I think I understand better now, Jim. Thanks for explaining. 

Gosh, just when it was seeming like weekend club trips were a thing of the distant past, along comes this Level 2 trip. We will meet at Rockport Granite Pier at 9 am with the aim of getting on the water around 9:30 am. This location has ample parking and with so few weekend trips I want to make sure there's room for people. That said I will probably cut this trip off at around 12 people.

parking is $12 cash only.

The weather forecast is still not reliable but it looks like it may be a cooler and overcast day (yay!) with light winds and swell. If the forecast changes radically, the location might change too, so stay tuned if you sign up.

The trip is now waitlisted but sign up here as people may drop out: https://forms.gle/hkFqTeZF8zhfWrGQA

You can get tide information, charts and weather forecasts for the area here: 

https://coastalpaddling.com/42.62360/-70.74577/11?tides=y&date=202208061200

Rockport tides are:

Multiple nice plans and paddles are possible from this location and we'll endeavor to pick something that's fun for everyone. If you have any questions about this trip or you're not sure if it's for you please PM me!

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.

Covid-19 paddling: this trip requires paddlers to be vaccinated/boosted against Covid-19 and symptom-free, as rescues or first aid may require close physical contact.

Hope you can make it.

Joe Berkovitz

This week's WLP is on August 3, 2022 and will launch from Fishermans Beach in Swampscott (Google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/R4H1vQGarFPnGGBh7).  Parking is free, amazingly enough.

This trip will be on the early and small side, since the lot is not very ample and it fills up rapidly. Let's meet up at 8:30 am with an aim to depart around 9:00 am. The weather forecast is for a pleasant summer day with a bit less heat than we've been getting recently and a cooling E wind in the afternoon.

Here's the registration link: https://forms.gle/s1G6QqZEPEw1jzUA9

You can get tide information, charts and weather forecasts for the area here: 

https://coastalpaddling.com/42.47051/-70.90405/13?tides=y&date=202208031200

Tides for Lynn Harbor are:

We can head north (left) up the rocky Swampscott coast to Devereux, cross Nahant Bay to East Point, and/or play around on the nearby beaches if there are waves (currently looking unlikely). We can make up our plan when we meet! If you want to play in rocks or waves please bring a brain protector.

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.

Covid-19 paddling: this trip requires paddlers to be vaccinated/boosted against Covid-19 and symptom-free, as rescues or first aid may require close physical contact.

Trip level: WLPs do not have a specific level. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. For this trip a helmet is recommended also.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions 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. 

Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with us before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe Berkovitz

I thought this was something for the club, since it's posted under Trips / NSPN Events. But it sounds like it's only open to tuition-paying UNH students only (for which they pay no additional fee). If that's true, I think I'll pass. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

Joe

Before I can decide I have a few basic questions.

Are these commercial instruction sessions or are they being offered free of charge? If the latter, are they being offered by UNH to the public in general or is this purely an NSPN thing? Lastly, are instructors and helpers going to be fully insured?

thanks!

This week's WLP is on July 27, 2022 and will launch from Rockport Granite Pier (Google maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/wcKibL4ABWToCR2U9).  Parking is $12; cash only.

Let's meet up no later than 9:30 am and depart promptly at 10:00 am. The weather forecast is for sun, dry air, low wind and moderate air temps. High water is at 11:34.

There will be a modest 1+ foot swell and I would like to go around Cape Ann past Thacher and Milk Islands to Long Beach and have some fun in the surf, maybe have lunch on the beach. This forecast should make for a friendly low-impact opportunity to play in the waves at all skill levels. Lots of pretty rock ledges along the way too. Even if you are not playing in the rocks please bring a helmet for surf-landing safety!

Here's the registration link: https://forms.gle/aTPqqQTAbyaJsdSD8

You can get tide/current information, charts and weather forecasts for the area here: 

https://coastalpaddling.com/42.66470/-70.61840/13?tides=y&date=202207270900

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.

