Rough Water Symposium

TM tried for weeks to get me to attend this year's New England Rough Water Symposium. I wanted to go, but was torn. There was a potential family obligation that weekend, so I had an iron clad excuse for not attending. The family obligation just provided a good cover for the more complex reasons for not attending. The money issue was another good cover reason. The real issues keeping me back were fear based. I was afraid of going and finding out that I was not nearly as good as I think I am. In fact I was very afraid that I wouldn't be able to cut it with real instructors around. On the other hand, I really wanted to get some instruction from top notch coaches and stretch my skills a little bit.
The family obligation vanished last weekend, so I no longer had my iron clad excuse.... I still wasn't ready to drop $600 and three days to kayaking and potential emotional torture. Remembering that there had been talk of single day slots being offered, I decided to contact Maine Island Kayak, who organizes the event, to see if I could do a single day of current work on Friday. Fortunately, there was space available and I jumped at the opportunity. It seemed like a great compromise: one day of training in tidal races was worth a limited amount of self-inflicted emotional torture.
The day started early with a group meeting to load the trailer at 8am.
Fortunately for me, TM was gracious enough to offer me lodging. The food and amenities were superb.
After loading the trailer, we repaired to the cafeteria for a briefing on the BCU star system. Nigel Denis - THE Nigel Denis - gave our group a 30 minute overview of the revised BCU star system and explained some of the thinking behind it. TM and I were skeptical about the value of the session until it got underway. The new system makes a lot of sense. I particularly like the fact that they made the four star about more than just boat handling. Boat handling skills are key to being a good paddler, but judgment, navigation skills, and group skills make a good paddler a great paddler.
The presentation also made it seem like most RIC/KA coordinators operate at a near-four star level. I'm not saying that anyone of us could just walk through the four star certification. Based on the quick presentation, however, I do think that most of the coordinators would be able to take the four star training and not embarrass themselves.
The on-the-water action took place off of Stonington, CT. We paddled out to the race off of the eastern end of Fisher's Island and played a little bit. The conditions were not particularly big, but it was a nice warm-up. We all caught a few good rides.
One of the coaches pointed out that sticks were not the greatest for playing in currents and catching waves. I agreed that a stick is not the best choice for catching waves, but that it was more than adequate. The truth is that a big lollipop Euro blade is better at getting the quick acceleration required to catch waves than a stick. They grab more water and provide instant power. A stick is a more subtle instrument that is geared towards gentle, even acceleration. That does not mean that a stick cannot be used to catch waves. I definitely caught a few before lunch - and my body wasn't beaten to a pulp doing it.
After lunch we moved eastward to follow the races along Sugar Reef. The conditions in the afternoon were a little more powerful than in the afternoon. Harry, the British coach, encouraged us to hold off on using rudder strokes when we caught waves. His advice was to keep using forward strokes and use your lower body to control the kayak. Moving to a rudder stroke kills the kayak's hull speed and shortens your ride.
It was tricky. First, I had to overcome a very ingrained behavior. Second, I had to trust my balance to edge the kayak while on the wave. Several times the Q-boat decided to turn right down the face of a wave and I could not get it to straighten out. Harry suggested that I should drop my left foot off the foot pegs while edging to increase the pressure on the turn. Scary and in many cases only marginally more effective. He also said that sometimes there is just nothing you could do short of ruddering once the kayak's nose got more than a few degrees off of straight.
At one point in the afternoon I was trying to make a sharp turn and caught the edge of the Q-boat in the current. I did a quick brace and heard a loud crack. I was afraid I had broken the mighty stick. I did a quick inspection and it seemed fine. So, I continued to play.
A few minutes later I caught the edge again and just let myself go over. Rolled up easily and was right back in the fray.
At one point Harry offered to let me use his Euro paddle. It made getting on the waves much easier. I could get the Q-Boat up to speed much faster. I had fun for five or ten minutes until I got cocky...
I tried to make a quick sweep turn and tripped. I tried to roll up, but blew it. I considered making a second attempt, but decided against it. I was beginning to get tired and I had a strange paddle. I popped out and Harry rescued me.
On the way back to the put-in my paddle felt like it had a little extra flex in it. Then I felt a sharp spot on my hand when back paddling... There was a stress fracture in the mighty stick.
I was really bummed. H gave me this paddle as a wedding present, so it had a lot of sentimental value. It was also a great paddle. It felt really good in my hands, had a lot of power, and looked great. I was also dreading telling H it was broken. I was afraid she'd be heart broken. I was.
When I called H from the parking lot, she was happy that I had enjoyed myself playing in the currents. She was also less upset about the paddle than I was. She told me "I got it for you to use."
The day of training was great. I gained some confidence in my skills and learned a few little tricks.
Perhaps next year I'll do two days....

