Rockland to Vinalhaven/Hurricane Island

[jonsprag1]

To celebrate me getting my Registered Sea Kayaking Guides License, my friend Jim Claus and I decided to do a long planned trip to the Vinalhaven archpilego this weekend. After getting up at the ungodly hour of 0400, we drove the 1 1/2 hours to the Rockland Marine Park where we launched at 7:30---winds and water were calm but even at that early hour on a weekend the Rockland water front was a beehive of activity---the main sounds were the throbbing of diesel engines and the predominant smells where diesel fumes and the pungent odor of redfish(used for lobster bait) The trip over to Owls Head, where we took a pit stop before starting the 6 mile open ocean crossing to the first of the islands off Vinalhaven, was uneventful. After plotting our compass bearing we set off. Lots of seals and porpoises on the way and eventually we could no longer smell the harbor---we could however hear the dozens of lobster boats in area and if we had run into trouble, I'm sure we could have walked back to the mainland on top of the thousands of lobster bouys. I grew up on the Maine coast so I'm used to lobster "pots". However this area has more than I've ever seen, even more than Stonington. After arriving at a MITA Island at the north end of Hurricane Sound, we set up camp, had lunch and then paddled the three miles down to Hurricane Island. We took a short walking tour of the Outward Bound School(it has changed a lot since I went there as a student in 1972---cabins for students and staff instead of tents etc). Then it was back in the boats for a 1 mile paddle to the light house on the south end of Green Island and back to our campsite. We took a brief sunset paddle after supper--Jim longer than me. The next day we were on the water again at 7:30 for the trip back to Owls Head and then Rockland Harbor---the conditions were not quite as calm as the day before(two foot chop in the middle of the bay) but were still relatively mild with only a slight breeze. The chop was caused by a northerly wind---about 6-7 knots over the 20 mile fetch. It amazes me that one can look up the bay from that area towards land and see an uninterrupted horizon past Islesboro. Aside from a leg cramp that Jim got about 200 yards from Owls Head the return tip was without incident.