Covid-19 paddling: this trip requires paddlers to be vaccinated/boosted against Covid-19 and symptom-free, as rescues or first aid may require close physical contact.

Trip level: WLPs do not have a specific level. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. For this trip a helmet is recommended also.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions 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. 

Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with us before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe Berkovitz

(Note: Bob Levine will be traveling and unable to participate for a while.)

Kate, I’m not sure if the Sea Chicks are part of the Wild Turkeys, or if they’re turkey chicks, or if they’re gyrfalcon chicks or something else. Can you clear that up? I think I got it wrong. 

People: Joe Berkovitz, Prudence Baxter, Bill Voss, Barb Ryan, Jody Harris, Michael Hazeltine, Mike Habich, Britta Magnuson, David Mercer

We departed Winthrop Boat Launch just before 10 am to ride the remaining ebb out of Deer Island light. There was little wind at launch and peoples' car thermometers were reading 90 F.

Traffic in President Roads was surprisingly light, with a couple of large clusters of fishing boats nearby, mostly staying put. By now a pleasant sea breeze had picked up and we were quite comfortable despite the bright sun. At Nixes Mate we stopped to say hello to half a dozen or so kayakers, who turned out to be a mostly female contingent of the South Shore Wild Turkeys including @kate with a number of people in both groups already acquainted! A future North Shore/South Shore convocation of some kind was discussed — stay tuned for possible updates from @crayolabarb on this score.

Next we cruised out to Great Brewster and thence to Calf Island, our designated lunch spot. Besides a delightful lunch, a brief tour of the ruin of the 1920s mansion was conducted.

Finally, we had a current-assisted run back across each of the two Broad Sound shipping channels towards the "eggs", back to the heat of the city. However, as a delightful postlude, 8 of us stopped by Belle Isle Seafood in Winthrop for a post paddle meal on the water. Great spot for fried seafood!

I didn't take any pictures. Please post some if you have any.

Jim asked me to post a link to charts and other nav resources from my site; here is a link:

https://coastalpaddling.com/42.99925/-70.66681/12

Click any chart rectangle to download a PDF. There is a detailed chart of the isles called "Isles of Shoals" and a "Bigelow Bight" chart that covers the area between IoS and the Rye/Portsmouth coast. Also links to weather, tides etc.

Trip has filled, but sign up above for wait list as people do cancel sometimes. 

This week's WLP is on July 20, 2022 and will launch from Winthrop Boat Ramp.  Parking is free since we will not be using the actual launch ramp.

Let's meet up no later than 9:30 am and depart promptly at 10:00 am in order to catch favorable currents out of Boston Harbor and head for some of the outer islands to cool off. It will be a hot sunny one with air temps reaching the low 90s. Sea is forecast to be calm. 

You can get tide/current information, charts and weather forecasts here: 

https://coastalpaddling.com/42.32955/-70.94233/13?dayuse=n&camp=n&tides=y&date=202207200930

This trip is now full but you can join the wait list here: https://forms.gle/RCoySYHzxMeyhzT69

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.

Covid-19 paddling: this trip requires paddlers to be vaccinated/boosted against Covid-19 and symptom-free, as rescues or first aid may require close physical contact.

Trip level: WLPs do not have a specific level. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions 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. 

Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with us before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe Berkovitz

(Note: Bob can't make this Wednesday nor many Wednesdays to follow due to travel and other commitments.)

Thanks for all the valuable input on this topic so far. I plan on regenerating the charts with ferries added.

Here are a few responses:

- schedules change frequently and with this scale of operation I cannot look them all up manually on regular intervals. Instead my approach is to include links directly to the ferry operator websites, letting you jump from CoastalPaddling.com directly to the ferry info.  If you click on any ferry route, the site will show you the information it has about that ferry in a popup window (see example for Swans below). The schedule won't be in the popup, but the name of the ferry is a link to that info, where I have it. I would love it if people could please use the feedback feature to report where this info is missing!

