June 19, 2005

Bath Water

Saturday, 18 June - It seems like just yesterday I was wearing my dry suit. Today the water is probably close to 80 degrees or more. It's busy at the launch even though the park has only been open for 15 minutes.

There is a nice breeze and the air temp is in the mid 80s. The perfect day to paddle I launched and turned towards the Potomac.

I have no destination in mind and figure I'll just paddle till I get tired. As I round the lower end of the neck I pass a yellow SOT that is relaunching back in to the water after a break. The SOT follows me NE back up to Great Marsh. I enter the north fork into the marsh and it appears the SOT takes one of the south forks.

As I meander back in to the marsh I come across a fisherman who tells me he has been catching a few. He is heading out and shortly after passing him I cross a flat and see a long gar swimming just a foot or two away. Not long after I run out of open water and turn to make my way out.

Before leaving the marsh I turned on the GPS and set it on deck where I can watch my speed. I have no idea what my 'natural' cruising speed is. As I cruised back to the southern end of the neck I seem to settle in between 3.5-3.7 statute MPH. That seemed to be about right but I thought with all the paddling I've been doing it was a bit slow.

I sprinted for a short while getting up to 4.5-4.7 MPH, but it didn't last long.

As I rounded the southern tip of the neck my speed increased to about 4.0-4.3 MPH. I'm not certain why because it was pretty close to slack tide, but in any event I didn't seem to be putting as much effort in and had picked up speed. Maybe I had finally just loosened up.

As I rounded the last point I saw another gar, but this one had been sliced up by a boat prop. Back at the launch I played around rolling before calling it a day.

On Sunday I didn't make it out to the water till 1:00. I spent a while practicing my roll some more and the warm water was just a delight to play in. After making sure I was soaked head to toe I headed off for Kanes Creek, using the small waves to rocket me along.

I turned around before reaching the end and paddled back out into Belmont Bay. The bay was swarming with small boats pulling folks in giant inner tubes - or whatever they are called. There were a few jet skis buzzing around, and as much as I truly hate those things I have become more tolerant over the last few years as the 4 stroke (quieter) models have become more prevalent.

Again back at the launch I played some more. I always feel somewhat self conscious when doing this as it gets a lot of attention and seems as if I'm showing off. Today I paddled south a few hundred feet before practicing as not to be directly in front of the launch area. After throughly tiring myself I turned for shore. I stored my paddle on the front deck and hand paddled back to the beach, occasionally using my hands as a stern rudder while edging the kayak to aid the turn.

In the loading area my Thule Hullavator was getting a lot of attention. I think I could have sold a few out of the back of my car if I would have had them stashed away.

I was on the water only an hour and a half, but I felt rejuvenated from being able to play in the water so much the last few days...

Woody