1st Time (in a while) In the first 7 months of this year I paddled a little over 550 Nm. However in the last 4 months I have paddled only 4 times and in the last 2.75 months I have not even placed a blade in the water. A combination of health and other problems just got me out of the habit and I just lost interest. For those up north I should note that October and November offer the best paddling conditions of the year here in South Texas and historically have been some of the highest mileage months for me. I have been trying to get myself back into the paddling mode since the 1st of December, but have managed to find excuses for not paddling for the first several days of the month. Today was a perfect day for paddling. The air temp was 73 degF, the wind was 14 mph from the north and slowly dropping, and the water temp was 66 degF. Even though I had thoughts that I might never paddle anymore if I passed again on such a great day I managed to put off getting ready until after noon. Finally something clicked and I quickly gathered up the gear and got the kayak on top of the car and headed down to the marina. By the time I unloaded the kayak the wind was down to about 10 mph and the temp was up to about 75 and I was anxious to get started. As I tried to get into the kayak from the floating dock I was sure that I had a major problem. My once stable kayak was now tipping back and forth like some kind of rocking cradle. I managed to get in without falling in the water, but I was wondering if some mistake in storage had deformed the hull. My concerns were further heightened by the extremely tight fit of what had been a snug, but comfortable cockpit. I paddled a little and the kayak seemed to be responding just fine. Maybe the apparent tippiness was a result of the fact that the least stable thing I had sat in for the last 2 months was a Lazy-boy recliner. Maybe the tight cockpit was more a result of the 20 lbs I had gained while not paddling than any hull deformation. Fortunately, I was using a symmetrical Greenland paddle so at least I did not have to worry about having forgotten which way to hold the paddle. I headed down to the far end of the marina so I could paddle a timed run along a 1 Nm section of the breakwater that I had measured long ago. About halfway down the course I spotted an osprey sitting on top of a broken pole that has been jammed between the rocks of the breakwater for as long as I can remember. Ospreys are neither common nor rare in the area, but seeing one downtown is pretty unusual. I made the mile in 18 min for a slightly slower than normal 3.33 Nm/hr which I considered a pretty good result after the long layoff. Just as I was finishing I saw the fin disappearing behind the breakwater through one of the secondary openings to the bay. Excited that I might get to play with dolphins on my first trip out, I rounded the breakwater and looked for any sign. Seeing nothing I decided to try my dolphin calling skills by quickly rubbing my finger along the side of the kayak to produce a series of squeaks. Nothing happened so I paddled a little out into the ba! y and called again. Incredibly a dolphin surfaced about 20 yards away headed right for me. He made a couple of passes by me, surfacing within 5 yards and then disappeared. I circled around in the area and then called again. This time a pair of fins appeared about 50 yards away. What appeared to be a mother and juvenile came within about 10 yards, surfaced once, and then disappeared. I circled some more, but evidentially I was not very interesting and they moved on to better things. I turned toward the north, paddled across the ship channel and circled the aircraft carrier Lexington (now a museum). I took a slight detour and paddled by the Texas State Aquarium, across the entrance to the port with one of the huge military convoy ships loading in the background, and finally past the new convention center expansion and new arena (college basketball, minor league hockey, and concerts) into the marina again. It should be noted that just as I turned around the Lexington the north wind that I had been paddling into changed (counter to all the forecasts) to the SE so that I had to paddle against the wind both ways. I guess some things just never change. All in all a nice return to paddling. I really was not aware of how much I had been missing. Mark Arnold mjamja_at_earthlink.net *************************************************************************** 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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