- Re Swans: amazingly enough, the existing data that I got from my source seems exactly right! I recently visited Swans also and saw the same behavior you describe, but the data is correct with no adjustments from me. Check it out with this link; a screenshot is below:

- Grand Manan ferry is a bit more interesting as what's on the map deviates from the data I got. Both are shown here thanks to the fact that the Canadians actually DO put ferries on their charts:

Having just visited GM and seen the ferry in action, I suspect that the site data (blue line) is actually closer than reality than the official chart (black line).

I'm looking at layering ferry routes onto the online nautical charts available on CoastalPaddling.com and I would love to get some feedback from paddlers who use charts on this point. I have put the ferries up as an optional layer for browsing on the site. However, they are not going on the site's nautical charts yet without some further input.

The ferry route information comes from a global open-source data provider called OpenStreetMap.org, whose data is widely used by mapping services — kind of like a Wikipedia for maps. So no, I did not personally research each ferry route!

There are at least two areas of concern: accuracy, and visual appropriateness.

Accuracy: The route info seems fairly accurate based on the few I personally know about. What kind of inaccuracies exist? Well, the Salem Ferry route is shown slightly outside of some of the channel markers in Salem Sound, but I know it actually does follow the channel. So, close enough that one would know what to expect, as long as you don't take the route as the absolute literal truth. For other routes I think we could expect similar minor departures from reality, but perhaps worse.  I would love it if folks who know ferry routes could go to coastalpaddling.com and turn on the Ferries layer: see if the routes you know match your knowledge, and post what you find out.

Appropriateness. As a test, I've included a sample Casco Bay chart below including the ferries for that area as dashed blue lines. Let's assume that these routes are "pretty accurate" as per above. The question is: is this information useful enough to paddlers to include in the chart, since it adds some extra clutter? Also, everything else on the chart is 100% accurate in terms of placement, but let's say these ferry routes are "pretty close". OK or not OK? If not OK, would a verbal disclaimer "ferries may not follow marked routes" make you feel better? Or will some people look at a chart and think, "well, I'm not going where the dashed line is shown, so the ferry won't hit me."

(Note: the resolution of this chart was reduced to allow the image to be uploaded.)

Thanks for your help on this!

Joe

Hi Kate! There are a couple of interlocking issues here.

1. I already talked to MITA and concluded it's better to avoid publishing all MITA sites outright, as some of these properties are private or would otherwise prefer to remain under the radar. So I am being careful to only list islands that have a public presence outside of MITA (e.g. all MCHT and state preserves).

2. MCHT's own online materials are a bit out of date, for instance they showed Whaleboat on their own map but not Little Whaleboat. So I missed Little Whaleboat.

3. Some of the MITA sites are Maine Bureau of Public Lands sites (e.g. Bangs) which I have not gotten around to including.

What would help me out is if you could either PM me the specific sites that are missing or use the "Provide Feedback" link in the app to send me information about each location and I'll get the sites in if there's no issue. Specifically what I need for each one is a link to someplace other than MITA that mentions the site and gives information on camping.

Best,

Joe

Sue, please ignore the above - I have already added you to the session as per our PM last night. 

Hi NSPN folks,

I have been working for the last 6 weeks or so on to build a new website that provides the kind of resources we need as sea kayakers in the Northeast. It is still in an early stage, but I think it's finally ready to be tried out. This is not a commercial project: it's a free community project, built for us, and it's something we can work together to improve.

The site URL is https://coastalpaddling.com and is designed for laptop/desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones. Here are a couple of screenshots to convey the general idea:

Here is what it offers so far:

Charts: Over one hundred 11x17 PDFs of NOAA raster charts from Boston to the ME/Canada border, with more to come. Click any chart rectangle to download the PDF.
Put-ins and destinations: information on places to launch and to go, sourced from public information and—going forward—from our community.  Click any marker for more information. These are going to be actively updated on roughly a monthly basis.
Tides and currents: NOAA tide predictions through the end of 2023 in graphical form; choose a date and move the time slider to animate. Click stations for more details.
Weather and observations: Tap any location for handy links to NOAA or Windy.com point forecasts and the closest buoy data.

