Anyway, I hung out around the beach for an hour and a half before the chills were gone and I felt normal again. I then decided to continue down the outside of Andrews Island and admired the pink granite walls (they weren't really high enough to call cliffs). They're kinda like a real pale pink or fleshy color. I got one really nice picture (I hope) of the walls with trees above them and a brilliant blue sky with white fluffy clouds (cumulus?) above them and some surf crashing into the bottom of the walls. The bow of the kayak probably snuck into the picture. It usually does. At the bottom of Andrews I set sights for the last island in the chain across a 2 mile passage. I assumed this was Pleasant Island, which was the last island on my chart. The next chart had an inset where there should have been some chart overlap so there was no way of knowing for sure. I then noticed a lighthouse with a red flashing light that wasn't on my chart or the next one either. Oh great! There might be a gigantic whirlpool over there big enough to suck up the Queen Mary and I wouldn't know until it ate me too. Now I can sympathize with Magellan when he thought he might be sailing off the edge of the world as he sailed into the great unknown. Eventually I muddled my way over to Seal Harbor and the 3 miles back to camp. Saturday I drove 15 miles southwest(?) to Port Clyde (no relation) where there were another dozen or so larger islands spread out over a 5 mile or so area. Port Clyde appears to be a working harbor with lobster and fishing boats and fewer pleasure boats. One 30+ foot boat had a harpoon gun with a small harpoon (about the size of a big arrow) in it and had a long bow sprit where it looked as if someone would stand waiting to harpoon something. Harpoon what?. I think there are some sort of small whales in the area but I haven't seen one yet and doubt if they'd be legal. Porpoises, illegal? Tuna? Sharks? NOAA had broadcast something about the shark fisheries being closed shortly, whatever that meant. I headed up the St. George River where I meant to cross over to Gay Island. I apparently wasn't paying attention to the red nuns because it seems I crossed over to Caldwell Island instead and when I got to the other side everything was out of whack. Every time I found a navigation aid it seemed to be somewhere other than where it belonged. My thought for a while was that all the markers had been moved since my chart was published. Of course, just to make things interesting, there were 3 nuns marked # 2 all almost within sight of each other. And..... there were two cans And a day marker all marked as # 1. On the way up the river I could see a 60-70 foot sailboat with 40-50 foot twin masts tucked away in a little cove. As I paddled around trying to figure out where I was, those masts were always there as a beacon. So I just paddled around a little, watched 4 osprey swooping around for a while and then headed for the masts and from there back into the harbor. I figured I'd head out of the harbor from the ocean side and tackle the islands from the other direction, hopefully with better luck. I passed a small lighthouse protecting the harbor entrance and headed out towards a fair sized rock island that appeared to have a beach where I might land for lunch. As I neared the island, sea gulls started screeching and taking to the air. They were pretty emphatic so I guessed they were nesting and headed for the next island where the same thing happened. And the next. Geesh, I just wanted a place to rest the old bones and have a sandwich. The only place left was Mosquito Island and that didn't sound very inviting, but what choice did I have? As it turns out, it was a great place to land. There was a nice beach with real sand on it and a bleached log sitting up at the high tide mark. After lunch I placed the PFD against the log, wiggled a hole in the sand for my butt, calves and elbows and just leaned back and relaxed. The temperature was about 80F, a 5-10 knot breeze (when I'm on land it's a breeze, when I'm on the water it's a wind) was blowing, the sky was bright blue with a few clouds in the distance. Within a couple of minutes a pair of osprey appeared followed a minute later by a second pair. All four soared and hovered in the wind for about 5 minutes and then left. I nodded off and on for about half an hour or so. Let's see you do that with a group. I couldn't really drift off though, because the tide was coming in and I couldn't tie the kayak up because I don't carry loose rope any more!!!!!!!!! I had had to go a couple of miles out of my way for lunch and it was a 4+ miles crossing to Burnt Island. The wind was up to 10-15 knots with 1+ foot chop. I would have a chance to change my mind when I got to the sea gull islands again but kept right on going and reached Burnt Island in about 80 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for a beat up old guy in those conditions. I paddled around another hour or two and then headed for the harbor. After pulling out, I stopped at the general store and waited half an hour for a really crappy meatball sandwich, which I ate out on a nice deck overlooking the harbor. It was around 7pm and a lot of the day sailors were out in the harbor as well as some of the dinkiest looking dinghies I've ever seen. Some of them were sitting lower in the water than we do. Good thing that lady from the symposium wasn't there. The wind and chop had died down or some