Cuttyhunk Reduex

Today was the redo date for the yearly Cuttyhunk paddle. The attempt earlier in the year was completely fogged out. This time around there was no fog or wind. In fact, it was a near perfect day. The water was completely flat and the winds were calm.
The trip from Gooseberry Pt. to Cuttyhunk was uneventful. It was nice to just slip into the zone. The blades slip into the water effortlessly and then gradually bite. Almost as soon as I feel the bite the paddle gives a little snap and the blade comes around to begin the cycle again. Each time the stomach muscles tighten and release a little more of the weeks stress melts away...
On the return trip we decided to detour around Penikese Island. This added a few more miles to the trip and through some of pre-planned navigation off. TM had calculated bearings for both the trip out and the return trip. He did the recalculation on the fly to account for the detour, but some of the group were not convinced of the new bearing.
The navigation disagreement didn't immediately cause any real issues. Over time though, it became an issue. TM held steady to his bearing while others decided that he had corrected too much and followed a different bearing. The group started drifting apart. Paddlers didn't know which person to follow... I decided to stay in the middle of the group. I could easily see our destination, so I knew that ultimately it didn't matter who was right. Both bearings would get us to the landing with only a little extra paddling.
After the paddle, JS graciously invited us to his house for pizza and beer. His house is lovely and has an outdoor shower for washing the salt off a tired body. The pizza, beer, and lovely setting was just thing to unwind after a long day of paddling.

Pier 5 to Castle Hill

Pier 5 to Castle Hill is one of my favorite routes in Narragansett Bay. It is also the route TM uses to cap of his summer long sequence of paddles in the Bay. It is a six mile trek across the West and East Passage of the Bay. Unlike a lot of long crossings this one offers some great views and an open water feel. The trip is good for paddlers who are strong beginners to stretch themselves and for intermediate paddlers to paddle in their zone.
The forecast was for reasonable winds and small seas. I took that with a grain of salt since this paddle inevitably turns into a battle against the afternoon winds. Sitting on the pier things looked calm. Our group expected no problems.
The paddle to Castle Hill was interesting. The swells and wind were not strong enough to be worrisome. They were strong enough to be wearisome. Between Pier 5 and Beavertail (about half of the crossing), I continually needed to counteract the Q-Boat's weathercocking. My first inclination was just to throw in a sweep stroke once and a while. When once in a while turned into every other stroke, I decided to deploy the skeg. The skeg made the problem worse. It didn't stop the weathercocking and made correcting more difficult. I finally settled on a combination of cocking my hips into a permanent lean and throwing in a few sweep strokes as needed.
Once past Beavertail, the weathercocking stopped being a problem because the water got much lumpier and we needed to do double time across the channel. The channel between Jamestown and Newport is the preferred channel for large shipping traffic into and out of the Bay.
After a quick break at the Castle Hill Coast Guard station, we crossed back to Jamestown for lunch. TM wanted to get the crossing out of the way before the afternoon winds (and the boat traffic) reached its peak. On the crossing a Jamestown photographer snapped a bunch of pictures of us doing our thing. We could be famous!!
After lunch, we headed south down the Jamestown coast towards Beavertail. The swells weren't really big enough to make playing in the rocks fun. However, we did our best to find excitement. BH got caught by a wave and nearly flipped. He managed to catch himself on a rock. Then he braced up off the rock and paddled away. I was a little bummed to not get a chance to practice a rock rescue.
Once around Beavertail we lined up with Pier 5 and began the long slog home. The afternoon winds blew out of the west and pushed against us. The winds were not particularly strong, but they were constant. As often happens in windy conditions, the group drifted into a number of pods. One pod took off for the pier. Another fell behind a little bit. Another drifted around looking for surf waves. Another just tried to keep moving. It was typical, but still frustrating. In windy conditions in the middle of a shipping channel, we should be able to stay in a tight group...
We all made it back without a hitch and did some rolling practice.
Once off the water a group of us retired to Java Madness for post paddle coffee and snacks.
It was, despite the wind, a great paddle. It was a good workout and provided enough of a challenge. The weather couldn't have been much better.

Jet Lag versus the Perfect Day

Within days of returning from my Canadian adventure, I hopped a plane to Dublin, Ireland for three days of intensive meetings. It was a good thing I was well rested from my vacation, because I didn't get much sleep on the Dublin trip.
I returned home Saturday evening and immediately got ready to paddle Sunday morning. The weather forecast was just too perfect to waste. Plus the venue, Kings Beach, offers some of the best conditions in the Bay.
Needless to say, I was a little off when I woke up this morning. I was determined, however, to not let it effect me. I gathered a lunch, some dry clothes, and the miscellaneous other gear and set off. I was a little behind schedule, but not too worried about it. I had good directions and the egg was chomping at the bit.
So there was traffic on 128 and then I got a little lost.... I showed up just at 9am, but I was not the last one there!!!
Once on the water, I hit my stride. There was enough action on the water to make playing in the rocks fun. It also made just paddling in the clear fun.
Nothing particularly exciting happened on the trip, but we all enjoyed ourselves.
It was a perfect paddling day.