How to provide feedback: To report any issues or suggest map locations or changes, please use the built-in feedback tools on the site to submit your feedback - every map feature has a "Provide Feedback" link that you can use, and so does the site main menu. All those reports are collected in one place whereas if you post issues on this thread, they could likely get lost amid the other conversation.

I plan to introduce some simple route-drawing and sharing tools in the near future. I need help from local experts on adding more places and more regions. And of course there are the inevitable glitches and things that need fixing.

That's it for now. Please enjoy!

...Joe

People: Joyce Carpenter, Jody Harris, Sue Hriciga , Bob Dandaraw, Bill Voss, Rich Zwiercan, Mike Habich, Barbara Ryan, Susan Rask, Fred Goodman, Joe Berkovitz

We gathered at Lynch Park between 9:30 and 10:30, marshalling boats to the low tide line. The sky seemed to be clearing and a breeze was starting to disperse the muggy air from last night's rain. Some of the elders among us were pleasantly surprised to discover that Lynch Park is only $5 for seniors. And only $0 for Beverly residents—of which number Fred is now one (as of Sunday)!  It is actually a very nice place to launch and has excellent facilities.

The plan was to head eastward somewhere for lunch along the north shore of Salem Sound. Mike had arrived by water from West Beach and reported it was a pretty stiff westerly headwind for him, though he had purposely stayed offshore. The wind seemed to be becoming more northwesterly as had been forecast. As we took off we immediately found some wind just around the point of Lynch Park, so the group mostly moved in towards the rocks for protection once we were able to pick up the rocky coastline around Endicott College.

The sky kept clearing and the air kept drying out. Eventually we found our way out to Misery and around to the Gut around 12 noon, where we encamped on the Great Misery side and had an exceedingly pleasant and somewhat lazy lunch. Summer at last!

After lunch the plan was to continue around the east side of Great Misery and then hoof it back to West Beach, then decide on what might be next. We expected to encounter an offshore breeze once we were fully around Misery and we were not disappointed—but perhaps a bit less wind and would have been 100% OK with everyone. It was sporadic but at times seemed to me to be blowing directly offshore around 15 kt gusting to 18, or something like that. There was little for it except to get through it and gain the lee of the shore opposite us; the group fragmented a bit as people started to conduct their own private battles with the wind and lost some mutual awareness. Just as we were attempting to group up a bit better, Susan ran into difficulty turning into the wind and became separated from the group. I paddled over to her and we became what my California friend Jan calls a "distributed tandem": a pair of people, both paddling actively, with a tow rope in between. (The turning-upwind difficulty eventually turned out to be due to a deployed skeg.) We rejoined the group at West Beach for a quick rest and debrief. On the beach it was calm and serene. Wind? What wind? What just happened?

Finally we were down for the final run back to Lynch with occasional windy encounters, but nothing on the scale of the fight we'd experienced back from Misery. We landed again in the lee of the Beverly shore in the calm, serene and slightly mucky waters of the park. I think a good time was had by all and the challenges were more fun than miserable!

On the west side, we noticed much the same as on the bold coast that in most spots you have to get pretty far offshore to catch the big current. Far enough that the scenic experience is diminished. And on the east side, things get pretty wild especially on the ebb. Even near slack and during a neap tide our foray off Long Point / Tinkers Shoal at White Head Island was pretty big with 3-4 foot tide race type conditions mingled with exposed ledges. This ventured near the “very heavy on the ebb” notation seen on the chart. I would not want to be out in the thick of that stuff. 
 

We didn’t see any dulse boats in action because we were there on a Sunday. Too bad!

Many many fishing weirs everywhere. They too seemed not to be attended by anyone but they excited our curiosity. 

