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Wed Lunch Paddle 7/6/22: Lynch Park, Beverly


Joseph Berkovitz

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People: Joyce Carpenter, Jody Harris, Sue Hriciga , Bob Dandaraw, Bill Voss, Rich Zwiercan, Mike Habich, Barbara Ryan, Susan Rask, Fred Goodman, Joe Berkovitz

We gathered at Lynch Park between 9:30 and 10:30, marshalling boats to the low tide line. The sky seemed to be clearing and a breeze was starting to disperse the muggy air from last night's rain. Some of the elders among us were pleasantly surprised to discover that Lynch Park is only $5 for seniors. And only $0 for Beverly residents—of which number Fred is now one (as of Sunday)!  It is actually a very nice place to launch and has excellent facilities.

The plan was to head eastward somewhere for lunch along the north shore of Salem Sound. Mike had arrived by water from West Beach and reported it was a pretty stiff westerly headwind for him, though he had purposely stayed offshore. The wind seemed to be becoming more northwesterly as had been forecast. As we took off we immediately found some wind just around the point of Lynch Park, so the group mostly moved in towards the rocks for protection once we were able to pick up the rocky coastline around Endicott College.

The sky kept clearing and the air kept drying out. Eventually we found our way out to Misery and around to the Gut around 12 noon, where we encamped on the Great Misery side and had an exceedingly pleasant and somewhat lazy lunch. Summer at last!

After lunch the plan was to continue around the east side of Great Misery and then hoof it back to West Beach, then decide on what might be next. We expected to encounter an offshore breeze once we were fully around Misery and we were not disappointed—but perhaps a bit less wind and would have been 100% OK with everyone. It was sporadic but at times seemed to me to be blowing directly offshore around 15 kt gusting to 18, or something like that. There was little for it except to get through it and gain the lee of the shore opposite us; the group fragmented a bit as people started to conduct their own private battles with the wind and lost some mutual awareness. Just as we were attempting to group up a bit better, Susan ran into difficulty turning into the wind and became separated from the group. I paddled over to her and we became what my California friend Jan calls a "distributed tandem": a pair of people, both paddling actively, with a tow rope in between. (The turning-upwind difficulty eventually turned out to be due to a deployed skeg.) We rejoined the group at West Beach for a quick rest and debrief. On the beach it was calm and serene. Wind? What wind? What just happened?

Finally we were down for the final run back to Lynch with occasional windy encounters, but nothing on the scale of the fight we'd experienced back from Misery. We landed again in the lee of the Beverly shore in the calm, serene and slightly mucky waters of the park. I think a good time was had by all and the challenges were more fun than miserable!

 

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It was a gorgeous day and a very nice group of people to paddle with. Thanks to all, especially Joe.  I was exhausted when we got to the beach after Misery. I’ve never been strong but these months after surgery certainly put me behind schedule for developing my summer paddling stamina. Luckily, I know the solution: more paddling. Hope to see everyone very soon. 

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