Oh, Canada

Since January, H & I, along with PB, LB, RB, BH, MA, CC, have been planning a trip to Northern Quebec to paddle in the St. Lawrence water way and see whales. We'd planned out meals, driving arrangements, and a number of other details. The anticipation built up to a point where all other events paled in comparison. I was a little worried that the vacation could never live up to the hype.
On Thursday night, H & I loaded most of our stuff into the egg. We packed it to the gills: Two tents, a screen house, kayaking gear (including drysuits), biking gear, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, a gigantic cooler... We left the food and our clothes for Friday. H figured that she'd have plenty of time to finish off the packing while I was at work....
Friday morning I got a call from a man interested in purchasing my old kayak and was en-route to our house. We figured it would be a quick transaction. Most people don't fit into the cockpit and leave. The good news was that the guy fit and shelled over cash. The bad news was that it took more than an hour out of H's day.... So instead of leaving at 4pm we got on the road closer to 6pm.
Friday night we drove to Franconia, NH and stayed at the Stoneybrook Motel. Sat. we got up early and planned to hit the road early. We stopped in Littleton for a quick breakfast at Talk of the Town. We ate a good meal and then decided to walk it off a bit by exploring the strip. H wanted to look for a headlamp and see if we could get a French reference.
At 11:30 we headed north towards Canada. The drive to Quebec City was easy. The only excitement was the Canadian road signs. Their deer crossing signs had a stylish flying deer. The beware of deer sign showed the deer crossing sign colliding with a car sign with some blood spatter.
Quebec City seemed small as we zipped through on the highway. However, when we exited onto Rt. 138 the sprawl surrounding Quebec City seemed endless. It was a little like driving on Rt. 1 coming out of Boston. Miles and miles of sprawl.
We did see one interesting thing - the Cyclorama. I thought it might be a cycling track (a velodrome). I was excited, but a quick check of the guide book proved I was wrong. It is a circular mural depicting the Jerusalem when Christ was killed. We skipped it.
Once beyond the sprawl of Quebec City the mountains start. We started seeing signs indicating 8% inclines at regular intervals. The poor egg, loaded to the gills and covered in gear, performed admirably, but was clearly suffering. Not having a lot of practice with crazy hill driving, I was not shifting efficiently which didn't help the egg. We even saw some 10% grades.
The final leg of the drive on Sat. was crazy. A worker at the rest area in Baie-Saint-Paul gave us directions to our hotel that took us down a little side road and was very direct. The road was a 20% downhill grade with a number of switchbacks. To take some of the heat off the breaks, I put the egg in third . Even with that, the breaks stank when we reached the bottom of the hill.
On Saturday night we were staying in a little town called St. Joseph-de-lla Rive at L'auberge Beauséjour. We knew that PB and LB were also staying at the same hotel, so we figured we could plan our mission to secure camp sites the next day. The camp ground was another 3 hours and camp sites were first come first serve. We decided that the best balance between getting up too early and getting to the camp ground too late was to shoot for getting to the camp ground around noon.
We got a happy surprise at dinner. Through the windows we say a skulking figure looming on the porch that looked suspiciously like BH... The RI cars (BH, CC, MA, and RB) were also staying at L'auberge Beauséjour. They had been driving longer than H & I or PB & LB. MA was suffering from sever jet lag. She arrived home from China the day before. So, the H, PB, LB, and I told them to sleep in and that we would secure the campsites.
We rose early and embarked on the 3+ hour drive to Paradis Marin. The road was a scenic winding affair with more killer hills. The egg was definitely earning its keep. The drive was bisected by a short ferry ride across the Sangueny River. The ferries cross the river like clock work as it is one of the few points it is possible to get a car across the river. The first bridge is an hour plus inland.
The camp site we secured was perfect. It was large enough to hold all of our collective stuff-6 tents, a screen house, eight kayaks, eight camp chairs, and seven bikes-with ease. It was spitting distance from the kayak launch. It had a clear, omnipresent view of the water. It was next to the showers, bathrooms, and the laundry room. It was also next to the Cafe Blue - which served fantastic coffee.
Once camp was set up, most of the group went for a bike rides. PB is a speed demon on his bike, so he went off to get his ya-yas out while the rest of us went for a relaxing bike ride. According to our rough translation of the list of nearby recreational facilities, there was supposed to be a paved bike path that ran past the entrance to Paradis Marin. We found a bike path, but it was not paved. Fortunately, we all had suitable bikes for off road riding.
The bike trail heading west was lovely. It was was well packed and went through some nice woods. There was one treacherous, steep, and long hill that was fun to go down. Coming back up nearly killed all of us.
