Today's Paddle

Nauset Beach. I only brought one car (not my pickup) to Cape Cod so I had to be choosy about what kayak to bring.  My little orange yak-board is meant for surfing but it's usually just used as a small sit-on-top for my kids. I only get on real waves once or twice a year so I always have to relearn how to do it and wipe out a lot. Seems like every wave is a little different. I spend as much time paddling back and forth parallel to the beach as I do trying to catch rides. It's a lot of fun.

There was this too. It was kind of distracting. I usually would give the local surfers lots of room but I kind of hung near the group this time because everybody was talking about sharks the whole time we were out there.

Utah the wonderdog and I went for a paddle with our friends Jay and Jo-Anne down a stretch of the Big East River today. Jo-Anne is recovering from cancer surgery so she got to sit in the comfy chair in the middle and mind the dog. It was a lovely afternoon of drifting around river bends on a little slice of paradise close to town.

Some fall colour is starting to pop out around here:



I am looking startled due the astonishing number of orbs hovering around me:

Looks nice

first paddle of the season

Love the turtle pics. I’ve got a pretty good turtle story but I’m saving it for a later date

The first image was not today but a few days ago. My friend Matt is over from Scotland and we went for a warmup paddle on the Big East last Friday. If Brownski won't tell his turtle story, here is one for the meantime. Saw a giant snapper climbing up a steep sandbank, so we drifted over to have a look. It kept climbing like a 5.10 climber trying his first 5.11. A lot of turtle flailing ensued, eventually it did a 180 and tobogganed into the river. No turtle pics but here is my lovely 1930s canoe:



This shot is truly from today. A little test paddle at lunchtime, trying out the new Swift Prospector 14 solo:

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Nice. 1930... how many owners? Tell us a story.

Harvey wrote

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Nice. 1930... how many owners? Tell us a story.

I'm not 100% sure but very likely three. Me, the guy I bought it from and a children's camp that opened in 1922. The canoe came into my possession in the mid-1980s. I was driving near the place I lived at the time and saw a big collection of interesting-looking canoes in someone's yard. Stopped to investigate and it turned out that I sort-of knew the homeowner (friend of a friend). He was a recently retired shop teacher and had bought the canoes from a nearby children's camp when they decided to modernize their fleet, thinking he would restore and sell them. Lucky for me, he had by then realized the folly of his plan and was happy to part with some of them, reducing his workload. That canoe was covered in fibreglass (an abomination to wood-canvas purists), so I peeled the glass and re-canvassed it, restored the interior trim and replaced the rotten seats. I did pay an actual canoe builder to re-do the outer gunwales.

It is a 16 footer built by the Canadian Canoe Company in Peterborough, Ontario. At one time, Peterborough was a hotbed of canoe building, right along with Rushton and his ilk in Canton, NY. Worth a trip to the Canadian Canoe Museum if you ever find yourself in the area.

That is a beautiful boat, SBR. Keep it nice

Brownski wrote

That is a beautiful boat, SBR. Keep it nice

Thanks, B. One of the great things about wood-canvas canoes is that with a little bit of care, they will last indefinitely. All the parts are replaceable, assuming that you can find cedar and bend a rib.

If you are interested in this type of canoe, check out the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association.

That's very cool but truth be told, I can't be trusted with anything but a plastic boat. I'm hard on my stuff- can't have nice things.

We were back on the Big East River yesterday, doing a new-to-us section. Blue Toes, myself, our friend Matt from Scotland and Utah the Wonder Dog enjoyed a two hour paddle upstream to the Big Bend, with a 30 minute journey back. The paddling was lovely but we got chewed by blackflies. Ugh.

Sand + dog = manic digging, even with a PFD on.



After a steady and slow upstream paddle, we arrived at Big Bend, a very cool feature on the river. Matt is paddling my Blackhawk Zephyr, a "vintage" solo canoe from the late 1980s.



Photo op of a photo op:

Keep em coming SBR. I love it. Me and junior finally got out last Saturday.

I've been looking for put-ins to explore Long Island sound around Westchester. This particular spot won't work but I'm gonna have to find my way back here once I figure out where to launch- thought I'd share the view. Blue sky & water and natural green is soothing

Never really thought of this because my boats are stored on a wooden rack in my backyard but apparently kayaks getting washed out by the tide is a big problem for the Coast Guard.

https://paddling.com/learn/unmanned-kayaks-costing-billions/

Brownski wrote

Never really thought of this because my boats are stored on a wooden rack in my backyard but apparently kayaks getting washed out by the tide is a big problem for the Coast Guard.

https://paddling.com/learn/unmanned-kayaks-costing-billions/

I guess it’s true. My wife just showed me this...

Brownski wrote

Never really thought of this because my boats are stored on a wooden rack in my backyard but apparently kayaks getting washed out by the tide is a big problem for the Coast Guard.

https://paddling.com/learn/unmanned-kayaks-costing-billions/

Brownski, you should brush up on the laws of maritime salvage, get yourself a little motorboat and a tow rope, and go into the used kayak business. Could be a lucrative little side project.

A good idea for junior I think. I’ll work on it

I spent yesterday afternoon with this sexy thing. Still paying for it. More later: