I don't know all this talk about the oil disaster. Is anyone else paddling? I've had a wonderful paddling year. For the first race of the year (for me) the Essex River Race had wind gusts to 37 mph. Some good race photos http://www.pbase.com/clamflats/essex_river_race_2010 There's a terrific photo near the bottom of the race writeup (the photo is of 2 rowers facing each other in a double shell) http://surfskiracing.com/Races/Essex_River_Race_Summary_2010.html This past sunday morning we were on Cape Cod (east orleans). I walked my boat from my mother's house down to meeting house pond (salt water). I then paddled out meeting house pond through the river. I'm training for the blackburn challenge so I wanted to put in about 16 miles, It's 6.2 miles from meeting house pond to the end of pleasant bay (by the wequosset inn) or 9 miles over to the light house in Chatham. Paddling across little pleasant bay there were some 1 to 2 foot wind waves. As I headed around the point into the narrows I thought I would paddle to the newer break in Chatham. Going through the narrows changed that thought. The wind waves were 2 feet tall with whitecaps all around. Instead of going to chatham I decided to paddle the length of pleasant bay (into the stiff headwind) then ride the waves back. I paddle with a GPS. I ended up paddling about 5.0 mph into the wind, and 6.8 mph with the wind. After the first wonderful downwind I turned around, cut along the shoreline (with some fabulous beam wind waves in conflict with the refactory waves bouncing off of the break walls and shore) and paddled up to the wequosset inn. According to the GPS I was 11 miles out, as I passed the wequosset pier, so I looped and headed home. I got some nice rides down the bay, with calmer condition in little pleasant bay. I was psyched I picked up the pace as I crossed meeting house pond, topping out at 7.4 mph just before I drifted into the beach. Where the local outfitter was headed out with his third session of the morning (he had had 43 customers between his sunrise and 8:00 sessions - pretty good for a rebounding economy). 16.6 miles in 2 hours 45 minutes. Not fast enough to break 3 hours for the blackburn (19 miles with a ruler), but it was nice to know I had enough left to push the pace for the final mile. Tuesday nights I do a "tuesday night at the races" surf ski race. There are up to a dozen of us who race every tuesday night. There are 6 courses, each week we draw a ball from the hat and then do the course which is written on the ball. Courses are 5 to 6 miles and take about an hour. Conditions have been wonderfully bumpy. We race in Salem sound, starting at Lynch Park in Beverly and looping various islands - depending on the course. A couple weeks ago we did a triangular course where the wind was blowing about 20 mph, The wind was beam for the first, and longest leg, more or less a following wind for the shortest second leg, then bow quartering winds for the final stretch. It was funny the water was fairly rough on the way out (lots of occaisions of punching the bow through a wave and taking water onto the cockpit, with some whitecap breaking over the hull (broadside). The second leg was nice following seas, with some good rides to be had surfing some of the waves). On the final stretch I remember commenting to myself it was nice that it had calmed down. Then I realized it was still rough, just waves were no only coming from one direction. Waves were still breaking over the bow (broadside to the left bow) but since the waves were in a single direction it seemed calm. It's tuesday. I hope we don't have thunderstorms and the wind is at least 15 mph for tonights race.... Kirk -- Kirk Olsen *************************************************************************** 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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