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11_4_2021: East Point, Nahant Coasteering. 10:30am – 2:00pm. HT 11:07am 11.5ft, LT 5:28pm -1.2ft, tidal range 12.7ft, new moon, near perigee. Participants: Bob L in white Explorer, Jim S, and Ricardo C. 45F air, about 55F water, sunny, light variable winds, 2ft 10 sec swell. This was a test run of a coasteering session. The idea was to use the geography of East Point in Nahant to swim and hike the coast within a short distance of the cars. This short coastline is very challenging with long stretches of vertical rock faces, deep slots, horizontal ledges, and wave-trapping inlets. Ocean conditions are amplified along the unsheltered and protruding East Point peninsula. We first stopped at the Nahant police station to obtain day-passes to the Canoe Beach parking lot. The lot is small and the area is popular for diving and fishing so can definitely be full. We were lucky today. On arrival we walked into the Northeastern University grounds and a friendly guard directed us to the Lodge Park entrance. The three of us walked up the path to a lovely park that was the grounds of the Henry Cabot Lodge homestead. East Point/Henry Cabot Lodge,Jr., Memorial Park - Nahant - MA - Massachusetts Trails (mass-trails.org) The path overlooks the entire planned coasteering route, including the Matador, Subterranean, and the QUAD slots. Figures 1-3 show photos of these slots seen from the Lodge Park walkway. Figure 4 is a shot of the coastline from the Subterranean slot to Pea Island. In addition to scoping out the conditions and likely slots, the initial walk was to determine an evacuation route to the cars if there was hypothermia or an injury. Figure 5 shows a Google photo of the area. Figure 1: The Matador Slot seen from Lodge Park. Figure 2: The Subterranean Slot seen from Lodge Park. Figure 3: The QUAD Slots seen from Lodge Park. Figure 4: Pea Island seen from Lodge Park. Figure 5: The location of coasteering features at East Point, Nahant relative to Lodge Park and Canoe Beach. Ricardo and I were swimming and climbing, and Jim was the safety kayaker and photographer. I was wearing a 3mm wetsuit over a 5mm suit for 8mm total neoprene on my torso. I also had a 3mm neoprene jacket tucked into the wetsuits, and my paddling jacket (big mistake). I had a 3mm neoprene hoodie, 3mm gloves, and boots with heavy socks. Ricardo was wearing a 3mm full wetsuit (one piece) and a 5 mm hooded vest. He had neoprene gloves (5 mm) and (light) sneakers on his feet. In our post-session debrief, Ricardo felt that the thinner neoprene in his arms allowed easier arm movement for swimming. We were both chilled during the last 5-10 minutes of an hour-long coasteering run. The rocks were very slippery, and in retrospect I would have preferred the sneakers to my boots, although the boots were more warming. I also felt that the hoodie was insufficient as water penetrated to my neck even though it was tucked into my wetsuits. Ricardo’s combined hood/vest suit is much better. In addition to my normal hypo kit, I had a Bothy bag and hot water in the kayak. After returning from Lodge Park, we launched from Canoe Beach and paddled the short distance to the pebble cove, arriving around 11:00am, near high tide. As seen in Figures 6 and 7, after securing our boats, Ricardo and I swam into the surf near the southern shore of the covelet. We had decided to limit our swim to 30 minutes, with the idea to return for a quick lunch and then paddle out for kayak rock gardening. The conditions were very mild, long period two footers, but even so it became immediately apparent that we needed to be careful against the rock faces and ledges. The swimming was very slow, and I realized that for me part of this was due to the abundance of neoprene and the darn paddling jacket. It filled with water and hindered my strokes. Ricardo did much better. Ultimately, I settled on a weak dog paddle and back stroke; or more successfully just rode swells along the rock faces. After struggling somewhat, it finally occurred to me that the same dynamic that pushes kayaks along the faces also works for swimmers. It was efficient and more fun; and not that dangerous in two footers. You still needed to watch ahead to see how waves were impacting the ledge in front of you. Before reaching the Matador we hauled out on a headland. Ricardo has a lot of experience in ocean swimming and diving, and gave me some tips on getting out – namely wait for a big swell to wash you up onto the ledge and then quickly crawl to higher ground. Figures 8, 9, and 10 shows that process and our strategizing the approach to the Matador. Figure 6: Ricardo entering the water at the pebble beach. Figure 7: Bob entering the water at the pebble beach. Figure 8: Bob approaching the first haul out. Figure 9: Ricardo out, and Bob working into the first haul out. Figure 10: Ricardo and Bob strategizing how to get to the Matador from the headland. It took half an hour to reach the Matador! Our schedule was completely blown. Yet, the slot was amazing. As a kayaker, I’ve waited in the safe zone many times as large swells crashed to the back of the basin, and then snuck out on the drain – hence the name “Matador”. Figure 11 shows our approach to the basin. The surging swells caused significant current into