Swift

Stowaway

I swam for the island because I was hungry. Little did I know it would be an adventure of a lifetime.

I’ve spent my whole life on the Pungo River in North Carolina. I built myself a cozy nest to call home on a lovely wooded area of swamp. I enjoy the nights…the star filled skies, the sounds the swamp life chatting away. The summers are warm and still. It was on a night like this that I was out for a swim, and got a little peckish. An island in the distance shone brightly. I knew from experience that places like that were good places to eat. If the lights are on at this hour, someone’s cooking.

The shore I landed on was cool and clean…an odd feeling from the muck I was used to. A passing summertime thunderstorm had left a layer of cool, clean water on everything; it was like heaven! I strolled along the shore, sometimes skipping a step. And there was food, but not as much as I had originally hoped.
I had a quick bite, then sat on the shore enjoying the evening.

Before I knew it, it was dawn. The air was so still, I knew it would be a hot one. Having lost track of time, I didn’t think I’d have time to swim home so I found myself a cozy spot on my new island home.

It was about this time that things started going badly. Sure, maybe I should’ve noticed that instead of sand the beach here was made of a slippy white material. Sure, maybe I should’ve taken note of the trees with silver trunks and arching white canopy. Or the grass that was made of striped brightly colored fabric.

But I didn’t notice. In the morning, great creatures roamed about and mechanical sounds rumbled to life. My beautiful island is a ship! And I am an inadvertent castaway!

Lucky for me the alien inhabitants of my island ship seem generally uninterested in my presence. I believe that the quadruped Chief of Security has yet to spot (or smell) me. This is my greatest threat, because he seems very interested in the food supplies.

I was not alone in my swim for the mystical island of light. It was a good place to find food, and I believe that a few of my kind my also have joined me on the adventure. I have risked a few calls to see who’s here, but the information coming back is sketchy.

Will I ever see my little patch of swamp again? If you are reading this, please send swamp water and small bugs.

Thanks... Stowaway Tree Frog


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7 comments

  1. Matt, that was brilliant. I've often wondered what it would be like to be a tree frog, and now I know. We don't get many stowaways up here, but I do dream from time to time that a cougar is on board and has us trapped in the aft cabin thanks to a YouTube video I saw years ago of one trying to board a power boat mid-channel because it was tired from swimming.

    Stephanie @ SV CAMBRIA

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    1. A cougar - that would be an exciting blog entry! Our guidebook told us to be on the lookout for critters on the shore, and watch for black bears swimming across the canal. Unfortunately, we didn't see any.

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  3. What a beautiful creature. Maybe you can teach him to croak "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" How many have you found so far? The freakiest stowaways I have been told are snakes, as some of our friends experienced in the Dominican Republic and Panama. We only encountered geckos and tinier flour-devouring creatures on Irie.

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    1. Snakes...yikes! Let's see, we have 3 that are hanging out in the traveler, 3 that live in the dinghy and get dinghy rides but refuse to get off on land, one in the shower, and one in the bed.... and there's probably more! I've tried to help them get back to more suitable environments, but them just swim back aboard!

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    2. Wow! This is really funny!!! Are they forming a choir yet? :-)

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    3. They should be.... but they don't seem organized enough. I bet Hastings would make a good choir master though!

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