I would like to hear more about Big Head. I did talk to that outfitter about a shuttle pickup but in the end we didn’t need one.

It is definitely like Giant’s Causeway, the same type of formation caused by slowly cooling basalt from a volcanic eruption. Parts of Grand Manan also reminded me of Ireland.

we don’t have a timeframe yet but I think August or September seems appealing since that is whale watching season up there.

Janet had already informed me about the need to call ahead so don’t worry, I’m on it!

This week's WLP is on July 6, 2022 and will launch from Lynch Park in Beverly.  Let's meet up no later than 10 am and plan to depart around 10:30. A likely plan is to go east to lunch in Manchester somewhere, taking advantage of a wind shift on our return.

Parking at Lynch Park is $15, CASH ONLY. Summer on the North Shore = revenue stream for towns!

A low pressure system is forecast to end earlier that morning. We will likely see some gusts at the start from the NW replaced by gentler winds from the NE, so the Beverly and Manchester coasts will give us protection during this period, as the wind dies down. Skies will be clearing and drying out with temps in the 60s/70s, looks to be very pleasant by lunchtime. The sea state is not a concern at present.

Interested? Please sign up here: https://forms.gle/1UN3LDbhRw8hTjKX9

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.

Covid-19 paddling: this trip requires paddlers to be vaccinated/boosted against Covid-19 and symptom-free, as rescues or first aid may require close physical contact.

Trip level: WLPs do not have a specific level. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions 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. 

Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with us before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe Berkovitz

(Note: Bob can't make this Wednesday)

Hi Karen - yes there is still space and you can use the signup link above. 

There will be a journey planning component but I can’t guarantee it will be to Rye or any particular place, we will make choices based on conditions on that day. 

I have been there recently as have others in the session. We will be contacting the park in advance to ensure the gate is open on time. 
 

J

Epilogue

Wildlife

Did we see whales? Not a one! June is not an optimal time to see them, but later on in the summer is. We did see porpoises, seals, many different seabirds, and an otter though. In one area, cliff-dwelling guillemots. Most of these were hard to photograph. Apparently many of the seabirds have over time decamped from Grand Manan for the offshore islands, which we will have to visit another time (they are now refuges).

We did see a pheasant family from time to time at the park:

One species of particular note: dozens of tame rabbits frolicked around us on the well-manicured grass of our campsite. The bunnies have become a fixture at this park. Children chase them and feed them, and baby rabbits merrily jump in and out of the dense brush that borders the grassy areas. We wondered where they had come from originally, as we did not see rabbits anywhere else on the island. There is a partial answer in Donna Naughton’s The Natural History of Canadian Mammals (pub. 2014, pp. 241-242):

Quote

 

Unlike our native species, [the European Rabbit] burrows and creates extensive underground warrens. It has been introduced to the Canadian mainland and many islands and is a frequent escapee in suburban regions. This is the rabbit that has virtually overrun Australia and Tasmania following its importation there. Fortunately its survival in Canada is less assured…

Following introduction in the early 1900s, wild populations still persist in the west on Triangle Island as well as on part of southern Vancouver Island around Victoria. A small population of the domestic phase has survived off the east coast in Anchorage Provincial Park on Grand Manan Island for at least 30 years, but these animals are protected and possibly fed by humans.

 

I will attest to the fact that these extremely cute bunnies are definitely fed by humans. They lend a not inconsiderable amount of charm to the campground as they gambol and munch.

Mosquitoes were minimal on this trip and blackflies nonexistent. The deer flies were annoying on hot sunny days. They would follow us literally for miles on the water, unable to bite, but constantly swooping and buzzing. We only received two bites in the whole trip. However they were no fun at all and those two bites did hurt (mine on my head, Bob’s on a hand). I observed two different species. The larger one was boldly striped with bright yellow legs and looked rather like a fat yellowjacket. The smaller one had wings with black bars and indistinct body markings. A blurry mug shot of the offender:

FYI it is quite hard to kill them on the water. I only scored one in 3 days.

