A Tuesday jaunt...

[Pintail]

This one-man band got on the sea today for the first time in a week (rare for me, at this time of year, when I usually expect to paddle several times per week).  Turning left out of Lanes Cove, I was undecided where to head except in the general direction of the Annisquam mouth; but, on impulse, I decided that the ebb (I launched just after high water) might offer some fun across at Essex Bay estuary -- and so it did!  Whilst the waves were not regular and surfable, they were choppy enough to provide some fun and there were standing waves close to the southern side of the mouth, close by the northern end of Coffins.  I think I hit the area at max. ebb and after playing there for a while I paddled (and dragged my boat, briefly, in the area of Middle Ground) across to Conomo Point to see if the current there could give me some more play -- and so it did: nice current and eddies at the side and more fun when any motorboat came through, against the ebb tide.  A party of four or five recreational kayaks did not venture into the narrows, save to cross to Conomo, where they took out on the gravel beach.

Coming back, straight across Ipswich Bay, I had almost got back to Lanes Cove when I saw a fin in the water near me, about four hundred yards from the seawall.  I guessed immediately that I had found a sunfish (Mola mola) and there it was, basking and swimming slowly towards to northeast: it was the largest one I have yet seen -- I am guessing it was five feet long?  It dived once I got too close, whereas, in the past, I have found them very relaxed and accepting of a close encounter.  End of a perfect day, although I had half-expected to bump into a certain Mr. Granowitz somewhere in the area; but, then, the ocean is a big place!