The list seems to have been a bit short on paddle reports, so here's a quickie for the edification of those still frozen in the northlands - perhaps those in the far, far south as well. With only a half day of work on the schedule for today, I brought my kayak with me to Pelican Island. Weather looks kind of iffy for the longer paddle I would like to do tomorrow, so just had to get those couple of licks in. My departure point was the "usual", under the bow lines of the TS/Texas Clipper, with my bow pointed first due West and then more northerly towards the northern tip of Pelican Island and the Intracoastal Waterway's cut. I was curious to see if the large colonies of nesting gulls were in the usual spot, and I was not disappointed. No waves of warning birds were launched noisily toward me, so I'm guessing the nesting isn't into high gear. A quarter mile inland from where I was paddling something else set up the birds and a huge cloud of thousands of them lifted noisily circled, and settled down again. The laughing gulls were in their best mating colors. Willets too were numerous as I headed out before the wind, and a great blue heron walked then ran along the beach ahead of me. A few curlews, cattle egrets, and snowy egrets added variety to the scene. A flight of brown pelicans soared past, and the usual numerous cormorants. No sign of the black-necked stilts I had seen earlier in the week, and the straggler loon I'd seen earlier than that has probably winged on north with the rest of its species. The skies to the West were quite black and threatening looking, and I was a bit surprised as I headed north and looked to my right, to the East, to see the same kind of dark clouds. I had checked the weather report before leaving - a marine transportation colleague had told me small craft warnings would be flying by the end of the day, but the really baddy stuff stayed away. Winds steady at 10 knots, gusting at 12 laid down a bit to 7, gusting 8, by my return. Wave heights in this stretch of Galveston Bay probably no more than 6-12" where I was paddling although probably bigger than that out in deeper water. My craft of the day was my daughter's new EPI Sea kayak. This brand of boats are made with the smaller paddler in mind. I was a bit amused to note that my 5'1" frame required the foot pegs moved to only a few notches from their farthest extension - not the usual case in adult-sized boats! This boat makes my Eddyline Falcon 16 look like a barge but I have wondered since I saw Maligiaq Padilla's boat a few years ago, what it would be like to paddle a really low volume sea kayak - and now I think I have a pretty good idea. Its nose is pencil thin, and knifes into any wave. It holds its course beautifully although when you first sit in it, only inches of seamline above the water, it feels like it will sink at any moment. I surmise the boat will be great in wind because so little is above water to catch it, and that appears to be the case. I'm guessing it is barely 18" wide, so there's a definite tippiness factor. Really a fun boat to paddle, for the smaller folks among us. The air temperature is right at 70F and the water at 66F. A light nylon windbreaker made me feel a little more secure with the threat of rain: I sweated on the way out with the wind behind me, but was just comfortable into the wind returning. Didn't have any takers on my last minute offering of this paddle, so I paddled the conservative close to shore course by myself. The salt spray on my skin feels good, and my muscles feel the effect of too little paddling over the winter. Gotta get on with correcting that. It's been a Good Friday for me, I'll hope the same for you and that you're getting out to paddle soon too. Natalie Wiest Galveston TX *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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