Dan Foster

Eight of us paddled out from Lane's Cove at 10AM, turned right, and headed to Rockport Harbor for lunch. Conditions were nearly perfect, blue skies, light seas, and just enough of a SE breeze to keep us focused on reaching the ice cream shop on Bearskin Neck. In Folly Cove, we admired a grotto with verdant, dripping green walls and a Folly-esque deck perched above it. I spotted a disturbance in the center of the cove and spent some time excitedly chasing a bubble trail (surely a porpoise, sea turtle, or bubble-whale) until someone pointed out the dive flag nearby. We passed several dive groups, shore fishermen, paddle-boarders, and even a couple of lone sea kayakers. A short scramble up the rocks at the broken concrete ramp in Rockport Harbor put us in the middle of the tourist crush, where we dispersed in search of restrooms, ice cream, and shady lunch spots. Back on the water, we got a bit of a wind assist and cruised back up the coast, arriving at the cars at 2:45. Special thanks to Britta for organizing and co-leading this trip with me, and to Joyce, Karen, Barbara, Prudence, David, and Mike for a great day on the water.

Britta Magnuson and Dan Foster will be leading a paddle out of Lane's Cove on Wednesday, July 3rd. (Google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/MzJfE2KFieVsYJ2w7). Park in the small lot at the end of Andrews Street. There is no fee. The trip will be limited to 8 paddlers to avoid parking problems. Carpooling encouraged. Let's meet up at 9:30 am with an aim to depart around 10:00 am. The long-term NOAA weather forecast is: S wind increasing to 12 kt in the afternoon. Air temp 65-75 F. We will post an update on weather, wind, and sea conditions closer to the day of the paddle. You can get tide information, charts and weather forecasts for the area from Floating Trails. The tide will be falling all day from a high around 9:55 am. If conditions allow, we will paddle around Halibut Point to Bearskin Neck in Rockport. To join the trip you must be a paid-up NSPN member, and have signed the club participant waiver for this season. Your signup information will only be shared with other members on the trip. Trip level: This is an L2 trip. What You Need to Bring: Kayak with bulkheads, a spray skirt, and deck lines. PFD, paddles, hat or helmet, dress for immersion, sunscreen, lunch, snacks, and water. There may be rock play opportunities; please bring a helmet if you intend to go near the rocks. NOTE: This trip is a cooperative adventure, not a guided trip. We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions and plans at the time of the paddle. Each participant is responsible for her/his own safety. Don’t assume the trip initiators are smarter, stronger, better at rough water, more attractive, or more skilled paddlers than you are. For more information, see this description of our trip philosophy from the NSPN web site. Prior to signing up, please PM one of us if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with one of us before. June 29: Trip is full, waitlist is full. July 1st: WSW wind 5 to 8 kt becoming SSE 8 to 11 kt in the afternoon. Mostly sunny. Seas around 1 ft. Register with this form: https://forms.gle/kwhyJ9aZ8uQb3osV7 Hope to see you there!

A timely trip report, as I've just been invited to paddle the lower section of your trip later this month. I'm very impressed with N's reflector oven skills - those nachos and the crisp look amazing! For anyone else considering a trip on the CT river, there's a shared calendar where paddlers can state their intentions to occupy a campsite for a specific night: Connecticut River Paddlers Trail

It was a great weekend of learning, and I'll let others fill in the details on what we did over the course of the weekend. I firmly believe that you'll see a number of paddles posted in the coming weeks by workshop attendees (including me) who came away feeling empowered to organize and lead trips for the club. This was one of my personal favorite NSPN club events, mostly because of the shared experience of being part of 10 paddlers all pushing beyond boundaries and bonding while doing things we probably didn't think possible at the start of the weekend. At the end of the workshop on Sunday, we talked about each participant's next steps towards leadership, and about half of the group said they felt ready to assist in the #2 position, but not as the primary leader for a club trip. If the club really wants to pour rocket fuel on this initiative (for this and subsequent years), I'd encourage existing trip leaders to volunteer to help mentor upcoming leaders to co-lead a trip, and get some dates on the calendar while the stoke of this leadership weekend is still high. Speaking as a workshop participant and a former board member, I think there's a winning combination here to develop new leader potential through: 1. Classroom/off-season workshops (Joe's navigation and trip planning workshops, WFA certification) in the winter months 2. This on-the-water Leadership Training Workshop 3. An immediate pairing of new leaders with more-experienced club mentors or other workshop participants to schedule and co-lead a couple of trips. 4. Continued promotion of our own excellent in-house/club skills development sessions and pond sessions. I feel very fortunate to have been selected to attend, and I hope to repay the club by paying it forward. If you didn't get to attend this year, I hope that those of us in the 2024 cohort set a precedent by increasing the number and diversity of club trips so that this becomes a 'no-brainer' annual investment for the club going forward.

