During walks along the Delaware, I'd noticed what appeared to be an inflated river raft washed up on Raub's Island after the last flood. If I could get it, I could photograph anywhere on the river.
On the first mild Saturday in March, I called my friend Mel for help getting a car to the raft, assuming I got it across the river. Mel met me at the landing wearing rubber boots, just as two young men returned. "Did you see the raft?" I asked. They had, but said it was a fiberglass speedboat, in rough condition.
Mel and I went anyway, and sure enough, the heavy little speedboat lay against a tree, motor gone...not for rafting. On the way back, Mel called his wife to say he was on an island but would be home in half and hour. 3/25/06
The craft had gashes and a hole where the motor had been, but it did look seaworthy. The next day I went back, and the boat had been turned over. A few days after that, it was leaning on its side against a tree, about 10 yards closer to a steep bank beside the river.
Finally, about a week after people could walk to the island, someone pushed it into the water. Since the channel on the west side of the island was blocked by the land bridge, the water was dead still, and the boat just floated there for couple of weeks or so.
Eventually, I reached the boat one evening as the sun was setting. It was beached near the Pennsylvania bank and floating upright. I shot several photos of the boat with the sky turning pink and Raub's Island in the background.
Finally, it rained, and the land bridge was almost immediately submerged under a torrent of water. A few days later, while walking at Fry's Run, I suddenly noticed the boat floating by, right below me.
I ran to get ahead of it, at a place where two trees framed a nice view down the river toward Riegelsville. I set the camera on a tripod and snapped off a few frames as the missing speedboat headed south, never to be seen again. 4/8/06
