June 13, 1999

Jellies In The Rolling Hole

Trip #26

MAP

10.1 Miles

I procrastinated all week getting a few small fiberglass repairs completed on the Guillemot. This was a couple of places I created during the construction and did not notice them until last weekend. So Thursday I laid down the fiberglass patches and placed a second coat of epoxy on Friday. Saturday morning I feathered in the patches with a palm sander and coated everything with a coat of varnish. The boat was screaming to get wet by the time Saturday evening rolled around.

Joan called and we decided to meet at Pier 7. Joan would show me the "rolling hole" and we would try to get a little practice in. I showed up an hour early and got on the water and paddled out so I could see the cars crossing the Route 2 bridge. I kept looking for Joan's little red boat to cross the bridge, but the first time I saw it was as Joan paddled up to me.

Joan told me she had been there for a half hour and told me I could have launched from a spot about 100 feet from where I did and not paid the $5 launch fee. We then headed to the rolling hole. The rolling hole is a deep area with a sandy bottom close to the bank. It looks like this area was dredged for the boat slips nearby. As Joan was telling me the seaweed had made her legs itch I notice a couple of small jellyfish. No rolling practice for me today. Call me a big sissy, but it would be my luck one of these things would position itself across my mouth just as I was coming up for air. We beached so Joan could move her car, and I noticed another jelly while waiting.

We decided to paddle down river. The South River is FULL of little side creeks, but we ignored them all as we paddled out towards the Chesapeake Bay. Past Warehouse and Almshouse creeks, gliding by London Town Public House, across Glebe Bay and Larkington Cove. Somewhere in all this we stopped and watched the rain move across the water towards us. We decided to beach so Joan could get a hat and as soon as she retrieved it from a hatch it stopped raining. A large boat went by as we were beached and the waves gave me a chance to try entering my kayak in surf. It was all I could do to hang on to the kayak as the waves toss it in the air when I pulled it from the bank. As I tried to get in a wave picked me up and tossed me to the side and I got the bottom half of me covered in salt water. Joan found my unique ability to find imaginative ways to get wet quite funny.

On across Limehouse Cove and Selby Bay to just beyond Turkey Point. As we passed near Turkey point my kayak bounced off a wood pilling just below the surface of the water.

After beaching for a snack, we stood on shore and looked out into the bay. About 8 miles out from where we stood we could see the neck of land sticking out from the other side of the bay - the tip being Kent Point. The sailboats were out in force as well as the bigger pleasure boats. Back in the boats and heading back to the marina, we decided we might be able to get a little relief from the wind by crossing over. We waited till we got to Mayo Point so the river section would be shorter. There was a long line of boats passing and we waited for them to pass before sprinting across.

While crossing over we could see 3 red kayaks, or at least what we thought was kayaks. We couldn't make out the telltale flash of the paddles until we were much closer. The kayaker's all had black paddle blades that could not be seen from far away. The 3 kayaks became 4 as we approached and could make out the last boat as a stitch and glue boat. Lee, who was out teaching a class on kayaking, piloted the wooden boat. Lee and I knew each other from Nick Schade's kayak building web site and it was great to put a face to the messages.

Lee's class was beaching for a break so we paddled on across Harness, Aberdeen, Crab and Church creeks until we got back to the Route 2 bridge. The traffic was a little heavy and we jumped from pylon to pylon to make sure we didn't get ran over. After crossing we paddled up to the launch ramps, packed and left for home.