Re: [Paddlewise] Gerrish Island Race (recap)

On Tue, 21 Sep 1999, tompage wrote:

> The Great Gerrish Island Race is in Kittery, ME Sunday Sep 26, 12:00 (high
> tide), 6 nm through salt marsh, up the coast, and into Portsmouth Harbor.  Fun
> and informal, clambake afterwards.  More info at:

I did this race this past weekend and had a great time.  I had never done
the race before, even worse never kayaked in southern Maine, and I only 
live an hour away.

The race started with about 45 kayaks sprinting across a 150 yard open
stretch and then into a twisty section of creek through the salt marsh.

The race is put on by a rowing club.  In past years they have started the
kayaks behind the rowing craft.  Because of past bottlenecks they started 
the kayaks 2 minutes ahead of the rowing craft.  A 10 to 15 foot wide 
creek is a tough place to try and pass a rowing craft.  So this year it
was the rowers who got the privilege of trying to overtake the slower kayaks.
  
Fortunately it was a full moon tide so we didn't have to follow the creek
much and could just paddle over the marsh.  After about a mile of going
over the marsh the course opened into a shallow bay and passed through a row
of pilings.  The pilings looked like they might be the remains of
a railroad bridge.  A hundred yards or so beyond the pilings the race headed
south, in open water, along Gerrish Island.  The shore line is typical Maine
shoreline, lots of rocks and ledges.  Some racers stayed offshore, some
paddled along the shore.  A friend, who lives locally, told me to stay in
close, the waves were larger but he feels the shorter distance was worth
the added wave excitement.  This year he had a little extra excitement as
he ran his dory up onto a ledge (so much for local knowledge).

After paddling about 3 miles, along the coast, the course turns up the 
Piscataqua river for the final stretch.  We had a nice day for paddling along
the coast.  The waves were quite small, but with the wind waves it was
a rather chaotic paddle.  The waves appeared to be coming from at least 3
directions most of the time.  The race finished between Fisherman's island
and NewCastle (NH).  At the finish line there was a nice get together for
steamers, corn on the cob, and some Smutty Nose beer (a local brew).  The 
perfect race finish...

I think there were about 45 kayaks and 20 different rowing craft in the race.
The kayaks covered the full range, from keowees, to homebuilts, at least
1 folder, and a couple of surf skis.  My favorite was one named the 
"Seagoon".  There were also at least 2 doubles, one of which looked to me 
like a CLC.  

So if you are looking for a nice spot to paddle in southern Maine, you 
might try starting in pigeon cove on(in?) kittery point, there is a boat 
ramp behind Frisbee's supermarket, or you can launch from a small bridge 
about a half mile up Chauncey creek.  As I got to the ramp there was a 
duo who were just getting back from paddling across the piscataqua, down 
the NH coast to the Wentworth hotel marina and back, which sounds like 
another nice exploration.

There's also a restaurant on a dock on the Cauncey creek that I want to 
get back to and try.  It looked good from the water and was fairly 
busy at 3pm on a sunday in september...

kirk
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