Monday morning was dark with heavy cloud cover and a light drizzle outside. Those of you who know me well know that I have an aversion to sunlight, so this was PERFECT weather for a long paddle around the island.
It was an AWESOME morning on the water.
I used my Kokotat paddling jacket, NRS pants, and my scuba dive booties. With air temp in the high 60s and water temp in the low 70s, I didn't need a lot of warmth. These jacket and pants are just a shell to keep the water off - protection against wind and rain. I just wore a pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt underneath.
My eldest son graciously allowed me to use his waterproof North Face flop hat, and it worked great.
The winds were 8 mph out of the south-southwest when I got underway and turned south. The wind created a little bit of a swell, and it was fun watching my bow crash through the swells.
I loved how each of the hills in the distance was a different shade of silhouette, and I loved the wispy rain falling from the clouds in the distance. I had some light sprinkle on my head during the trip, but no steady rain.
There were three distinct phases of this trip difficulty and speed-wise. During this first southbound leg of the trip, my average speed was about 2.8 mph paddling into the wind. After I rounded the southern tip of the island and started paddling northeast, I was surfing on the swells coming from behind me and made it to a max speed of 4.5 mph. When I rounded the easternmost point of the island and started paddling NW, I was in the lee of the island and it was glassy calm.
Mergus merganser americanus
Over on the leeward side of the island, I happened upon two families of common mergansers. I couldn't get close enough to get any really good pictures of them though. I think they're beautiful birds, and I've never seen them anywhere but in New Hampshire. I don't know why all the local tourist shops sell wood decorative decoys of mallard ducks and loons but no mergansers.
Also on the leeward side of the island, I spotted a beautiful blue jay flying along the shore. My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to get a crisp picture of him, but I was surprised I was fast enough to get this blur of him flying past.
Here's where I could use some help from any bird experts in the audience. This bird was teasing me. He kept twittering away at me from a tree and each time I got close to him, he flew on ahead a hundred yards or so. I never got a real clear look at him. I thought he had a black head and wings with white spots at the end of his wings, a gray body and white under-body. I was surprised in looking at this photo close up to see a splotch of brown in there, too. I never noticed the brown with my naked eye. Any ideas what type of bird this was?
Even though the pictures didn't turn out so great, I really enjoyed the paddle around the island and admiring the birds along the way.
Now, I use my handy digital camera on a philosophy of "electrons are free." I take LOTS of pictures and hope that a few will come out nice. As I returned to base, who should be waiting for me at my landing spot but another family of mergansers. I said to myself, "Self, you're FINALLY going to get close enough to try an get a good picture of a merganser." Right after I took this picture, my camera informed me, "MEMORY CARD FULL."
Ahhhhhhhhh!
I tried to quickly flip back through the older pictures and delete some to make some room for new pictures, but they swam RIGHT by me and I missed it.
This is my exasperated self-portrait back on shore looking back out to where the mergansers swam off.
Trip Stats from the 60CSx
Stats for the paddle log:
- Date: 16 August 2010
- Time In: 9:12 a.m.
- Time Out: 11:30 a.m.
- Elapsed: 2 hr 18 min
- Moving Time (GPS): 2 hrs 4 minutes
- Stopped Time (GPS): 14 minutes
- Mileage: 6.55 miles by GPS
- Sea State: 1
- Winds: 5-8 mph SSW (from Intelicast)
- Air Temp: 66F climbing to 70F (from Intelicast)
- Water Temp: 73.8F digital / 72.3F IR
- Current: None.
- Gauge Height: ~503 feet (above sea level, not depth of water). The lake level is about a foot or so below "full" right now (normal "full" level is just above 504 feet).
- Avg Speed (GPS): 3.2 mph
- Max Speed by (GPS): 4.3 mph
- Rapids? None.
- Hazards? None.
- Kit: Ocean Kayak Malibu Two XL. My son's North Face flop hat, Kokotat paddling jacket, NRS pants, NRS paddling gloves, short sleeve shirt, swim trunks, dive booties.
- Configuration: Both boys stayed home, so I paddled solo sitting in the middle seat.
- Route: Put-in at Jonathon's Landing and paddled counter-clockwise around Long Island.
- Other comments (such as wildlife spotted): Mergansers, Blue Jay, Sea Gulls.
Looks like you're livin' it up on the water!
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