Guest blogger: Margo Pellegrino's message in a bottle for healthy oceans--Day 6
Posted July 5, 2008 in Reviving the World's Oceans
NRDC is partnering with Margo Pellegrino as she paddles 500 miles from New Jersey to Washington, DC, in support of a new ocean protection bill, Oceans 21 (H.R. 21). On Day 6 Margo paddles past Philadelphia on the Delaware River.
Margo's blog: July 4
This morning the entire Pellegrino family (minus Braska) found itself on the road to Trenton. Once we arrived at the Lamberton Boat Launch, Carl and I put the Fuze together and got it loaded up in record time and I was off and flying. The tide up in that part of the Delaware zooms and miles zip away. This fast pace stays fairly consistent until the bridge after the Burlington Bristol Bridge, which I thought was the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, but wasn't, as I later found out when I went under the T-P Bridge, thinking at first that it was the Betsy Ross......
On the Delaware I was joined with a few of the members of the Philadelphia Outrigger Canoe Club. We had our own little armada--Jill in the OC2, Ken, our fearless leader, Neal, Gary, and Jamie. It was pretty cool to be paddling abreast like that on the Delaware. I think everyone enjoyed their newfound freedom from the confines of the Schuylkill River. Ken even had a reporter out there, too! She was waiting on the rocks for us at Penn Treaty Park, an interesting little park with a lot of history.
After the gang left me, so did the tide, so I had to crawl the last bunch of miles to Ridley Marina. Seeing that things weren't going to work out for my boat to stay there overnight, I paddled back out to another marina, the West End Boat Club.
Now I'm back in NJ, at home, where I'm planning on hopping in bed as soon as possible so I can have another 5am start on the Delaware. This time, from Essington, where my goal will be Chesapeake City, conditions permitting! 5am is actually a wonderful time to be on the water. The day is fresh and new, and there's paddling in new waters to look forward to!
Comments are closed for this post.
Comments
Kathy Bozzo — Jul 7 2008 01:27 AM
Margo,
Once again I am proud that you are out there pushing for recognition of the poor state of the oceans. Just walking along the beach in Ocean City, NJ it is discouraging to see that people are careless and leave bottles, cans, cigarette butts, plastic shovels etc when they are finished with the pleasures of the beach each day. Along with the big concerns for the ocean pollution let's see if we can raise awareness here when you vacation in NJ.
I hope that HR 21 will be a good bill and that Congress will recognize the need to protect the ocean now. Be safe, have a good paddle and am looking forward to seeing you in OC.
KB