Thanks, Gary, for organizing what was yet again perhaps the best trip ever! My pod launched from Mere Point, being perhaps the first group to make use of the new parking area specifically for kayakers across the street from the boat launch. Please note that the main boat launch parking area is now only for trailered boats, and kayakers must use the 10 spots up on Mere Point Road. It's a short walk and a small price to pay for continued use of a great, free launch facility. Our trip over to Jewell on Thursday was uncharacteristically calm - a lobster boat wake was the only thing we encountered above a ripple. As Gary's report details, that was to change in the subsequent days. With a strong East wind on Saturday and Sunday, we had easy sailing inbound, and paid the price on the upwind return to Jewell each afternoon. It was heartbreaking to see all of the damage on Jewell, Eagle, and other islands. After parting ways with the main Jewell group on Sunday morning, a number of us headed to the Goslings for two more days of paddling. Karen joined us as we approached, having recently seen a dolphin on her solo paddle out from Mere Point. We found a bunch of downed trees on the Goslings and had a bit of work to do to clean up some of the tent sites. It also appears that the winter nor'easters may have washed away the bar that connects the Goslings at low tide. In the 48 hours we spent on the island, we never saw the seas part at low tide, and some felt that the entire "beach" area seemed smaller than what we remembered. It should be noted that the tidal swing was only about 7 feet during this trip (high tide 9 ft, low +2 ft) and I believe the last time I was on Goslings was during a spring tide. In any case, we're curious to hear from others who visit as to whether the bar re-emerges or whether it has been significantly altered by the storms. We felt particularly sorry for any poor raccoons stranded on West Gosling who weren't able to join the After Party scavenger hunt each evening, after we'd retired to bed, as they've done in years past. On Monday we paddled up to Lands End on Bailey Island. The bravest of us all paddled through the bouncy gap between the rocks and Jacquish Island, and then paddled back to join us after nobody wanted to follow his lead. A few of us then went well around the outside of Jacquish, where the reflected waves conspired with the incoming East swell to keep the excitement coming at us from all points of the compass. After that excitement, we regrouped and headed for home. Once in the lee of the islands off Harpswell, we did a quick reassessment of paddling priorities and realized that Erica's Seafood (next to the Dolphin) was calling for a visit. Thus restored, we headed back to the Goslings for a second night of socializing on the beach, a ring of chairs around a glowing bed of coals, with only the mournful cries of loons and raccoons to interrupt the peaceful solitude. Tuesday morning, the wind had shifted to the south, and the fog was condensing on everything and everyone on the south and east sides of the island, while the picnic table and tents a few yards west were totally dry. It was another reminder of just how much of a difference all of the variable factors in the marine environment can make: tide, wind, dew point, that one patch of sucking mud on an otherwise solid beach. We lingered a bit to let the fog burn off and then set off for home. A few photos from Jewell and the Goslings:

LOBO Buoy Program : Marine Sciences of Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Renewable Energy (umaine.edu) Maine EPSCoR LOBO (loboviz.com)

My older copy of U.S. Chart No. 1 says, in the section on aids to navigation, that a Yellow Lateral Buoy on a paper chart means "Caution: yellow buoy ahead". Perhaps they removed the hazard definition in later versions because it was redundant information. The NOAA and NOS buoys are yellow. NDBC - Station 44030 Recent Data (noaa.gov) Perhaps it was one of those, or maybe they've got a temporary buoy in place to update the current predictions in the area.

It would be fairly easy to design and 3d print these here for a couple of bucks each. It might be fun for a few club members to collaborate to design and print a few sea kayaking gizmos to solve common sea kayaking problems. Continuing the idea of safety-related gizmos that the club sorely needs, I'd suggest we try to 3d print marshmallow peep bow ornaments that don't dissolve in saltwater.

I've reserved the MCHT group campsite on The Goslings for the Sunday and Monday nights after this year's Jewell trip. If you're going to Jewell and would like to extend your stay on Casco Bay for two more nights, please consider joining us. The way this trip runs and the requirements for joining are somewhat different than Jewell, so please contact me directly if you're interested, especially if we haven't camped together before. We'll be paddling to Goslings, back home from Goslings, and on our day trips from Goslings in a maximum of two pods, and you'll need to be flexible and willing to join in the group's decisions rather than doing your own thing. I would like to be returning to (and therefore launching from) Mere Point or Cousins Island before noon on Tuesday. In the past we've had a second pod return later in the day. Forecasted severe weather will likely shorten or cancel this trip. 2023 version: 2022 version:

Can we at least get some clarity on which dates Jewell 2024 might happen? I'm assuming the weekend of May 17-19, but perhaps you have other ideas. I intend to host a pod from Cousins Island with a Jewell Island Afterparty on the Goslings, and those reservations open March 1st.