the basin as we swam into the back wash. As seen in Figure 12, Ricardo calmly rode the current in the basin as the swells came in. Despite the turbulence and current, we were actually swept forward into the safe zone on the drain. By staying very close to the rock as swells wrapped around, it was possible to get a hand-hold on the Matador rock from the safe zone and climb up. Figure 13 is a shot of me declaring victory on the rock. In Figure 14 we are launching from the Matador rock to swim across to an adjacent opening. This required some swell timing but was possible with the long period swells. Both Ricardo and I climbed into the opening and came down on the other side. The entire operation was planned while we were on the Matador rock. The other side was a ledge with a significant waterfall on the drain. The ledges and faces on this side were facing south and the waves seemed to be amplified. We hung onto a shielding rock and watched as swells were crashing to the back of the ledge. Figure 15 is a shot of me cowering behind the shielding rock to consider the next step. There was no doubt that the larger waves were strong enough to propel a swimmer to the back of the ledge and through the slot back into the Matador basin. In itself, that seemed OK and possibly fun, but there was a very sharp protruding rock in the opening. Ricardo signaled that it was not a good idea to get caught on the ledge; and I agreed. He dropped into the ledge after a huge wave came in; and then went out over the waterfall. He literally disappeared in the down flow, and then came bobbling up a few feet away. It was a very slick maneuver, but I still had hopes of crossing the ledge by waiting for a small set and racing the ten second periods. The problem was in somehow getting delayed before climbing up the opposite side. That would be very bad. Instead of using the waterfall, I climbed to the lip of the ledge and jumped just as a large swell passed. I then swam across just outside the break zone of the waves coming into the ledge. The sequence of events is shown in Figures 16, 17, and 18. You can see the now-dubbed “Ricardo waterfall” on the left side of the figures. I reached a nice vertical face on the opposite side, was able to get hand and foot holds on a large swell, hold on during the drain, and then scramble up. Turning around, I noticed that Ricardo had already headed toward the headland in front of the Matador; so we were going back. This made sense, as we had used up our 30 minute allotment to just get to the Matador. I leapt off the face on a large swell and was driven outward on the drain toward Ricardo and Jim. Looking down, I could see exactly where to jump – basically a hole in the underlying ledge. We went back around the headland and back through the Matador. I was already tiring and was forced to use my kayak knowledge to ride swells around headlands and along rock faces. I stayed very close to the rocks, and tried to catch energy from the swells. This is seen in Figure 19. It worked well along the east-west running rock faces but not on north-south faces. As I reached a cove running north-south between the Matador and the pebble cove, I decided to climb out and walk along a ridge down to the next ledge. The ridge is under the hill seen in Figure 19. It was a good idea to get out of the water in an area where the swells were not pushing us along. However, the endpoint of the ledge was getting pounded by waves and I was not sure I could safely jump from there. As it turned out, I was able to hold on while large waves came in, then make a leap into the back of a very large swell. The drain took me out and nearly around the headland to the final east-west running rock face to the pebble cove. I was beginning to get the hang of this! Ricardo and Jim were already coming out as I swam in. Figure 11: Ricardo and Bob approaching the Matador basin. Figure 12: Ricardo in the back wash of the Matador Slot. Figure 13: Climbing the Matador! Figure 14: Launching off the Matador to cross the basin. Figure 15: Cowering behind a safe rock after climbing out of the Matador basin onto the south facing ledge. Ricardo’s waterfall is to the left side of the photo. Figure 16: Planning escape. Considering using the Ricardo waterfall. Figure 17: Climbing out on the ledge after deciding to forego the Ricardo waterfall on the left side of the photo. Figure 18: Diving over and out to finally leave the south Matador ledge. Figure 19: Ricardo and Bob riding swells back to the pebble cove. The walkable ridge is under the hill on the right side of the photo. Ricardo and I were shivering slightly as we regrouped for lunch. I hit the hot water reserve; and it had an immediate effect of warming me up. We ate on darker sunny rocks at a wind sheltered location in the cove. It was past noon. We had been in the water for a solid hour – twice what had been agreed to beforehand. Yet, the layers of neoprene had kept both of us pretty warm during that time. After lunch we put our gear back on and decided to return to the East Point ledges for some kayak rock gardening. All of us went through the Matador and ran the rock faces down the south side of East Point. Figure 20 shows the ground track through the Matador, including tucking into the safe zone to time incoming swells. Conditions