3/16/08 I'm 51 and ten days paddling in the last two weeks are starting to remind me I'm not a teenager. Sadly, I really can't whine because most of the folks I paddle with are older than I, but put me to shame in activity level. Yesterday's pre-storm paddle had me tired on the night and even though the storm decided not to show up, I was tempted to call today a day of rest. But the boat was still on the top of the car and as lazy as I am I hate to miss a chance to paddle with the boat all ready to go! I decided a lengthy upside down soak in the cool waters of Pirate's Cove would invigorate my system without taxing my muscles too much. When I hit the water, the two gale force warning flags that greeted us on our return yesterday were still flying despite the fact that the only way to describe the day was sunny, calm and beautiful. The only real clouds were the fluffy white ones separating the ocean from the sky off on the southern horizon. Reading my mind, the flags started to come down as I passed the CG station. The harbor was dead calm, but I asked a couple returning outriggers if there was any swell left over from yesterday and they offered an enthusiastic "yes". Looking out to sea, the ocean seemed like a churning river heading south, so I thought I'd first stick my neck out to see. There were still a lot of swells rolling by, but nothing like yesterday to lure me out of the harbor. Still, while out there Chuck Freedman paddle up after a longish paddle and decided to roll with me a bit. Rolling went well and after a while Chuck asked if I'd like to switch boats. I got to paddle his Nordkapp and had no trouble rolling it up. Without a backband to fit me, I wasn't able to get a real good feel for the boat, other than the huge difference from my QCC. Chuck in my high volume boat really showed what a big boat it is, but he rolled it without much trouble. I had hoped that with my late start I might meet up with the group that headed out on a harbor paddle earlier in the morning and sure enough, Dave, Ken and Barb came paddling by. We met up and decide to continue rolling practice in the cleaner water outside the channel. Dave started off practicing the open day hatch roll and then proceeded on to the pumping out the day hatch drill. Ken was really diving his paddle blade on his roll and fighting to get up and the cold water wasn't making things any easier. The water was crystal clear though and my rolls all went OK. I was ready when everyone decided to call it a day and head in. My muscles felt tight as I paddled back. The plan became to renourish at Wahoo Fish Tacos, but a car loading error prevented my appearance. Suffice to say, you don't want to get the lip of your spray skirt stuck in your trunk latch with your keys in the back. Nuff said. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:48 PDT