After signing and submitting (and receiving a confirmation email from waiverfile.com), I was redirected back to a 404 page, https://www.nspn.org/waiver/ Error code: 1S160/2. My profile page still shows my agreement was signed in April 2023. Hope something didn't get broken in the move to the new hosting provider.

I've been working a lot recently with Weldwood (you need the flammable version in the red can) to glue foam to Royalex canoe hulls, to itself, and to my fingers. The advice I've been following is to apply more than one thin coat to the foam, letting it dry completely between coats. Then one thin coat on the hull and one thin coat on the foam, let dry until tacky, and then press together. I've been using mineral spirits for surface prep on Royalex, but perhaps your hull can withstand something stronger.

Ten of us rented AMC's Knubble Bay Cabin, which is perched above the Sasanoa River in Georgetown, ME. The drive up on Friday afforded us all the opportunity to rinse our boats, gear, and selves with copious amounts of freshwater, courtesy of the sky. All but one of us moved indoors for the weekend. Dana had prepared a green chili that hit the spot on Friday night as we greeted each new arrival and watched the rain wash across Knubble Bay. By morning, the rain had cleared, but 5' swell along the coast between the mouth of the Kennebec River and Reid State Park dampened our enthusiasm for a Georgetown/Arrowsic Island circumnavigation. We instead opted to paddle down the length of Southport Island. We enjoyed just the right amount of fog - enough to make each new island seem as though it was emerging from a great void, but not enough to hinder navigation. [photos by various trip participants] Cath had seen a young humpback whale in the area a few days prior, and we all had "whale fever". As we left Goose Rock Passage and began our crossing of the Sheepscot, someone caught (and heard) a brief glimpse (and sound) of something, and the hunt was on! "Whar'd she blow?" We drifted down Whittum Island, all eyes and ears on alert. No whale. We crossed over to Powderhorn Island, checked out a very nice MITA camping site in the area, and then proceeded south along that chain of islands. Still no whales, but we got up close and personal with several grey seals and an intertidal mink. There's a statue of a dogfish at Dogfish Head. Go see it for yourself! We enjoyed an early lunch at Hendrick's Head Beach, and then continued south along the pretty coastline to Lower Mark Island. At this point, the group split, with some of us paddling back to camp, and others continuing on to the Cuckolds. The short-timers explored Cozy Harbor, before making a spicy crossing back across the Sheepscot to Five Islands. Big 4-5' swell was rolling up the river at this point, alternately lifting and dropping us out of sight as we took each rolling wave broadside. As we headed back through Goose Rock Passage, we found some wonderful tide rips and stopped to play before continuing back to the cabin. The Cuckolds group achieved their goal and then returned along a similar path. As they came through the Goose Rock Passage, one of the many small boats hanging out near Robinhood explained that they were following the whale around. The hunt resumed, and the group spent the next 45 minutes watching the humpback whale surface. Back at camp, the group lounged on the deck, watching the whale pop up in different parts of the river, and the flotilla of followers as they motored to each new surfacing. We prepared a pasta dinner, enjoyed Steph's homemade cake, and put our theoretical discussions about hull repair techniques and improvised floatation devices to their ultimate tests. After Sunday breakfast, we cleaned up the cabin, said some goodbyes, and then the rest of us headed up the Sasanoa. Nearby Beal Island has plenty of room and would make an ideal spot for an Intro to Kayak Camping weekend. It was buggy when we visited, as were most of the other islands where we landed on this windless day. We heroically fought our way up Lower Hells Gate (a bit after slack) and checked out the MITA site on Castle. Buggy. At Hockomock Point, a sheer cliff towers above the water, a unique site amongst otherwise low islands and shorelines. We continued up to Upper Hells Gate, where the heroism had to be taken up several notches, as there was a strong ebb current at this point, and a very obvious "waterfall" effect where you could definitely see and feel yourself paddling uphill. We played here for a while, with frequent stops as motorboats flew downstream on the current. At one point a boat came through with two of our paddlers eddied out against the rock wall on the right (river left), throwing a huge boat wake into their tiny eddies, and whitening a few knuckles. Many fun S-turns, peel-outs, and ferries were had at Upper Hells before it was time to head home. We stopped at Peggy's for lunch, and then zoomed down through Lower Hells and back to Knubble Bay to end the trip. In addition to the whale, the seals, and the mink, we also had multiple bald eagle sightings, including one perched in a low tree right beside the water, and saw a seemingly-infinite number of nesting osprey. All in all, this was a very enjoyable paddling destination, and 10 people seemed about right for the cabin. I hope this becomes a regular destination for the club. Thanks to everyone who attended for making it a wonderful weekend!

This trip is now full. Contact me directly if you'd like to join the waitlist.