Tuck Point SNG 12/3

[Kevin B (RPS Coach)]

Well, I had orginally posted a start time of 9am., soon to be changed to 10am the night before since we had arrived home so late after the party. Apparently, the delay was not long enough, as we arrived to see a couple of paddlers heading out towards Misery, too far to hear our horn. That's what you get for being late As Bob would later ask, "what time time are you operating in?" or something like that:( So we had missed Galen, Bob and Mary, who we assumed were now headed towards Misery. Luck would have it tha Ross would be just as late as we were, so after a quick boat load, the three of us left Tucks on a 120 degree heading for Bakers, hoping to intercept the other group. After several attempts to hail on the radio, we gave up.

It turned out to be a beautiful day, calm waters and minimal winds. We headed around Bakers, where Ross had a close encounted with a stubburn breaker and an even more stubborn rock . Once around Bakers and on the way to the Gooseberries, the wind picked up a little. Gillian handled herself quite well crossing from the Berries to Childrens with wind and waves on the beam. She commented later that she had started to try out all those things that people had been telling her about. Edging into the wind, relaxing in the boat, etc. It brought me back to first time I tried all of those things that Godfrey had tried to impress upon me at our training session in Essex Bay.

After a short break on Childrens, out of the wind, time was getting on and the chill was starting to fill the air. We made for a direct shot towards Tucks, hitting Coney Island and then the Willows, before the now changed tide gently swept us back into Tucks, where Bob and Mary were just finishing stowing their gear.

A wonderfull day overall. We missed Galen (sorry Galen, hope you had a good paddle!), but at least we had a chance to see friends in Mary and Bob. Perhaps next time we'll remember that we don't live in Bizarro world and we'll actually have a chance to paddle with them:)

[Gillian]

Definitely an excellent time and I'm sorry we missed the other paddlers . . . it was one of the longer distance trips I've done, especially since the heavy paddle season has ended. One thing that helped was that as I found myself getting tired, I really varied my stroke speed and paddle angle instead of just stopping . . . this helped prevent the boat from stopping and helped quite a bit with fatigue. It was an incredibly beautiful day and on the way back we got to play with some good wind and waves hitting us broadside for about a mile or so . . . one thing I remembered John Carmody telling me was that he'd never seen an Explorer flip in confused waters by itself . . . it just bobs around always righting itself. So I had some fun with letting the waves hit the stern and broadside and let the boat deal with the water itself and sure enough it tracked itself back on course (i did have the skeg about a quarter of the way down). Anyway, it was a small breakthrough for me in terms of trusting my equipment and it's intentional design. We also practiced ranges and navigation which is always fun - I'm lucky to learn from all of Kevin's training experience. Kevin and Ross had a blast playing in the rocks on the backside of Bakers, but I stayed out of most of it - I decided that in cold water paddles I didn't want to jeopardize myself or someone else having to rescue me if I got into trouble in the rocks . . . they were fun to watch though All in all a wonderful day for a long paddle and a post paddle beer and nap on the couch!