Jamestown, Va. – Shortly before sunset Friday night the crew of a Jamestown-Scotland Ferry vessel got to meet the little lady that ‘ferry tales’ are made of. Or, in this case, a baby girl who just couldn’t wait to reach the banks of the James River.
Emmaleigh Jane Cline was born early Wednesday morning by flashlight on the vessel Williamsburg. She headed to her Surry County home for the first time Friday evening, but not before taking another boat ride.
Emmaleigh’s mother Kayla was in labor when she boarded the ferry shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday. But not long after leaving the shoreline, Kayla realized she wouldn’t make it to land and told her husband Jonathan he would have to deliver their daughter.
He did, in their pickup truck, with a little help from a health care worker who held a flashlight and some Jamestown-Scotland Ferry deckhands who scrambled to make sure her birth was smooth sailing.
Tonight, the same crew was on hand as the Cline family brought Emmaleigh home, and they got to meet the family’s 6-pound bundle of joy who is believed to be the first person ever born on the ferry system.
