May 3, 2005

Docking Maneuvers

My forward progress was such that I was feeling I had been lashed to a dock. I clawed for each inch, sometimes moving at a snail's pace - sometimes slower when the wind blew... Wait a minute, I am lashed to a dock...

When I got to Fountainhead I carried my gear to the edge of the water and noticed quite a site across the reservoir from the park. A man was paddling a floating dock, but the wind was pushing him backwards. There are no houses close by so I knew he had been struggling for some time.

A canoe appeared from one of the fingers of the reservoir and paddled over to the dock as it continued to slip backwards against the wind. The canoe was pulled up on the dock and now two people paddled hard against the wind. Inch by excruciating inch the dock made forward progress when the wind wasn't blowing, and lost every bit of gained ground when the wind blew even a slight amount.

I sat near the water on a table and watched this for 15 or 20 minutes, noting they had gained only a few feet after all this time. Before long the canoe crossed over to the park, and a woman stepped ashore looking for someone with a power boat to help with the dock. Finding no one, she headed back to the other side and was soon back on the dock, again making no progress.

I headed up to the bathroom to put on my dry suit and when I returned I saw the dock was now pressed against the bank by the wind. I pulled my tow rope out of my day hatch and daisy chained the rope before restuffing it back in the bag. After putting on my sprayskirt I paddled across and offered to help.

After latching on the tow rope I began to paddle toward the spot where I had first seen the canoe. The dock began to move ever so slightly and a few minutes later we had cleared the dead falls along the shore and the dock was back in open water.

I don't know how long it took me to paddle the few hundred yards to where the dock would finally rest. We inched along and the occasional comments from my passengers went unheard because of the loud sloshing of the water from my paddle as it dug in to move us another inch toward our destination.

Near the dock's final resting area another man was on shore waiting. As we got close he was thrown a rope and he pulled the dock in the rest of the way as I unhooked and dipped in the water to cool off. I learned the man on the dock had paddled it over a half mile before I even saw him.

The trip back to the park flew by. After hauling the dock upstream the lack of drag had me wondering if the kayak was going to start planing on the way back.

My dry suit felt wet inside from the workout so I opened it up to breathe as I caught my breath back on shore. Soon the pirates arrived and at 5 people strong we had our largest group paddle to date. Our time on the water was short, but my earlier workout didn't leave me wanting much more.

Woody