November 27, 1999

Baltimore Harbor

Trip #67

12.6 miles

MAP

John was putting on a trip to Baltimore Harbor. The idea appealed to me, but they wouldn't arrive till 10:00 am. I like to do the bulk of my paddling in the early morning before the boaters awake so I decided to go at it alone.

I arrived at the harbor about 8:00 and started to unload the yak. I started to take a last minute bathroom break, but finding a man asleep on the floor in a sleeping bag, I decided not to disturb him. A man got out of some sort of commercial truck and said "If I had my kayak, I'd go with you." We chatted for a while and I noticed he walked with a strong limp. He told me he did most of his paddling in the harbor at night. Going out after dark and paddling for five or six hours. He told me about the harbor and places not to go near.

As we chatted a man in a home built dory unloaded and launched. I watched him row out into the channel and stop for a while. The boat seemed fast. The man with the limp mentioned he wanted to buy a dory and do away with his kayak because he had no hips. Out in the water I saw a small craft with a big screen cage looking device on the front. I asked the limping man what it was and he told me it picked up trash from the water. He told me to stay away from the storm drains as the rain the night before had flushed a lot of trash into the harbor and these little boats would be scooping it up.

I launched into the water and turned right, heading for the inner harbor. I turned on my vhf radio and set it to scan some preset channels. Most of the chatter this morning was between the fishermen trying to find the fish.

The wind was blowing pretty good, but there were only tiny waves. This trip out I got a good handle on adjusting the skeg to the wind since there were no waves to sway my judgement. Along my right there were lots of docks with many boats tied up behind them in several marinas. I was glad the weather has turned cold enough there aren't many boaters on the water any more. If this were summer, this is one place I would not want to paddle.

I saw some docks that from a distance looked like they had taken a beating over the years. As I got closer I could see they were charred from a fire. An old railroad building had burned with the dock. I pass Fells Point on my right. Between 1730 and 1763 the shipbuilding industry grew wildly as did wharves, warehouses, saloons, dance halls, and flop houses for the sailors (A recent local history speculates that this "notorious hook of land" may have been the origin of the term "hooker").

Again on the right is a large, cream-colored older building with a big sign proclaiming it to be the "City Pier." This pier is currently home base and precinct house for the TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street."

After passing a few more piers I came to the frigate USS Constellation. A tall wooden sailing ship armed to the brim with cannons and sister ship to the USS Constitution. Beside her was the Pride of Baltimore II, a long narrow sailing vessel. Not far away is the submarine Torsk, the last US sub to leave the Pacific after World War II.

After looking the ships over I turned and headed back. I crossed over to the far side past the Domino sugar plant and headed around Fort McHenry, the birthplace to our national anthem. I circled around and paddled up to Winans Cove before deciding to turn around and head back. With the wind at my back I made it to the fort in no time, and chose to cross the channel at the red and green bouys. Back at the launch site I ate lunch and seeing no signs of the late morning kayak group except for their empty cars, I got back on the water to go find them.

Earlier in the morning I had been listening to the tug boat operators get ready to push a ship out to the bay. I finally figured out which ship they were talking about as it started moving out of the slip to the left of the launch site. I also knew from listening they would be bringing in another ship to replace it before long.

I paddled back towards the inner harbor but about the time I got even with the Domino plant I saw tiny kayaks on the far side. I cut across the channel but I was far behind and didn't catch them until they had started back across to the launch site. John was paddling a double with only himself in it. It looked like a chore to paddle since the front end was out of the water. An Atlantis was keeping him company and out front I could see Joan's red boat and 'Team Titanic.'

Back on shore we chatted for a bit and a big red ship started coming in under the command of two big tug boats. They were backing it into the slip that was just vacated. I loaded up and headed home, passing the 'landward' side of the slip as the tugs were pushing the ship firmly against the dock.

Keeping cool - Today had been an easy pace. I had worn my dry suit and also a neoprene hood until the sun came out in full force. I took the hood off to cool off and occasionally trolled my hands in the water as well. I never felt too warm and I became used to the constriction around my neck from the dry suit. The water was too nasty for me to roll to stay cool. The air had the slight stench of rotten eggs. Not real strong, but enough to notice.

I felt stable and more confident today. Maybe because of the skills practice from the day before. I also found getting in and out of the kayak harder with the dry suit on as it is a bit snug and makes me feel even fatter. At one point in the trip I had some bunched up clothes at my waist that I thought would cut me in half until I wiggled enough to flatten them out.