Five fair rivers : sailing the James, York, Rappahannock, Potomac, and Patuxent / Robert de Gast.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Gast, Robert, 1936-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rivers--Virginia.

Rivers.

Virginia.

Rivers--Maryland.

Maryland.

Virginia--Description and travel.

Maryland--Description and travel.

Physical Description:

176 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [1995]

Summary:

Alone - with not much more than a notebook, a sleeping bag, and insect repellent - the author sails, motors, and at times rows up the shallows of the James, York, Rappahannock, Potomac, and Patuxent. A devoted sailor, de Gast takes his inspiration for these trips from Captain John Smith, who, while exploring the Chesapeake in the early seventeenth century, found himself mesmerized by the magnificence and unexpected charms of the bay's "faire and delightfull navigable rivers". Traveling in Smith's wake, de Gast records the details of wind and sail, landscape and water - always with an eye toward how things differ from what greeted the captain almost four hundred years ago. He reflects with humor and warmth on the people he meets around the rivers' reaches and bends - from watermen to the chief of the Mattaponi Indians. De Gast captures the beauty of unspoiled stretches of marsh, shore, and isle; the luxury of dry socks; and the pungence of the air surrounding the West Point, Virginia, paper plant. Five Fair Rivers offers an adventure that will appeal equally to sailors and armchair travelers.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-176).

ISBN:

0801850797

OCLC:

31755231