Some Birds and Dolphins to Lighten My Reader's Monday!

The wild life around Southport is endlessly entertaining to me. It is not just the challenges of sea kayaking that draw me on to the water. It is the water world we live on that thrills me and entices me. I am not exactly a "birder," although I do sometimes exhibit the symptoms. Sometimes I am taking pictures when big waves break over me. I have risked a flip many times in order to get a dolphin or bird photo. What can I say? I am enchanted by nature.

There are these comical looking birds that "hang out" around Southport.  I believe they are American Oystercatchers. They have a vaguely Puffin-like appearance, or maybe I am thinking of Penguins? Either way, their long bills almost look like they are holding carrots in their mouths. Like all the wildlife around Southport, they are skittish, as any smart wild animal should be. So I was happy when I off-loaded my photos from last week this morning, and I had a few good shots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_oystercatcher


Dolphins. What can I say? Show me someone who is not fascinated by dolphins. I admit that I would be curious and somewhat appalled by such a person. Dolphins represent intense intelligence that is not human. Just spending a few minutes with them close to my boat thrills me, and fills me with awe and appreciation. Coach feels the same way. We always pause and watch when they are near.

A chance encounter with fog

I have been scooting off to Southport NC to paddle with my coach whenever possible. His family has been quite accommodating. Southport is a lovely town. The water around there can be flat, or challenging, depending on where one paddles.

We got a good dose of fog last Wednesday. It was a total white out. I have very little experience with paddling in fog and am just learning navigation. The fog gave me its own peculiar challenge, trying to discern where waves were breaking or land might be.

Most of my photos from the day appear to be black and white. But I assure my dear reader that the color was missing due to conditions, rather than editing.

A break on the shore of Oak Island, not much to see in the fog

Lighthouse? Nah, wait, really? We could NOT see the light at all

Finally, after all this time I get a photo of a dolphin, kind of.

Then for a brief moment the fog lifted and everything turned blue

Another view of the lighthouse, before the fog descended to white out again

The weather man had told us that morning that the fog would burn off by 10 am. This did not happen. Instead, it hung around all day making our planned attempt on Frying Pan Shoals unsafe. We hand railed along a set of small islands until we made the tip of Oak Island out through the fog. After an abortive attempt on crossing to Bald Head Island we decided to stick near Oak Island. We had found good quality rollers on the ocean side of the island and we ended up playing in those as the fog wafted around us. Coach had me practicing turns and I had some challenges not getting knocked over broach by the waves.

When we get off the water there is a coffee shop with this incredible crumb cake just waiting for us. Hot decaf with cream and 1/2 a slice of crumb cake...nom...

The fog lifted as we were packing up at the marina. Rearing up behind the water front, the fog waits only a few minutes before descending again.

I can not express clearly enough how well Coach chose his locale. Dolphins, birds, wind, pop corn water, big big rollers...and somewhere in there flat calm water, all just waiting to be paddled.  This was yet another magical day in Southport. I think I am in love.

Action shots from Tybee Island November Session 2014

I am planning to buy a GoPro or something. It tends to be risky to reach for my camera in the waves. Hard to hold on to one's paddle and take a picture at the same time. Also, I seem to have taken many shots of my deck. Gee, how did that happen?

Full moon the night we arrived in Tybee

Lining up to launch

um

Kevin catching a little one

climbing a wave

Looks like Sandy Bottom and Tom heading back out to line up

This is mostly what I saw of others, disembodied heads over the top of waves.

Tom explaining towing

Heading back to the house, our rental is far right 

the beach was quite steep in front of our place

Sorry for falling silent

I am still battling exhaustion gathered while on a long road trip that included rough water training with Dale Williams and Tom Noffsinger. For whatever reason, by the time I got home, six days after starting my journey, I was wiped out.

Week long trip down the East Coast

The link to the above photos will hopefully work. The album is unedited so the photos are "raw." I do not normally allow my pictures to go up without processing but in this case I decided it is a genuine reflection of my experience.

It has been hard for me to convince myself that I needed to talk about my week-long foray into the kind of water I am unused to paddling.

While hind-sight is 20-20 I had no illusions going into the trip about my skills, or lack thereof. I was not surprised the first time I flipped, or the 5th time either. My boat performed admirably, but I did not. My take aways are:

Tybee Island is amazing, wonderful, and surrounded by amble big water.

I need a full-on drysuit. My Kokatat paddler's suit held up but I did get some water in at the neoprene neck.

I suck. I need to seek rough water out for mucho practice.

I held my braces too long and was too tense on the first day. By the second day I was throwing down brace-forward stroke-brace and stayed upright  much better. By the third day I did not flip even once. The third day I was more relaxed because I was so exhausted, ha ha. Brian said "you should be tired when you go home," and I was.

