"...fish that are longer than me with much sharper teeth...."

At least this time I didn’t run into five jellyfish. And a crab.
Last week I swam across the 3 ½ mile wide Pamlico River. Again. I do it about every decade.
You can check out my last attempt on the blog: www.shelbystar.com/blogs.asp. Here’s a hint, “Maybe I should have taken a cue from the two-foot stingray I’d found in the river the day before. It was dead.”
I was on vacation at my family’s cottage on the river in Beaufort County, downstream of Bath, our state’s oldest town – 300 this year. The small house was hand-built by my grandfather with WWII surplus but no power tools and is part of an incredibly stable community called Rest Haven that was founded post-war by folks looking to escape hot summers with costal breezes and cooling waters.
A few years ago many of the original families, even the original people, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of our lay Sunday School.
We didn’t install heat and air until last year.
We like it somewhat rustic.
I had my 24th birthday while we were there, and that brings up one of the folks responsible. He’s the real hero/fool of the swimming adventure. He swam over before I swam back. He’s 58. He’s my Dad, and he was a state championship swimmer back in high school.
And he swam it a full hour faster than my weak 3:20 time.
“At 58 years old, I should know better than to do this sort of thing, but there weren't any sharks and only one jellyfish.”
I guess my Mom holds the family grey cells. She took up crochet – a porch-borne activity imparting scant risk of being sun burned/stung/eaten.
We started early in the morning while the river was still and the sun was low. I guided my 9-foot dinghy alongside my Dad – a favor he’d repay on the return trip, which he said taxed him more than the swim.
It’s not easy motoring so close to a swimmer that their splashes land inside the small boat, sitting hunched over the engine, constantly countering the forces of wind and waves, shifting in and out of gear to match the swimmer’s changing stroke and speed while staying on course (taking some pictures, check the blog) and keeping an eye out for other boats… and fins.
Yeah, we have critters in the river, though thankfully not too many jellyfish this year. The Pamlico River is ecologically interesting – a brackish mix of sea life and freshwater species. Within a quarter mile you might find both dolphins and largemouth bass… sharks and alligators.
We don’t see them often, but they’re there and I’ve got my fingers crossed (I did get to see a black bear one night. On land).
My Dad didn’t tell me at the time, but while I was in the water we crossed astern of someone trolling, that is dragging bait in the water on a line hoping for something to bite (kind of like waterskiing) – likely for tarpon, fish that are longer than me with much sharper teeth.
Last time I completed a crossing I was 16. This time I was in my twenties. We’re thinking we might try this each decade of our lives.
I’ve bought myself about 15 more years.