of those folks would be practicing their breast strokes. Sunday I decided to head up to Rockland Harbor for a looksee. I got off to a late start and then got stuck on the camp ground beach talking to different people so it was close to 8am before I got out on the water. I had a very leisurely paddle up the coast, poking into little coves, riding the surges and generally just lollygagging about. Kinda like a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park with your hands in your pockets. I got up to Sheep Island where I took a break on a beach of small pebbles. There was a group of large rocks, one which looked just like a small seal stretching its back and tail so I got a picture of that. There was supposed to be a pair of nesting eagles on Monroe Island, the next island up. I didn't see any nests from my side and didn't want to get too close. Rockland Harbor started right after Monroe and is guarded by a lighthouse up on a rocky cliff and that was worth a picture. When I rounded the point I just sat there for 15-20 minutes because there were several 50+ sailboats coming into the harbor and they looked great with different rigs under full sail. There was a lot of boa traffic and I had to figure out what I wanted to do. I saw a beach way on the other side and decided to paddle over there for lunch and then come back along the shoreline. Most of the traffic seemed to be concentrated right where I was with very little over on the other half so I waited for an opening and sprinted across a quarter mile or so and was then able to relax for the last mile or so. There's a big long jetty or breakwater about a half mile long with a boarded up house on the end of it? What's the difference between a jetty and a breakwater? They're both designed for people to walk on and fish from right? Well, enough of that nauseous nautical nonsense. I had lunch right below a golf course surrounding a bunch of condos, then paddled around the jetty/breakwater thing into the harbor proper. Here the water was pretty choppy and a 10 knot wind kicked up. About half way to shore I hear sirens and see a little red boat come flying out from a dock. It was followed a minute later by a 25 foot Coast Guard cutter and my first thought was 'uh oh, busted again'. Then I thought he was chasing the red boat until I turned around and could see lights flashing on the red boat. I guess they were both heading out to rescue someone. Where were they Friday when I need them? I paddled around the harbor for more than an hour admiring the many, many large sailboats. There was one that was kind of beat up and looked like it had spent many years and many, many miles at sea. There were a few that seemed to be close to 100 feet long. Some of them had people aboard and they really looked tiny in relation to the boat. About the time I started back the wind picked up to about 15 knots and there was a 1+ foot following chop. I had a couple of miles to go to reach the light house and was just paddling along, minding my own business, keeping the kayak straight and riding the waves when I could, glad there was very little traffic in this area. I had been paddling about 45 minutes when I just happened to glance over my shoulder. Holy sh*t! A freakin' tsunami is bearing down on me. The rudder is up so all I can do is a back sweep a couple of times to swing my stern into the wave and I just barely made it. There were 6 or 7 waves in a row and while they weren't really tsunami size they were all close to 3 feet. I have no idea where they came from. Once they were past, I turned around and saw nothing but a ferry just heading out and a trolling fishing boat. Hey, it's dangerous out here. Just like swimming in shark infested waters. You gotta keep looking around or something's gonna sneak up and bite you. As I sat there looking to see what caused those waves, I notice that the fishing boat is heading directly for me so I sit there and watch the approaching boat. All this water and this boat is aimed right at me. Dad is in the back with a fishing rod in his hand. Brother is laid back with his mouth open. Sister is staring off into space and Mom (oh no) is steering. Dad hooks into something which wakes Brother up. Sister is still staring into space and Mom, thankfully cuts the engine back to idle. Dad's fighting the fish, Brother grabs a long handled net large enough to land a blue finned tuna, Sister is staring into space and Mom is watching the show. After quite a struggle and a lot of shouting, Dad manages to land a fish that was at least 6 inches long. At least I think it was a fish. Then again, it might have been his bait. Dad mumbles to himself, Brother flops back down, Sister stares off into space and Mom (oh no) puts the boat in gear and heads straight for me again. Me? I just sit there in dumb disbelief. I start to back paddle as the shock starts to wear off. Finally Dad spots me and says something to Mom. Mom gives me a haughty look and finally veers off. Whew! Another one gets away. As I round the lighthouse point, the 15 knot wind hits me directly in the face. Oh boy! This is going to be fun. I have about 4-5 miles to camp and it's probably going to take more than 3 hours. It actually took about 2 ½ hours of paddling straight through. The wind did let up rather than pick up as normal, near the end and the chop went away too. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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