring and teamed up to find a store, walked a total of about ten miles, rewarded with 24 beers, 5 packs of cigarettes, sodas, pretty sights, and came back to a sweet fire. I also learned that feed corn tastes gross. Also rocked out hard to Baba-O-Reily’-Ashley
‘Last night we decided to use the tide to our advantage, so there we are making great progress, not noticing that we drifted right into the channel, which is a no-no. We were keeping a good watch, all the paddlers watching the bow and Evan was on the trolling motor watching stern. Everything is cool, all the sudden ‘Tug boat coming up behind us, fast!’ Tugboat pushing a barge heading straight for us. Things got real serious in a hurry. Motor on full with no regard for battery life, making a B line for shore, paddling our ass off. They got close enough to put the spot light on us, made it by 50 yards maybe.’-Kitt
Going Nowhere Slow Part 2 from Least Most on Vimeo.
