Night paddle around Cape Ann

[bazzert]

What an adventure! Christoper and I left Lanes shortly after 8pm and touched keels again just before 2am. Chris made the fortunate decision to go counter-clockwise, which meant that we had a little push from the rising tide in the Annisquam and beyond the dogbar we had the moderate wind and rolly seas astearn. His local knowledge was also key in navigating the sandbars of the Annisquam in the dark at near low tide (thats not to say we didnt touch bottom a couple of times!).

For illumination we both had pfd lights and head lamps. Found that we rarely used the headlamps as they really mess with your night vision; they were however useful in the river to make our positions absolutely clear to the handful of possibly inebriated power boaters. The Annisquam is a bit of a party spot at night. My Princeton Tech H2O head lamp is really bright; I had to remember not to look directly at Chris (sorry Chris!). For traffic the only concerns were an unlighted dinghy that zipped out from beyond the Annisquam 128 bridge at us and the party boat on Gloucester harbor whose intentions was not always clear.

The flow at the canal was steady, but uneventful; we crossed Gloucester harbor from Ten Pound island directly to the dogbar. Beyond which conditions were typically confused and I found challenging. From eastern point all the way to Milk we had significant swells from astearn; this was not the mirror like seas we experienced during the circumnavigation we did in early May. In the dark we could only identify Milk when it was almost abeam; from there conditions were decidedly calmer and I found I could now actually enjoy the moonlit paddle. The passage between Rockport and Straitsmouth is not lit but is identifiable from the green flashing light on the eastern end of Straitsmouth. We crossed directly to Andrews point; the wind now abeam and kicking up a surprisingly large chop given the short fetch from Rockport. With a second wind as the end is in sight we ghosted past Halibut point whose rock formations are particularly eerie in the moon light.

Many thanks to Christopher for setting this up and giving me an opportunity to push my limits.

~21 miles, 3.4 knots avg.

Barry.

[jason]

What an adventure! Christoper and I left Lanes shortly after 8pm and touched keels again just before 2am. Chris made the fortunate decision to go counter-clockwise, which meant that we had a little push from the rising tide in the Annisquam and beyond the dogbar we had the moderate wind and rolly seas astearn. His local knowledge was also key in navigating the sandbars of the Annisquam in the dark at near low tide (thats not to say we didnt touch bottom a couple of times!).

For illumination we both had pfd lights and head lamps. Found that we rarely used the headlamps as they really mess with your night vision; they were however useful in the river to make our positions absolutely clear to the handful of possibly inebriated power boaters. The Annisquam is a bit of a party spot at night. My Princeton Tech H2O head lamp is really bright; I had to remember not to look directly at Chris (sorry Chris!). For traffic the only concerns were an unlighted dinghy that zipped out from beyond the Annisquam 128 bridge at us and the party boat on Gloucester harbor whose intentions was not always clear.

The flow at the canal was steady, but uneventful; we crossed Gloucester harbor from Ten Pound island directly to the dogbar. Beyond which conditions were typically confused and I found challenging. From eastern point all the way to Milk we had significant swells from astearn; this was not the mirror like seas we experienced during the circumnavigation we did in early May. In the dark we could only identify Milk when it was almost abeam; from there conditions were decidedly calmer and I found I could now actually enjoy the moonlit paddle. The passage between Rockport and Straitsmouth is not lit but is identifiable from the green flashing light on the eastern end of Straitsmouth. We crossed directly to Andrews point; the wind now abeam and kicking up a surprisingly large chop given the short fetch from Rockport. With a second wind as the end is in sight we ghosted past Halibut point whose rock formations are particularly eerie in the moon light.

Many thanks to Christopher for setting this up and giving me an opportunity to push my limits.

~21 miles, 3.4 knots avg.

Barry.

Looks like a great paddle. Thanks for sharing the trip report.

-Jason

[jeffcasey]

a cool trip.... I will gladly join you on the next such enterprise if i'm available.

....I seem to remember trying to talk Chris into something like this a few years ago... strange ideas never do go away.

[Pintail]

We saw no green phosphorescence, as I usually have done (green-ish masses); but we <did> see some curious phenomenon around Straitsmouth and perhaps some biologist can ELUCIDATE (did I get it right, Prof. Lewis? ): small straight-lined (2" long?), electric-blue stripes of something similarly phosphorescent -- very pretty, although not prolific. I am really curious...

The swells outside the Dogbar and following us until Milk Island were quite marked at times and came in definite sets. This was a level 4 outing, for sure. Barry is a trooper!

[Phil Allen]

Chris-

Those ~2" stripes of phosphorescence were probably Comb Jellies. The don't sting humans, but will flash when disturbed. They can be quite dense at times.

Phil