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Bakers Island Light and Little Misery Barrel Removal, 6/10/23


Jim Snyder

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I'm including the link to the trip  here as context. Some of this report might not make sense otherwise:

We were myself, Fred Goodwin, Sandy Blanchard, Jeff Charette, Shari Gallant, Bob Levine, Janice Cotton and Ben Rechel. We started under cloudy skies and calm winds but were aware of the possibility of a shower or even a little thunderstorm in the afternoon. We had come prepared with a stand up paddleboard for the barrel retrieval. I couldn't convince anyone to paddle it to Little Misery so we set off with it in tow.

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Arriving at Little Misery, we found the barrel right where we had left it, but with a few added trash items. The shipwreck was as exposed as I've ever seen it. We spent a little time planning for its exfiltration (the barrel, not the shipwreck) and then left the sup and started the crossing to Bakers.

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As per our arrangement, I called the lighthouse caretakers, Jack and Beth, from the water to alert them of our arrival time. Jack met us on the rocky beach and gave us an excellent tour of the facility which is now owned by Essex Heritage.

https://essexheritage.org/explore/bakers-island-light-station/

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After a nice lunch on the beach and very nice weather developing we decided to circumnavigate Bakers before returning to our barrel project. Even with the small swell, the outside of Bakers provided spectacular rocks and an occasional thrill.

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Next on our itinerary was the barrel. After much discussion and some shenanigans we arrived at a shipment method and prepared to launch from Little Misery.

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There was some discussion about Bob maybe accompanying the barrel on the return trip but about this time we notice the sky darkening significantly over Misery and decided we needed to get serious. A check of the radar showed a problematic cell over Beverly Farms and headed our way. Bob headed out with barrel in tow but soon it started pouring and some thunder forced us to take shelter in a cove on the north side of Misery with our final destination in sight.

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Consulting the radar once again, we determined we had a window of opportunity to race back to West Beach. The West Beach personnel had graciously offered to take care of the final dispensation of the barrel and contents if we survived the crossing, which was good since we hadn't quite figured out that part of the plan.

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Thanks to everyone who made this a fun trip and to Fred and Janice for sharing pictures!

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  • 2 weeks later...

TAH DAH!!!! YAY!!!!!!

Proud of you all for your passion for keeping our ocean and lands clean and your problem solving success!

Great trip report Jim and terrific pics Fred, Janice and Ben.

What a FUN ADVENTURE!

I too am sorry to have missed it but am sure, paddling with this group, there will be many more memorable capers ahead.

~Barb

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