What’s Next?

Bob and I are thinking about organizing a club trip here in 2023 similar to the Bold Coast trips we’ve run in previous years. While going to a different country seems like a big leap, Grand Manan is very accessible compared to other parts of the maritime provinces, and the environment and the scenery are really a world apart. Nothing here is quite like what you find on the mainland or on the Maine islands. The feel of the place and the ocean environment are really a big departure. 

More on this later! In the meantime, I would recommend Grand Manan as a destination to any serious paddler or hiker: it’s totally worth the trip.

Day 4 (Tue 6/28/22): Anchorage / White Head Island

Distance: 18.5 nm
Time: 8h
Tides (Seal Cove): HW 12:22am 15.3’; LW 6:25pm 4.5’
Currents (GM Channel): 9:21am 2.1 kt; 12:47am SBE; 3:40pm 1.7 kt; 6:23pm SBF
Weather: Fog becoming sunny, 60s F air, high 40s F water, light NW wind shifting to 8 kt WSW
Sea state: 2-3 feet @ 6 seconds, diminishing

The final day of our trip was devoted to the southeastern quadrant of Grand Manan with its many offshore islands. Since we did not have time or favorable current for exploring the southernmost and wildest of these islands (Hay and Kent), we aimed to circle around White Head Island and visit its cliffs and intertidal harbor. This would also take us near an area of shoals where the ebb current is more active, without venturing out into wide open exposed water.

The overnight cold front with its heavy rain showers finally lifted around 6 am, giving us a window to get ready for the day without being soaked. But the fog stubbornly stuck around, as advertised.

Launching into smallish dumping waves, we resolved to handrail to the east and follow the coast over to Ross, Cheney and White Head Islands, crossing the White Head ferry right near its landing on Grand Manan. We were not concerned about navigating in the fog per se; our main worries were not knowing what the currents would do (given the many unexpected observations so far) and on potential boat traffic including said ferry.

It took a surprising amount of time to work our way over to Ox Head Ledges and then up a channel into Grand Harbour as far as the ferry terminal, which turned out to be a very substantial breakwater enclosing a lot of working boats. Time gets elastic when you can’t see very much around you. Mostly as an exercise, we spent a few minutes trying to discern the direction of a nav marker horn that we assumed to be the closest such horn on our chart (a bad assumption that yielded obviously wrong conclusions). Later in the paddle we found that horn not to be operating. A small open boat full of what we assumed to be dulse came in as we watched. We crossed at the narrowest point of the channel, trying to sight a buoy that we found was not even there, only appearing on an older chart. Lacking the buoy, we still did reach the other side in very short order and without encountering any other boats; however, the flood was setting strongly to our right at 1 knot or more. Now we were against the shore of mostly uninhabited Ross Island, and continued our handrail south as far as the Cheney Passage.

Although we had planned on a CCW circumnav of Cheney and White Head, we had arrived at a point well inside the Cheney Passage which lies between Ross and Cheney Islands, near a fixed nav marker. This passage is mostly intertidal but has a narrow marked channel that stays open at all tides. We made a decision to continue the passage west-to-east all the way through to the outside and do a CW circumnav instead, since we had handrailed our way through most of the passage. We were going up against a surprising and strong current that, despite its being squarely during the flood cycle, was flowing west (to our south, the main flood current flows strongly northeast). Perhaps this entire passage forms part of a circulation that goes all the way around these two offshore islands—hard to say without putting in more time on the island!

