Inverseyourself

Great synopsis, Rob! Regarding ruddered boats. I agree that only paddling a ruddered sea kayak can take away from the art of directional strokes and I definitely recommend learning and perfecting them in a non-ruddered sea kayak. However, nothing improves your most important and most used stroke, the forward stroke, like having a rudder. You focus on your forward stroke and leave directional control to your feet.

Cetus is probably also a bit more stable than the Tarantella. Best to try out all the candidates!

Agree with Taran 16 or Tarantella. Nanuq Kayaks in Portland sells them.

Just a quick report today: Salem Bay was deceptively energetic today. Very sizable ground swell from the SE exploding on the islands, E side Baker, the Gooseberries, Tinkers, The Pigs (very piggish today, and massive seal guards warning me off with tail splashes), Halfway Rock and House Island. I circled Halfway twice in the hopes of a falling tide opening up a landing option - not in today’s conditions. The slot on the E side was massive! Wind waves resulting from steady southerly winds made for a joyful ride from 1/2WR to Little Misery (with the NE corner with the nasty refracting wave pumping - looking at you Joe B. - more for Bobs than for Andies today) with frequent surfing speeds > 7mph. Basking in the sun for over an hour on Little Misery, a quick roll in the Misery Gap with my wing paddle (never tried before, always concerned about it, turns out for no reason), then over to House for a fast ride. Back at shielded West Beach people thinking it was a warm, windless, calm day. Ha! https://www.relive.cc/view/v1OwNJBZPXv

???

I’m (still) ok with no porta-potties, just don’t want to get towed?

Is anyone aware of Rye Harbor parking restrictions for MA-licensed cars or in general?

Yes, Essex Bay turns into a maze at medium tide and tidal planning is essential.

I have to admit, Gary, that a brief glimpse at my phone’s Gaia app (localize button) was helpful. I highly recommend it for estuary paddlers!

Just a brief report of such a mundane trip: Balancing work, tides, wind, weather, personal form and COVID-19-related ocean access restrictions, I chose today’s little afternoon window over playing hooky this coming Wednesday to squeeze in a Crane CW circumnav before winter’s official end. LT at 12:30 in Ipswich and a non-resident parking ban at Pavilion forced me to launch at the Ipswich town wharf relatively late in the day. The wharf was packed with small boat trailers/trucks which turned out to be clammers working at the edge of the river. Losing my front hatch cover on the way to Ipswich, noticing it while getting the boat off the rack and then finding it undamaged at the roadside after driving almost all the way back home added to the relatively late put in at 2:30 pm. I thought of losing it as a bad omen but finding it as a neutralizing event. Note to self: If you hear a loud plonk or pop - which I did - coming from above while transporting a kayak, stop and check. I was sluggish from the get-go from a long training session yesterday and had to force myself to keep going with having to work against an incoming tide until I reached the opening to Ipswich Bay adding its demotivating part. Nearing Little Head, I had a brief hallucination of a guy in only a cotton T-shirt in a proper sea kayak paddling out and trying to catch me (36 air, 8 kn wind, 39 water - what was I thinking wearing a drysuit and Kokatat-balaclava) but that just didn’t make sense. I ignored it and paddled on. A certain rhythm set in and I raced round Crane’s southern tip into Essex Bay at 8.5 mph (statute) per my GPS. 10 Minute break, change of gloves, up the bay behind Crane, through Fox Creek and up the Ipswich back to the put in. Something was off a mile into the river. It was getting narrower and narrower and I couldn’t see the gigantic mansion with a little boat house twice the size of my real house that I had admired on my way out. I had taken exit/entry Neck Creek in my crazed attempt at going under 3 hours. You fool! I looked south and in the distance found the Mega-Mansion to be extremely well-lit, almost beacon-like. Tonight trickle-down economics worked for me! By now it was dark and I couldn’t make out contours any longer. Houses on the river’s edge were my only guide. Landing at the wharf, the entire boat, my spare paddle, my hat and my GPS watch had a layer of ice. My wife claims that I sounded funny when I reported in via phone. I stumbled around ineffectively quite a bit while stowing away my gear and loading up the boat. In hindsight, I was probably cold and moderately exhausted and probably wouldn’t have had a ton of reserves had something gone wrong. Note to self: No late launches in winter for a forced trip, especially when the last stretch is windy and unfamiliar. I had a head torch but it was so weak that I’ll need to get a new, extra powerful one. I have mixed feelings about this trip and am looking forward to milder weather! https://www.relive.cc/view/vYvEj2LBNwO P.S.: For folks who haven’t paddled here and plan to this coming season, you need about 2 hours before/after HT to comfortably get through Fox Creek, add 1/2 an hour and it gets iffy, also contingent on neap/spring. Fox Creek floods from/ empties to the North, so you’ll have to work a little bit getting back into the Ipswich River if you paddle N before HT. Launching from the Ipswich town wharf is not ideal, you can’t avoid having to paddle against current twice. After Memorial Day, boat traffic will be very lively.

