Portsmouth paddle

[lheath]

Gail, Ed, Carl, Peter and myself had a wonderfull day of paddling Saturday. After looking at the weather forecast of partly cloudy skies and contemplating which way the wind was coming from which was out of the WNW at a speed of 5-10 miles an hour and gusts of 15-20, we decided to head south launching from Odiorne at about 11:30 AM. High tide was at 9:30 Am and low tide at 3:30 PM. The seas were rather calm and the wind was mild with an occasional good gust. The guys were looking for some surf and breakers to play in. Gail was being very brave and allowed herself to be coaxed by Ed to experience paddling among rocks and breakers. She did very well and actually looked calm in her experience with them. In my efforts to stay away from them however, somehow I managed to catch some surf, not intentionally, which took me for an unforgetable ride. I found myself screaming, due to lack of not knowing what else to do, I just held my paddle up and let the boat ride. When I realized I hadn't capsized, I felt like somebody was watching over me. I was ready to go home at that point, but I didn't want to ruin everyone's day, so after a time of calming my shakie legs, we continued on to Wallis Sands. Then we changed our course to head North and around New Castle Island in a counterclockwise direction. We experienced some really strong current along the river on our way back which made for some strong paddling for a bit. Peter found himself doing a roll while approaching a big boat moored a little too close for his comfort. I think he was too hot and just decided to cool off. He demonstrated another roll just to prove to us the water wasn't really that cold. His efforts didn't seem convincing enough for the rest of us to try, however. We arrived back on shore around 4:30 and to everyone's delight, managed to have a great day out on the water. We did 10.3 nautical miles and the weather turned out to be wonderful for this time of year. Carl was happy to have been able to get out there, since he had a long wait before getting his drysuit back from being repaired, but forgot to put sunscreen on and now has a beet red face. Something he rarely ever forgets to do.