Patience, Prudence, and Potowomut

Heading out into Narragansett Bay yesterday morning I was just about as happy as the cormorants pictured above.  An absolutely beautiful day was in the making and lucky was I to be in my boat and out on the water.

After launching from Oakland Beach Boat Launch in Warwick, RI, I headed south towards Warwick Light.  Along the way I paddled past several working boats, each with a crew member raking the bottom...

 ...for quahogs, I think?  I'd later find an informative article "Bullrakes to Clambakes" by Michael Bell on Quahog.org which gave me a new appreciation for the skilled work required of a Bullraker.

Soon I reached Warwick Light...

...where I left Greenwich Bay and headed towards Patience Island about a mile out in Narragansett Bay.  Once there I landed at the island's north end where trash was encountered at the high water mark...

A quick walk of this stretch of shoreline...

...produced this haul of mostly plastic flotsam...

That's a fair amount for only 60 yards or so of shoreline.  Several of the plastic containers were deteriorated to the point where they crumbled into pieces upon being picked up.  That's the most concerning thing about plastic trash...after enough time in the sun it breaks down into micro-bits which may enter the food chain and therefore eventually us.  One plastic gallon-jug still contained about half a quart of motor oil.  Fortunately, the jug's cap was on tight keeping the oil safe inside.

Back on the water I paddled east from Patience over to the nearby and much larger Prudence Island where a brief landing was made...

According to the Dictionary of American-Indian place and proper names in New England by R.A. Douglas-Lithgow the Narragansett people called Patience Island "Chibacoweda" and Prudence Island "Chibachuweset".  The islands are situated near the center of Narragansett Bay.

Reaching the south end of Patience my boat's bow pointed southward towards Conanicut Island and the Jamestown and Newport bridges...

  ...before I turned to the west and headed for Pojac Point and the Potowomut River.  After making the 2 mile crossing I entered the Potowomut River which seemed at first to be just another tidal inlet...

Once in about a mile, the inlet began to change in appearance and began to look more like a river...

Ospreys and cormorants were plentiful, as well as this egret...

At the Old Forge Road bridge I reached the end of navigation (without portaging)...

At this point the non-tidal Hunt River drops into the tidal Potowomut.  A fish ladder can be seen to the left.

Heading back down the Potowomut...

Where the river enters the bay at Marsh Point, I stopped for lunch at Marsh Point not realizing that across the inlet at Pojac Point there was formerly a 8' by 5' etched stone known as the Narragansett Runestone.

I paddled past Sandy Point and then crossed a very busy Greenwich Bay...was this October 22nd or July 4th?

Anyway, this morning I was still savoring my time on the bay when I read in the Boston Globe that three scientists from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were not allowed by EPA to speak at a conference discussing the effects global warming are having on Narragansett Bay, the largest estuary in New England.