Solo trip #2 - Pavilion Beach

[shewhorn]

Not much worth noting I was hoping to connect with a few others but as usually I was rather nebulous until the last second so really, it wasn't much of a surprise that I was solo again. NOAA said 2 to 4 footer building to 3 to 5 feet in the evening. If that was the case I was just going to stay in protected waters but there was no worries becuase the sea was as flat as a pankcake, nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero. I went out by myself, paddled near the southern end of Plum, hugged the shore, played with the current a bit (it was very light) and then paddled back. Once I got back to the shallows I decided to work on my sculling for support.

I'm always a little apprehensive to try this stuff (especially if there's a risk that I'll go under... it's still so very mental) without others around but I figure doing so builds confidence (I have yet to roll without anyone watching but at least I'm comfortable rolling without anyone spotting now). So, recall the wisdom of Alex and Suz from my database. I start out with long slow sweeps get out on my edge and then make that "leap of faith". Oops... I'm going down, quick... put that knee into, twist your body, check your left hand position and damnit... would you slow down!!! OK... thing start to stabilize, I'm on my back, I feel good, okay let's roll out. No problem! I worked on it a few more times until it started getting darker (haha... you thought something was going to go wrong and I'd have learned some new piece of humorous wisdom (like people can't breath under water (at least not without SCUBA gear)). Nope, nothing of the sort.

So, the boat I was in was glass and borrowed and of course Pavilion is a bit rocky at low tide so I tied off the boat to a rock and then piled a bunch of heavy rocks on the line. I went to the car to grab my Tomato and this guy asks me for some pliers. I think to myself "this is something I should have" but I didn't so I offered up a Swiss Army knife. Nahhh... that won't do the job. He keeps poking away at his side mirror and then says... "Man I was watching you up on the hill, I saw you go over and it looked like you couldn't get up and then you just popped up, then you went over again and looked like you couldn't get up, I was about to run down but then you popped up again". I aplogized for giving him a scare and then explained sculling for support and why one would actually want to do it. He gave me a hand putting the boat on the car, finished tweaking his, drove off and waved goodbye.

It's good to know that folks are watchin' out for me even when I'm alone but... it definitely wasn't my intent to cause concern for anyone. In the back of my head I was thinking... "what if someone called the CG, it would pull them away from being ready for someone who might really need rescuing". Speaking of which... I had the VHF in dual mode and got to listen to a CG rescue in progress. A boat off of Glouster (I think it was a fishing boat.. at one point the guy got off the horn to put a dry suit on) started taking on water fast. The guy was cleary somewhat paniced. The CG dispatched a chopper to lower a pump to the guy. From what I gathered another fisherman assisted as well.

So, that was my excitement for the day.

Cheers, Joe