Jonesport, Machias Bay, Cobscook Reversing Falls

[JohnHuth]

Finally, finally, finally, I got out on a camping trip downeast. Yippee!!

I know a guy named Dan Carr who is on the MITA board of directors. He invited me to join him and a friend, Bill Wertz, on a paddle out of Jonesport. I'd already paddled west/south from Jonesport, as had Dan and Bill, so we decided to head east/north this time.

We left Jonesport on Sunday AM with the flood tide, crossed over from the mainland into the Rogue Archipelago. The water was flat as a mirror, and you really couldn't tell that there was any current there. It was a bit overcast with some drizzles.

That stretch of coast is truly amazing - you have these distant islands, and your whole sense of size and perspective gets messed up. Two mile crossings are pretty much the norm. We worked along the north side of the south islands in the archipelago, stopping at one MITA island for a nice view out to the Brothers, then did a two mile crossing to another, where we camped. We made the hop of 11 NM by noon and just put up our tents and explored. The island had some sheep on it - and the strangest damn thing - we found a string that was leading up into the sky, with nothing evidently attached to it.

I hauled in the string for about 10 minutes and finally found a kite emerging from the fog and clouds. Strange.

The next day (Monday), we paddled up into Machias Bay and stopped at an island where there are some native american petroglyphs. It was fun hunting them down and trying to figure out what they were. Then we paddled past a large VLF (very low frequency) array for communicating with submarines on the Cutler peninsula, and camped on a MITA island that was home to an Outward Bound outpost. It was a wonderful site, but unfortunately we hit a mosquito hatch. You have to expect such things.

In the channel between the island and Cutler Peninsula, there was a reasonably swift current. There was a full moon on Sunday, and the age of the tide was such that the biggest tides were on Tuesday. With the full moon on a perigee, the tides were about 2 feet higher above MHHW and 2 feet lower than MLLW, but still not astronomically large - still big, and big currents.

On Tuesday, we did an outer crossing of Machias Bay, going from Cross Island - we used the Libby Islands as an intermediate point. We were trying to time it so that we missed the bulk of the ebb tide. As we approached Libby, however, the wind picked up - gusts maybe to 20 kts - not horrible, but we'd been paddling about 6-7 NM by that time, so we decided to take a break in the lee of Big Libby. When we came out around the north side of Big Libby, the wind had subsided a bit, but we were now in the thick of the ebb against the wind.

Now, this was an interesting lesson for me. Dan has a lot of experience from white water paddling, and I later got a great bit of advice from him. As it was the waves and wind against the current was sloppy for me - the waves seemed to be hitting at random angles, and I was frustrated that I was executing more steering strokes than forward strokes - just kind of slopping around. It was a roller coaster for sure, but I wanted to be more in control. We got back to the island we camped at on Sunday night, after that 2 mile crossing from the LIbbys.

There was a huge thunderstorm that passed to our north and hit Calais, but missed us.

On Wednesday, we started back, but in the morning, we were dealing with a flood tide. the wind had shifted around to the NE, so again it was wind against tide. The crossing over to the Rogue archipelago was relatively uneventful, but when we hit the archipelago, each island intensified the wind-against-current effect. First there was Halifax. In the crossings, I felt the same sloppiness where I had to execute too many steering strokes for my taste. Then, Dan taught me a great trick, which I suppose many of you already know. I was previously trying to do a point-to-point paddle, but was getting sloppy quartering seas. If you just surf the waves, you can effectively set up a ferry angle. When you do this, you're using gravity to fight the current. Well, I was off to the friggin races with this one - I was surfing, and basically had to execute far fewer steering strokes, just the occasional stern rudder with some edging to stay on the wave. I was having a blast. I wish I'd known about this earlier, but I'm sure going to remember this in the future. That was great!

We had a snack and then did a last crossing to the mainland and into Jonesport.

We decided to shower up at an inn in Lubec, Cohills. The guy behind the desk was named Greg, and had paddled the coast from Florida all the way up to Lubec and then just stopped in Lubec - go figure. Anyway, he had some interesting stories about that paddle and the danger zones.

Thursday was mainly sightseeing, but also kind of a recon. The tides on the Bold Coast from Machias/Cutler up to Lubec are monsterous, and there are mostly huge cliffs. The tide race off Quoddy Head light was quite something. We then drove around Cobbscook Bay to the reversing falls there, and caught them at max flood. Geeze, what a sight - biggest reversing falls I've ever seen with huge boils, a large central whirlpool and a lot of huge waves.

Dan had paddled from Cutler around Quoddy and into Cobbscook a couple of years ago. He said he was doing 9 knots with the tide at one point. He also played a bit in the Cobbscook Falls - but they looked pretty awe inspiring. I don't think I'd go near them in a boat until I do a bunch more white water work.

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip - although Dan's not an NSPN member, I'm grateful for the invitation and also for some of the stuff he taught me on the trip. Great stuff!!

Edited June 28, 2013 by JohnHuth

[rick stoehrer]

glad you had fun - it's beautiful up there. yes, surf when you can. it's easier and a helluva lot more fun.

i don't know a greg but there is a glenn charles who works at cohills in the summer that did that trip...suspect you may have misheard or made a typo...or maybe there's a second guy. cohills is in a nice spot there.

[JohnHuth]

Rick -

Yes, "Glenn" sounds right. After I left, I said "was it Glenn?" and either Bill or Dan said "No, I think it was Greg"....so, thanks for the correction. I'm trying to hunt down his blog from that trip.

Thanks,

John

[EEL]

Neat stuff making me wistful past visits and eager about getting back. I hope to get to the island with the sheep this year. So you were surfing with the ebb, right?

Hope you "blow your horn" about the August MITA conference on the forum.

Ed Lawson

[rick stoehrer]

glenn charles -

https://www.facebook.com/glenn.charles.37?fref=ts

http://thetravelingvagabond.com/

a bit bohemian for me but it DOES strike a chord.

[JohnHuth]

Rick -

Yup, that's the guy. Interesting blog. I always wondered how people can 'make a living' doing that kind of thing. The owners of Cohills are Philadelphia transplants - there are all these sports posters - Flyers, Eagles, Phillies around the place.

Ed -

We had the ebb crossing from the Libbys on Tuesday afternoon, and the flood in the morning crossing to the Rogue Archipelago on Wed morning. I was surfing (finally) on the flood on Wed AM, once I figured it out (could've surfed on Tuesday, had I known that trick).

[gyork]

- we found a string that was leading up into the sky, with nothing evidently attached to it.

I hauled in the string for about 10 minutes and finally found a kite emerging from the fog and clouds. Strange.

Can't get more bizarre than that!

[Gcosloy]

Did you check to see if there was a nearby beanstalk too?

[JohnHuth]

I posted this, with some photos and some more details, in case anyone is interested:

http://artofwayfinding.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-string-leading-to-heaven.html