Niger River Project

Yesterday evening saw the maiden voyage of the beautiful green canoe that is to be Dan and my lifeline in weeks to come. The evening before I peformed a brief ceremony involving the pouring of a few drops (wouldn’t want to waste too much) of white wine (not Champagne; times are hard) over the hull and gunwhales.

The problem is – and comments would be gratefully received here – I want to call ‘her’ The Mungo Park – but obviously the use of a masculine name isn’t consistent with the tradition of ships taking female identities. Does anyone know anything about this? I’m not that fussed, but I guess what I’m driving it is that I don’t want to incur the wrath of Davey Jones by getting it wrong and ending up at the bottom of the Niger. Come on all you nautical types out there…

Naming complications aside, she handled beautifully. I know Salisbury’s Nadder and Avon rivers are about as far removed from the Niger as you can get, but ultimately a river’s a river, and she took it all in her stride. I’m not quite sure what she’ll be like in whitewater, but to be honest if it gets that gnarly out there, I’m quite happy to get out and walk!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 6:44 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.