Jewell in the rain - 10/12/03

[Guest guest]

On Sunday, a crew of 8 left Eastern Prom. in Portland. The trip was “unofficial” as the leader cancelled at the last minute but we decided we had plenty of opportunity to paddle, why waste it?

We headed to Fort Gorges on the outgoing tide. We landed at the Fort, walked around and up top and yup, it really would have commanded the area in 1860 or so. Pretty impressive – huge granite slabs with the limestone leaching out of the cement – a civil war era version of stalagmites.

Leaving Fort Gorges, we headed up Diamond Pass and then between Pumpkin Nob and Peaks, into the Hussey and to Overset Island where we played briefly. No injuries, no gel coat contributions, no problems.

From Overset we steered pretty directly to the SE corner of Jewell and then along the outside to Surprise Beach. Rather than head up to the “mouth” on the N end, we went over the break that skirts the outside there and had a bit of excitement and eventually landed and had a bit of lunch. Suzanne again brought excellent chow and spoiled us with pumpkin bread, tea and cheese along with the less fabulous fare that we all brought along.

We had planned on sitting there half an hour or so but the rain started to fall in earnest and visibility was now closing in around us. We packed it up and out and launched and headed around the N end of the island and into the passage between Jewell and Cliff and pretty much shot a straight line 273 or so back to Vail and Overset. The rain at this point was really coming down pretty well and the biggest problem we had at this point was keeping it out of our eyes. This isn’t supposed to be a dry sport, right?

We headed past Overset, back into the Hussey and ferried across over to Pumkin Nob and this time between the Diamonds. Had a very short portage and then straight across to Eastern Prom.

In all fun was had. It was good to be back on the water again !