were nearly perfect for kayak rock gardening; but the 8mm of neoprene definitely impeded my ability to fine-tune the boat location, edging and direction to the swell. Nevertheless, I managed to run the Subterranean by timing swells, and we all ran the QUAD slots. The ground tracks for our runs through the QUAD are shown in Figure 21. We progressed down to the Pea Island and ran a slot on the Shag Rocks. Figure 20: Strategy for running the Matador slot with a kayak. Swells in red, ground track in white. Figure 21: Runs of the QUAD slots. Ground tracks in white, Swells in red. On the return, I could not resist trying to swim the Subterranean slot. Jim took my boat and waited at the exit while I swam in, as seen in Figure 22. Water was still high so the back of the slot was very turbulent. Before reaching the safe zone, there is a low rock face that the swells poured over. I knew this effect from kayaking the slot many times – including just a few minutes earlier - and stayed pinned against the rock wall as the water poured over. At one point, I used seaweed to pull myself through against the draining counterflow to enter the safe zone. This is a very small area, previously used with my boat, in which swells on the entrance and exit seemed to combine to cause a lot of up-and-down turbulence. It a useful area to assess the exit for incoming swells. I had been trapped in the zone for over ten minutes on a previous trip a month ago in larger conditions - unable to turn the boat around and not wanting to attempt a back paddle out. The ground track for the October kayak run is shown in Figure 23. The exit is very tricky with an overfall under a hanging rock face. Rounding the corner, today I swam in the overfall tight to this rock face to avoid an upturned rock bench at the rear of the slot on the east side. During my October entrapment, my kayak had been swept over that bench in one of my attempts to escape. I definitely did not want to hit it swimming! The western side also seemed to have less impact from the waves. After emerging from the overhang, I saw an opportunity to get a hand-hold on the rock face as I was lifted by a large swell. You can see the attempt in Figure 24. However, I fell off the face in the drain. The water was plenty deep and the rock face very vertical – both checked before trying – so the drop was easy. On the next swell, instead of grabbing at rock faces, I just let the swell deposit me onto a very small high ledge. It was pretty elegant; and I stood on the ledge to signal Jim to come in with my boat. Figure 25 shows me resting on the ledge. As Jim came in, as seen in Figure 26, I leapt off the ledge into a large swell and swam out to him. He did a quick T-rescue and we proceeded along the East Point ledges and rock faces back to Canoe Beach. On the return, we saw two diving flags with an instructor on an SUP. After a while it became clear it was a rescue class for scuba divers. Canoe Beach can be dumping but launching and landing today was easy with long period swell. We landed around 2:00pm, grateful for the opportunity to try a combined coasteering and paddling session. Our ground track for the day is shown in Figure 27. Figure 22: Bob entering the Subterranean Slot. Figure 23: Strategy for running the Subterranean Slot with a kayak. Ground track for an earlier run in which I was swept to the back of the slot over the rock bench. Ground track in white, swells in red. Figure 24: Reaching for a handhold on an incoming swell after emerging from the Subterranean overhang. Figure 25: Resting after being swept up onto a Subterranean Slot ledge. Figure 26: Diving out on a large swell toward Jim’s boat for a T-rescue. Figure 27: Ground track for today’s combined coasteering/paddling session. Some random thoughts on coasteering: First off, coasteering is very exciting and fun! I think that the procedure that Jim and I used to swim the Subterranean Slot is a model for combined coasteering/kayaking. The swimmer hands off his kayak to his partner, runs a section of rocks, and then the two kayakers switch for the next section. This ensures a nearby safety kayak and the opportunity for the swimmers to rest in their kayaks. There were some other take-aways, noted mostly by Jim. The swimming was very slow, and it would be better to have climbed out more and found suitable hiking routes. That would cover more territory, but increase the probability of injuries on the slippery rocks. Fins would definitely have helped, but they would have to be quickly removable for climbing. For me personally, I do not yet have the skill for coasteering in a race; but see how exciting that would be. It would be hard to envision coasteering in conditions much greater than the two foot ten second swell we had today. Having at least two safety kayaks would have allowed better incident management. Jim thought he should have had a throw or float bag. In retrospect the throw bag makes sense to pull a swimmer seaward out of trouble. I’ve practiced using my tow belt as a throw bag. It was also noted that having wind would have significantly increased the chance for hypothermia. Barnacles exist so thick gloves are important. If you get into this sport, they will need to be replaced often. Thanks to Jim and Ricardo! Looking forward to the next session.