a tale of two trips.....

[rick stoehrer]

**caution - not for the feint of heart**

Saturday we were set to launch from Pavillion with the modest goal of paddling to Plum Island...to walk over the top of the island and then take a gander at the mayhem going off on the outside....crossing over from shore, the wind whipped down outta the North, straight down the Sound with gusts to 50 mph...keeping the boat on any kind of track to head out East....next to impossible. the outside...HUGE, giant, waves - crashing and dumping monsters that would certainly snap a kayaker into little disposable bits without knowing or caring and poof...you'd shrug the mortal coil in a foamy malestrom.

Paddling back West from Plum island....the wind had built and the flood had just finished...the tide was high, pushed in from the cycle and the storm; the swells were wrapping around the point and then heading back North into the teeth of the wind....big swells being faced up by the force of wind on water...they rose and rose until they broke with a roar. all the while, the wind shearing off the tops and trying to halt that inexorable flow of water....and it seemed as if the wind could almost do it on Saturday.

Paddling back with the 50 mph gusts on your right shoulder and the very large breaking waves on the left....getting back to Pavillion would have been folly, the only hope was to head into the swell and let the wind catapault you down to Castle Island and Cranes and then walk back.

Well, that's what we thought anyways, sitting in the comfort of the warm car.

We did get to the launch and we did gear up....we also had the very good sense to not launch....good rule of thumb - if you don't dare untie the boats from the racks for fear of their becoming kites....you probably shouldn't launch. and so my soul was satisfied with company, talk and breakfast at the Agawam. Sometimes, you just gotta bag it.

Now, on Sunday, we did launch from Cashman park and then headed up the Merrimac for while. No real conditions to speak of - a bit of chop built up by the still breezey Low pressure system that was lingering.....did get to ride the ebbing tide back though....much easier than getting my fool self killed in Plum Island Sound.

What's that old Irish adage so frequently quoted in all those kayaking treatises? Something about being scared of the sea and only being drowned now and then? Saturday? Scared. Sunday? Less scared.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend in the great weather that got tossed our way!

[Linda]

You had me worried there for a few paragraphs, Rick! I took a couple of rides down to Town Neck here in Sandwich and could barely stand up in the wind: a steady 35-40 with plenty of gusts over 50. Ten foot waves crashing onto the beach and dunes in normally placid Cape Cod Bay. The barrier beach is quickly becoming a mere sandspit with the powerful waves breaking through into the marsh. Several tons of sand were dredged from the canal last year and deposited on the neck: gone. A few more good storms and it will be an island. Love being on the ocean...totally in awe of her power. It was a good day to get those inside chores done this weekend!

Linda