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Another day at the beach-Singing Beach!


Gcosloy

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Well, it was just another day at the beach, except that wasn't the plan. Brian, Leon and I left Tuck's Point with mild wind and chop and headed out toward Kettle Cove where we stopped for lunch. Leaving the Cove we headed out to Kettle Island and observed the numerous wildlife including some gorgeous Heron's. The water seemed calm enough for Brian and I to practice some bow rudders with serious edging. As soon as we headed out for Gloucester Harbor conditions picked up. Strong beam seas going up to Norman's Woe and back and following seas heading toward Manchester. They were only two footers and so all was well. Passing Magnolia Harbor the seas became steeper. I was in my Nordkapp LV which has a tender stability profile and I began throwing anticipatory braces. I say anticipatory because at this point it wasn't clear whether they were necessary or not. By the time we got to Black Beach and then to Graves I noticed that sometime all I could see was Brian's head. Brian was paddling parallel off my port side and was bobbing in the same surge that would reach me a few seconds later. Brian is over 6' and I estimated the wave height to now be three feet. I looked over at Graves longingly and asked if we should go in and take a break. Conditions were only to get worse and so we thought the best thing was to paddle on. Now my braces were honestly necessary. I no longer could see Brian's head and concluded we were now bobbing in four foot beams. I noticed Leon, uncharacteristically paddling very close to Singing Beach. I thought he being the most experienced, perhaps the conditions were milder. The next time I looked Leon was surfing in and getting up on the beach. There were white caps everywhere and the sea state seemed to be getting worse so a mutual decision was made to bail. Long carries to the parking lot and a hitchhike back to Tuck's for Brian and Leon while I watched the boats and all's well that ended well. A needed rescue in those conditions would have been problematic and not worth the risk. We live to paddle another day.

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Lesson I Learned:

Problem: Prior to bailing out at Singing Beach I turned on my radio (it was in scan mode) and attempted to set it to channel 72 so I could notify Gene and Brian that we should abort the run. I couldn't changie the channel because my eyes and hands were too busy doing low braces.

Solution: Before it gets too rough turn on and set the VHF to the agreed upon channel for group communication.

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Hey guys, sounds like you did the prudent thing, I'm glad it worked out OK (if inconvenient).

I'm curious whether it was that the conditions deteriorated in line with the forecast (i.e., were the winds expected to increase and/or change direction), or that the forecast was off?

Not that I'm suggesting that forecasts are infallible.

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Hey guys, sounds like you did the prudent thing, I'm glad it worked out OK (if inconvenient).

I'm curious whether it was that the conditions deteriorated in line with the forecast (i.e., were the winds expected to increase and/or change direction), or that the forecast was off?

Not that I'm suggesting that forecasts are infallible.

Winds were mostly from the West and then shifted South West later in the afternoon. I think the combination of flood tide in line with 20k winds created enough surge so that the conditions were worse than would appear on paper. Also for some of us 1 to 2 foot beams becoming 3 to 5 footers was where the rubber met the road. I have no doubt that all of us could have paddled on and survived without a capsize but the probabilities were no longer 100%. Yes I think the forecast was conservative for this day. Especially when you realize that conditions are usually better a couple of miles off shore than the predictions for 20 mi out. The irony of this situation was that we might have been safer further off shore but the prevalence of white caps as far out as we could see suggested otherwise.

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