On our arrival at the midpoint of the passage I parked in an eddy just behind a marker that was sitting squarely in the flow which I would guess was approaching 2 knots. The eddy was not very stable and the 4-sided marker was oriented at 45 degrees to the current, like a diamond. Thus, I was facing a corner of the marker while sitting in this eddy, while waiting for a fishing boat to come through in the opposite direction, with the current. Bob could see the boat but I could not as the marker was in the way. I realized that the boat would probably cut right next to the marker, which it did: the sternman gave me a thumbs up as they cruised by, and the wake immediately turned the eddy into a washing-machine mess. I managed to stay upright but my boat got pushed against one of the angled sides of the marker and the current was waiting for a chance to grab my bow or stern and flip me. It was time to get the hell out of this spot (Bob had stayed downcurrent and was now heading for the far shore of Cheney). I entered the stream and ferried across. A brief break from the action was enjoyed on a nearby deserted beach.

The next section took us around the rocky outside of Cheney, where we were exposed to swell once again. The rocks here reminded me a bit of the local Salem Sound coast.

It was beginning to approach slack and the current here was small and getting smaller. The sky was brightening and visibility improving by the minute. We passed a marine farm, looking for a (nonexistent) fish weir that was to mark the starting point of our crossing the 100% intertidal Cow Passage to White Head Island at high water. At this point Bob spotted a river otter swimming right near us! I only saw it for a moment but it was unmistakable. (Sea otters are only found on the Pacific coast of Canada, or I’d have said that’s what it was.) It disappeared before a camera could be deployed by the slow-witted humans.

The Cow Passage was crossed quickly to White Head Island and we began our clockwise paddle around it, intending to find a lunch spot on the south side. It was coming on 1 pm and the ebb should have just barely started in Grand Manan Channel, but it was certainly starting to show its presence here. We began to pass over a series of shoals sticking out from the island. The south or southwest wind opposed the ebb and with each shoal came a tide race of steep waves standing up in the current, over which the ebb quickly carried us. Each race was steeper and faster than the last one.

We continued past an area called The Bluff, which we had thought might contain a dramatic bluff below which we would eat lunch. It was a spot of great beauty and dramatic rock gardens, but there was no real bluff. We continued a little further with Long Point Light ahead of us. To its left, offshore of Long Point, lay what would clearly be the most dramatic tide race in the series. Just to its right, a sheltered, wide sandy beach.

After an ill-advised initial choice on my part, we landed on the beach for lunch.

We walked over to the lighthouse to scout the race off the point, which extended out to a point called Tinkers Shoal and perhaps beyond. It appeared from here that despite some substantial patches of white water, it was very doable: a mix of ledges and irregular standing-up waves reaching perhaps 3 feet with lots of spots where the activity was much smaller. We walked back to our boats and paddled around to the action. Going through a quiet spot the first time was rather anticlimactic. Bob (sounding slightly disappointed): “I guess there wasn’t very much to that.” Me: “How about we go back and do it again?” Bob: “Let’s do that.” We then crossed over and back in a more active part of the race with bigger waves. It was a highlight of the day, really. The larger waves were perhaps 3 feet high but retarded by the current and moving slowly. Paddling with the waves, one would begin to surf at intervals and then be backed up onto the wave face again right away until the next pulse of energy. It was an interesting feeling, like being pulled back by a big shock cord. Paddling back against the waves, the current simply swept one up and over each wave with little effort (assuming it wasn’t breaking…)

This leg ended at White Head’s brilliant white rock cliffs which we had seen all the way from Anchorage Park. Up close they were almost blinding in their brightness.

The water was very calm here and we made our way in and out of the strange little harbor. Only the ferry terminal remains navigable at low water; elsewhere boats lounged on their sides, waiting for rescue by the tide.

We followed the ferry route out of White Head Harbour towards the nav marker where the ferry turns. Obligingly the ferry turned up and passed by us so we could get a good look at its profile resembling a person giving a “what can I do?” shrug of the shoulders.

A final 4-mile crossing of Long Pond Bay via the Ox Head awaited us. It was a bit of a slog with a slight opposing wind, or current, or something that made it feel very long. We attempted to find another buoy that apparently was not there any more. Eventually we reached the beach lot, visible during most of those 4 miles and growing larger very slowly indeed. The sky was a deep blue overhead with a gentle southwest breeze. Our last paddle on Grand Manan was over.