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  1. "I was lookin' for lee in all the wrong placesLookin' for lee in too many (rock) faces" 1_9_2022: Thurston Point, Gloucester to Halibut Point, Rockport. 10:00am-3:00pm. Relentless sustained 20kts SW winds and 30kts gusts. Temps 44F, 1-2 ft waves, LT 10:30am 0.9ft, HT 4:52pm, 9ft, tidal range 8.1ft half-moon neaps. Alone in Margarita. Ocean was brutal yesterday from Thurston Point in the Annisquam River to Halibut Point. I wanted a challenge and got one. The ground track is shown in Figure 1. It was all about searching for wind shadows in nooks and crannies but none were available northeast of Folly, southwest of Lanes, southwest of Hodgkins (Davis Neck), and the Annisquam mouth. Outbound was fine, and I did get some rides on following waves; but they were also a little destabilizing. On rounding Folly Point, I came face-to-face with a young seal with a badly lacerated back. We surprised each other simultaneously, and it quickly jumped in. It did not look like a shark bite. The poor creature was probably hit by a propellor and somehow survived. Halibut was wind shadowed and I did some easy slots and ledges. On the return I was nearly toppled by stunning gust near Folly that seemed to come directly from the cove base. Lunch and a break were in the narrow slots on Davis Neck outgoing and coming back. These were chosen carefully but there was some concern about the boat blowing away while launching and landing. Figure 2 shows a deep slot on the SW side of Hodgkins where I had lunch. I obviously planned lunch on the NE side of Davis; but this slot was entirely covered with soft seaweed and had an easy ledge to lift the boat onto. The wind facing sides of the slot were pretty high at 11am, so wind was blocked on three sides. Returning I stopped in a slot on the NE side of Davis Neck, shown in Figure 3. From this vantage point, it was possible to see the wind shadow edge extending northeastward from the headland. The haul outs required methodical planning and execution so as not to lose the boat! During the last phase of the trip, I had to paddle near the grasses in the Annisquam wind tunnel to upriver of Thurston Point and then drop down on a ferry crossing. The grasses provided an unexpected relief from the wind. Figure 4 shows the track in the Annisquam. The flood current helped a little. I did an on-side Margarita roll in the howling Annisquam mouth to cool off before hitting the grasses. The Margarita is an old Impex Assateague. Her width, large volume, and deck shape make sloppy rolls unacceptable. She will make lazy paddlers swim, for sure. I was glad that my roll succeeded but, if there were other paddlers, it would have been a good opportunity to self-rescue after a wet exit. The wind and wind chop would have made it challenging. Total distance of 11.25nm. Figure 1: Ground track for 1_9_2022 trip. Figure 2: Lunch slot on SW side of Davis Neck. Wind shown in Red. Figure 3: Break slot on NE side of David Neck. Wind shown in Red. Figure 4: Ground track along grasses in Annisquam River. Wind shown in Red. Track in white. 1_19_2022: Lanesville to Goose Cove to Halibut, Gloucester and Rockport, 10:30am – 3:30pm. Bob L in white Explorer with Ricardo C. HT 12:10pm 10ft, LT 6:33pm -0.1ft, tidal range of 10.1ft, springs 7/8th moon. 44F, 1-2 ft swell, 20kts SSW wind, 35kts gusts, high clouds. This was a paddle for a little distance and the challenge of paddling in wind. It was also the only Winter Weather Window (dubbed WWW) this week, and likely the following week as well. Figure 1 shows the ground track for the 10.54nm trip. The trip to Goose Cove started south from Lanes at about 10:30am. Ipswich Bay had wind chop consistent with 20kts sustained SSW winds – a nearly due headwind a little distant from the coast. You could see the scouring of winds and gusts on the surface creating well-defined “wind eddylines” at the boundary with shadowing rocks. We took advantage of the high water to paddle hard against the rock ledges and faces. Progressing to the inevitable headland, we would push out with sweep turn concentrated on the kayak bow. It was then a slog back into the coastline. The hardest paddling was SW of Lanesville and after Davis Point. These locations are obvious in Figure 1. It was possible to rest with calm water and air in the rock wind shadows. We took advantage of every opportunity for this! At one point we discussed the wind retard which, for a headwind, is about 10% of the wind velocity. The 20kt sustained winds were slowing us to around 1kt. A 30kt gust would essentially stop a 3kt paddler, and that did happen in some of these gusts today! We encountered severe beam winds after Annisquam Light and then on crossing to Goose Cove. These areas also had 1-2 foot concentrated chop that came in on the beam to side-slip the boat. It was intense paddling. We reached the Goose Cove bridge at slack before the ebb, and entered to briefly visit Fred G. After at most 10 minutes we returned to the bridge and saw a significant ebb current already forming. This is consistent with a small pond having a narrow opening. While one might expect the ebb to persist as the bunched-up water in the pond empties; one would also expect flow to start out just as the ocean level falls. This little bridge is a surprisingly good location for practice paddling in current (thanks to Fred for reminding me of this a few weeks ago). The return across the mouth of Lobster Cove and the Annisquam Yacht Club was in brutal beam winds due to the wind-tunnel effect of the Annisquam River. We found some relief by paddling behind the yacht club docks. By looking down at the grasses, it was obvious that a strong ebb was also pushing us along in the shallow recesses. Once turning the corner northward at the river mouth, we just flew up to the lighthouse cove and entered the Squam Rock Land Trust beach for lunch. I thought the winds had subsided a little as we continued on the outside toward Lanes; but that may have been just the normal suppression of effects in following winds. We were able to ride the waves forward on the fast run north. We entered Lanes about 2:00pm, and I decided to continue alone up to Halibut Point. My estimate of an additional 90 minutes was dead-on; <30 minutes to “fly” to Halibut and noodle a bit and an hour to make the return. After the fast run up to Halibut, in excited anticipation of a forecasted 4ft 6sec swell, I found the swell to be much less. It was nice to round the tip in the wind shadow and ride some waves onto the ledges; and there was a surprise set that came in at about three feet to demonstrate some of normal Halibut drama. There was no subsidence of the winds on the return, and the water was much lower to create more separation from the wind shadowing rocks. I did manage a nice passage in gentle swell on the Folly Point ledge; but it was a followed by a mile or so of direct headwinds until Sunset Point and into Lanes. I landed at about 3:30pm after a quick practice roll in Lanesville. The WWW was very meager this week, but Ricardo and I managed to grab a few hours of good solid paddling. Figure 1: Ground track for 1_19_2022 paddle. Approximate wind vector in blue, ground track in red.
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