Man, I am glad he is ok! I found the area on Google for better visualization. Is he really in his 80s? Great story of survival. I bet for an uninitiated observer on land it wouldn’t have looked all that bad! Again, very glad that Alan is all right. Found this on YouTube:

They would just skip the metal detector anyway?

Well, if that’s the short version of the story that you told your wife, it makes total sense that you tell us the same story. Consistency helps in “basically true” cases like this.?

Nice boat, Leon!

Can't tell you the brand as I'm my office right now but I bought a similar 4 person shelter on Amazon a few years ago for a fraction of the price (and delivered next day by prime :-).

I was watching you with interest while chilling in the car with my son having coffee and eating chocolate croissants. I was thinking about commenting on your obvious sea kayaker outfit but was too comfy to get out :-). Around the same time 2 people, a man and a woman, took a swim, the woman even twice (of course).

I agree with Jonathan. I have 1-2 spare Glacier Gloves and switch once or twice during a cold paddle. Pru, you could buy heated ski gloves and regenerate your hands in them during the lunch break, then use a dry pair of Glaciers for the paddle back to the take out.

Does anyone else see a horse in the background?

Not only do you love to pore over charts, you obviously also love to pour over charts. Very nice job!

On the other hand, it gives you that extra little bit of motivation to get that roll!

While landing for navigation purposes I often fill the time between looking at my past and future course on my chart and calculating my times with putting food and drink in my mouth. It is always my hope that this is not misconstrued by landowners as lunch .

Someone tell me where this is, please. I want to go!

What a landscape! Everything seems (is) so much bigger! Nice work on exploiting the weather window!

Downside of Carbon-Kevlar boats. But then, I assume that most who spend the $$$$ on it store it inside and don’t paddle on sunny days ?

... it comes with a portage now. After a short night with much fretting, my alarm clock signaled its already awake owner that a decision needed to be made. Stay or go? Recently equipped with a boat that just eats up miles, I had been eyeing a Cape Ann circumnavigation for the last few weeks. NOAA predicted southwesterly and later northwesterly winds at around 10 kn w gusts of 20 kn, < 1 ft seas. The Windfinder Superforecast predicted mellower winds at 6-15 from WSW, then W, then NNW. Of course I chose the lighter forecast! Go! Tip: To avoid my endless going on about platitudes, skip to the link at the bottom! Trip planning focused on the morning crux and the noon crux, the Annisquam northward and Blynman Canal and Annisquam, again northward, respectively, as well as parking restrictions during COVID. I chose Long Wharf and this early had the place to myself. With a 7:45 put in, the Jones River and Annisquam River carried me northwards with a 1.17 kn current, a nice easy warm up for a tired weekend warrior. I quickly found my rhythm with a nice push from a WSWerly along the SW-NE-axis that the north shore of Cape Ann follows. It was immense fun ticking off all the points around Cape Ann on a list next to a miniature Cape Ann chart on my foredeck and finding that google pedometer was quite accurate. Coming around Andrews Point, I was greeted with a stunning view to the SE, the Straitsmouth Gap and Island with the two Thatcher I. lighthouses behind with the W wind just picking up and the sun glistening off the rough surface of Sandy Bay in the foreground. I was surprised at the exceptional rock play possibilities between Straightsmouth and Emerson point and then again between Good Harbor Beach and Eastern point, especially the latter segment. Well worth a dedicated rock play trip S from GHB! I couldn’t help myself running some passages in passing. Lower back pain and right leg numbness after sitting in the boat for 3 hours forced me to make a quick stretch landing in a slot. Amazing what 7 minutes can do for your musculoskeletal and nervous system. No symptoms after that. Next was rounding the Gloucester Harbor breakwater and pushing N across an essentially empty Gloucester Harbor to the entrance of Blynman canal, through which I proceeded at a combined speed of 8 mph. Approaching the railway bridge (which, in retrospect, has “Bridge under construction” written next to it, so I guess I was forewarned), I noticed a police boat...with lights flashing. Construction was obviously under way. My heart sank. The two officers declined to “let me sneak through real quick”. OK, in that case I would just quickly add Cape Ann CCW, until someone who shall remain unnamed said “if you go over there [a few hundred yards W] and quickly carry the kayak over the tracks, you’ll be gone before they can get to you”. Looking at the unappetizing portage, I again pleaded with the officers that I was parked at Long Wharf and that this would “mess up my time” (big shrug) and if they could let me portage across the relatively flat construction area under the bridge (“they’re welding there”, accompanied by a head shake). I had little stomach for the relatively steep, rocky way up and the very steep, thorny, bouldery way down the other side. Without a choice, I quickly portaged twice before “they got to me” and, back in my boat, was rewarded by an against wind and current scenario. The S flowing Annisquam flood current back to Long Wharf was always going to be unavoidable if I wanted to be carried N through the narrow Blynman Canal (a must). A sharp left at GC 17 and the flooding Jones River carried me back towards Long Wharf with speed. Around 22 statute miles, 4:56:23 including a 7 minute stretch break, pleading with two (otherwise very friendly) cops and a nasty little portage that resulted in my new boat’s first scratches. My goal was under 4:30:00. Next time maybe. Andy https://www.relive.cc/view/vdvmQ9xgexv