Actually, I was so tired I did not make it back out on to the water until the following Sunday.

Wednesday trip from Marshall Hall

Wednesday I met up with CKA at a launch on the Maryland side of the Potomac at Marshall Hall. As with many of Chuck's launches, there is no fee to put in, but also few facilities. The pair of ramps and pier seem well maintained. Our plan was to paddle some miles, and then enter Dogue Creek, stop at Washington's Grist Mill for a tour and lunch, before returning to Marshall Hall. This trip would lead us in a circle, only in Dogue Creek would we return the way we came.

There was a porta-john but it was truly the dirtiest one I have ever seen. But after coffee and the 45 minute drive...that was the first time I have used one of the individually packaged santi-wipes that are in my boating box. Ugh. A reader might gather that I must have been really grossed out to mention it on my blog. Anyway, I advised the other ladies to use the bushes, the outdoors is a much cleaner place.

Moving on,  we launched well, and headed up-river to view Mount Vernon and the Virginia side of the Potomac. The winds were predicted to be fairly mild but they grew stronger as we paddled. Once we turned down river we stayed close to shore in order to shelter from the wind. We entered Little Hunting Creek but found the wind as fierce, if not more, than on the main river. After some house envy touring, dream purchasing ideal houses, we went back to the main river.

As we got to Dogue Creek the wind turned fierce and gathering black clouds foreboding. We had nice rollers with white caps. Group consensus: run before the storm. So we skipped our goal of picnic and tour of the Grist Mill. Surfing the rollers back to launch was a thrill for me but apparently not so much for the other paddlers in less ideal boats. I think Dennis, in a CD Gulfstream,  and I got the best rides.

When I mentioned at lunch that my boat was made for these conditions several people said "Ah ha! So I really can blame my boat?!" To an extent, yes, many "day touring" boats are not made to take advantage of wave action. Even my CD Solstice is not as stable in following seas when she is empty of cargo. Pack 80 pounds of gear in her and the game changes. But that is another boat, another another story all together.

Lisa walking down to check out the launch

Marshall Hall's skeleton

 

My foredeck with a pile of gadgets

The water was smooth and there was just a light breeze as we launched

I think I was first on the water, unusual for me, I am usually among the last.

Lisa and me, Credit Yoshi 2014

Just a hint of the storm front that would drive us off the water later

Companions on the water

House envy touring in the canals off Little Hunting Creek, Credit Yoshi 2014

Leaving Little Hunting Creek, the current under the bridge can be a beast

Headed down river towards Dogue Creek

What's this? Kayakers love water and food. Not sure which is more popular sometimes.

Ah Sunday, gentle Sunday at Kiptopeke 2014

I am a class-junky, an eternal student. I love classes, and learning. This year Dubside, this guy:
Dubside rolling video

told me something I have confirmed as truth: Instructors hate to be tapped for the last class of a Symposium or Festival as almost none of the students show up. (!) No sh*t, really?! Ah, now I have been that student and I can say in some paddlers' cases it is the physical exhaustion from paddling several days in a row, as Dubside supposed to me. But for myself, since he gave me this nugget, I surge strong at the end, knowing I will have an instructor with less students on her/his hands. Nice.

So Sunday dawns and I am all over this boat control class I have scheduled: Boat Body Blade with Chris Raab. It does not matter that I am firing on yet another bad night's sleep, or that my allergies are killing me. No no, I am gonna kill this. I *need* this class, I am a sloppy paddler whose arms are flapping, elbows akimbo, I know I look like a noob.

I want elegance, like a yoga pose, gentle flowing beauty. I deeply desire boat dancing, even if it takes me another ten years. This is my *thing*.

I have forgotten this young man's name. He was in at least two of my classes with me. Maybe I need to start writing down names, like a journalist.

Liz, looking elegant here, was in all three of my classes. She lives in the WDC metro area, like me.

The "lesson" beach. 

I am *also* sitting on my back deck like Chris and Brian here. I was snapping photos while balancing like a gymnast on the balance beam. Because I wanted to take pictures I did not try to cross my legs like Chris urged a couple of other paddlers into. I am pretty sure Liz nailed it, wow!

Chris is just starting to sit "side saddle."

Oops, lost one, and then another. No shame in that. This is not an easy exercise. Great practice for balance!

This class was the perfect way to end the Symposium. I learned I was turning my low brace turn stroke in to a reverse sweep stroke. That needs fixing! What a fun class, and just what I was looking for in adding finesse to my strokes. I really like Chris, he is amusing, which makes learning easy.

I am definitely "in" for next year. What a great experience. Many thanks to Rick for orchestrating all this!