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A Ramble off of Sebascodegan Island, March 29, 2014


prudenceb

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A Ramble off of Sebascodegan Island March 29, 2014

On Saturday morning, five intrepid paddlers, members of the Alaska 2014 Expedition Support Team/NSPN Division, met up with Warren and David M at the Bethel Point Launch Site for an early spring ramble around the waters off southern Sebascodegan Island.

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While the stated purpose of the paddle was to give Warren and David a chance to test out some of their new gear in conditions that might mimic what they will experience in Alaska this summer, others of us used the opportunity to test out some new gear of our own, to shake some of the winter rust off of our boats and bodies, and most importantly, to have a good time out on the water.

Cathy, Liz, Dave M, Jeff and I joined our brave (if you dont know to what Im referring, please read threads on other forums about wildlife they will be contending with come July) expeditioners at 8:30 in the morning. When Warren calls for a 9 am arrival for a 10 am launch, we all know by now that by 9 am he would have already been there for an hour and would be completely ready to go,

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so most of us were there early, too, and we ended up launching at a little after 9:30.

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Not before Cathy decided to do the first gear test

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and discovered that lolling about in the 38 degree water wearing only one layer under her drysuit while the photographer fumbled with her equipment to memorialize her insanity

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was an excellent recipe for starting out the trip feeling chilly.

In this endless winter of our discontent, when the arrival of spring has meant just about nothing, the Weather Gods did at least offer us a grudging wan smile, if not an openly sunny grin. Some of us were pretty darn happy to be back out on the water after a long landlocked winter.

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The sky was milky blue when we set out, and a northish wind at around 10 knots pushed us merrily on our way down Quahog Bay to our first stopping point, a small MITA island whose campsite Dave, Warren and I had been unable to investigate when we did a Sebascodegan Island circumnav last year as it was already filled to the brim with adults, children, and a large and lively dog. In winter, the island certainly looked different, with patches of snow and bare trees.

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But what really made it different was the tide. We'd seen it before at low tide, and never got as far as the shoreline onto which we we pulled up our boats this time.

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Warren went off to investigate, returning to say that the campsite was somewhat disappointing. Cathy took the opportunity to put the extra layer on that she wished shed been wearing from the beginning, and proclaimed herself fit to continue.

We then headed north, into the wind and small waves, up Quahog Bay, toward our next destination and proposed lunching spot on Little Snow Island. We crossed back over to Sebascodegan Island, and then hugged the shoreline as we continued north. When we were opposite Pole Island, we stopped to chat and look at what was to be seen,

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and so that Warren could work on some leadership skills.

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As David and Dave are planning to do John Carmodys 4*/guide training course in May, they all took a hand at trying to herd this particular clowder (look it up!) of cats. Good luck to them.

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A strong-minded bunch, everyone had his or her own idea of where we should go.

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Somehow, likely through a miracle of past CAM training, we managed to pull our collective acts together, and continued on in our original direction as one unified group. We finally made a right hand turn along the shore, and saw Little Crow in the near distance, looking in the light that still said winter, a paler version of itself than we had camped on last fall. Warren recalled how little protection from a fierce wind the island had offered when he and Rob stopped there in an off-season trip last year. As cute as it is, Little Snow may be the Island of Rarely Good Weather; it had been rainy, with thunder and lightning, when I was there before. But on this winter-spring, or spring-winter, day, although there was little shelter from the wind, it was entirely manageable because of the sun and temperatures moderating up toward 40 degrees.

Most of us donned our storm gags, and we all stood or sat around sipping soup and hot lemonade and tea, and eating energy bars. At one point, we looked up in time to see an eagle soaring not far overhead. Warren's day was made! (Never mind if someone got hypothermic, or if we only returned with 85% of the group we started out with. One eagle = Successful Trip.) It was gone before we could extract cameras from PFD pockets under our cags We explored the little island, mostly in search of appropriate sanitary facilities, and got ready to launch again.

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The day was still young. We circumnavigated the island, passing some one-legged Canada geese (that look ever so much more appropriate on a Maine island in March than on a city golf course all year round),

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and a dripping ice shelf.

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A few small icebergs were still floating in the little bay, but it was nothing like an earlier trip that the Alaska 2014 Expedition Support Team/NSPN Division made when winter was still in full force. I had had to sit that one out, and how I had envied the icebergs and wildlife they saw. I was happy to settle for what winter still had to offer on this day

We had looked forward to being pushed back southward by the wind, but soon discovered that it had diminished, and we paddled on mostly calm seas back toward the launch site.

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Our original plan had been to call it a day at that point. But it was only 1:30; the weather was holding although horizontal lines of clouds had begun to blot out the blue sky.

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And then it was windless. The surface of the water had an almost oily stillness.

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We decided to keep going to go around George and Big Hen Islands, an area at the north of Ridley Cove that had not been on any of our other trips itineraries. On the chart, we also saw a notation for a sunken vessel north of Big Hen, and that was a definite Must Investigate. A rocky outcropping some distance away showed the profiles of seals.

We got spread out on the flat water. David appeared to be practicing paddling backward. I worked on strokes off bow, middle and stern of the boat on both sides. We idled and chatted, wonderingly why Liz was so far behind. We waited. To find when she finally joined up with us again that she had just been stalked by a seal that had repeatedly surfaced not far behind her. She voiced laughing anxiety about the situation, but said she had gotten some good photos. I hope she'll post them!

The sky was darkening. Rounding the north end of Big Hen Island, we saw the rusted sunken ship and approached.

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It provided some interesting views of our surroundings.

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It had been almost warm for a time. The sun had almost shone, or perhaps it actually had. But the magical period of utter stillness on the water had passed. The wind was coming up again, the sky darkening. People noted cooling of hands and feet. It was time to be done.

We landed back at Bethel Point at around 2:30 on the increasingly less friendly March afternoon and loaded up to go home.

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Among others, the following pieces of new equipment were successfully tested:

David M's SPOT system that will track the Alaska expedition for loved ones left behind. Nothing like being followed by a satellite:

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Dave M's beautiful new Pilgrim Expedition, which in its quill gray over white 50:50 layup was a classy looking beauty! How did no one get a photo of this??

Warren's new drysuit (because everyone needs two! In different colors!) and PFD (because everyone needs two!).

And the most high tech equipment of all: two new body parts, four months and three weeks old, which performed much more admirably than their predecessors had for me!

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This was one of those days when very little happened, but everyone smiled for hour after hour. And why not? We managed to squeeze in a wonderful paddle on a day preceded by angry and alarming magenta and pink colorings - small craft advisories! gales! - on the NOAA marine forecast website, and to be followed by gale warnings and torrential rains for the next day. 100% of us returned. No one became hypothermic.

When I got home, I was so happy to have been out at last - at last! - that all I could do was pray that this would prove to be a harbinger of a most excellent paddling season to come!

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pru

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I don't know what I was more impressed with, the pictures, the map of your course or Pru's knee shots. Hope to see some of you soon with two new hips. Now should be no excuse for poor torso rotation. If this keeps up in years to come we may need to rename NSPN to NSBPN (North Shore Bionic Paddlers Network.

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