For evening fun the boys did a short kayak trip to see whales. While dinner was being prepped, whales were spotted just off the shore of the campground. We were in our drysuits and on the water in a flash. (We didn't bring a lot of safety gear with us, but we weren't going very far.) Once on the water, we discovered that the water is freezing. The temperature just a few yards off shore was noticeably cooler. We also discovered that it was harder to spot whales from a kayak than it is from land.
Fortunately, there was a Minke whale that was willing to oblige us. It surfaced a number of times where we could see it. RB was the only one who got within 50 yards or so of the whale, but it was nice for the first day. It convinced us that over the course of the week we'd be paddling in a sea of whales.
Day two of camping started off cool, windy, and foggy. We were not going to get the kayaks in the water early. So, after breakfast, we walked to a nearby whale observatory.
The observatory juts out into the river and is made up of large rocks. Once we found spots that were out of the wind and provided an excellent view, we settled in and started searching the water. Whale watching involves a lot of watching and very few whales... I spotted what looked like a Minke with a giant blow. It turned out that I spotted a Fin whale.
After lunch, several of us went back into Tadoussac to explore. After taking a breif stroll through the town, we found a walking path that took us out along the mouth of the fjord. The path was nice and offered us a spectacular view of a Minke whale and a Minke calf feeding. We even got to see the calf show us its pink belly.
Before dinner, the four boys took another quick spin in the kayaks hoping to spot whales. We were skunked this time out.
Day three was windy, but not foggy. The river looked a little choppy, but nothing worse than we encounter in the Bay. We decided to paddle and see what we could find. After about an hour on the water we'd seen some birds, a seal, and a few porpoise. Given that it was windy and choppy and we weren't seeing any whales, we called it a day and headed home.
After lunch the rest of the group decided to head back to Tadoussac and hike along the fjord. I decided that I would stay behind and catch some alone time. I enjoyed a great cafe mocha from the cafe next to our camp site and read a little. After the caffeine infusion, I set out for a bike ride to Les Escoumins.
Les Escoumins is a town at the eastern end of the bike path running through Paradis Marin. The ride was great. The bike path mostly winds through the woods running along Rt. 138 and is pretty well maintained. The last 1/4 of the trail, however, is terrible. It is so sandy that it is largely impassable. Riding along Rt. 138 is terrifying. The cars, and large trucks, whiz by at high speed and the gutter is mostly dirt.
The town of Les Escoumins is nondescript. Along 138 is a small downtown area. The town also has a first nation reservation that looked pretty run down. I didn't hang out for long.
I arrived back at the camp site in time to catch the beginning of the nightly Beluga march. For an hour each night you could watch the Belugas head south towards the Fjord. They are easy to spot in the evening light. Their white body's seem to glow.
That evening the Cafe had some live music. Every year a couple comes to Paradis Marin for vacation and play music at the cafe. They had met the singer that day, but managed to play excellent music.
The forecast for day four was ominous. The winds were supposed to be moderate in the morning and ferocious in the afternoon. Given the forecast, we decided to do a short paddle in the morning. It was a nice paddle, but paddling for whales involves a lot of drifting. You paddle and watch; paddle and watch; paddle and watch. It is also very hard to spot whales from a kayak. You're POV is narrow and low to the water.
After lunch we waited for the weather to turn and planned to tackle the bike path once again. The weather held and the terrible winds never materialized. That was OK though. Our bike ride was the better for the pleasant weather.
Day five it rained. We had a great breakfast at a restaurant in Les Escoumins. They struggled to find us a waitress whose English was up to dealing with our French. The menu was extensive and we spent a lot of time eying other people's food.
After breakfast, PB, LB, RB, BH, and I went to the geologic museum in Les Bergeron. It was the worst museum I have ever seen. It was so bad, they should pay people to go. We spent an hour there only because PB, RB, and I got sucked into a C-list movie about the evolution of man. The movie was so bad it was hypnotic....
Once we escaped from the movie, we went to Tadoussac to meet the rest of the group. We grabbed some lunch at a little internet cafe and then people headed off to do some more hiking. I decided to relax at the cafe, drink coffee, and read. It was a very good time. I even caught up on my e-mail.
Day six we decided to paddle in the fjord. It was a spectacular place to paddle. The high, tree covered shores reminded me of Alaska. We did spot some Belugas from shore. By the time we scrambled to our kayaks, they were gone. People were so mesmerized though that the group drifted apart. Half wound up paddling along one shore of the fjord and the other half paddled along the other. Paddling back to the put in offered the most exciting paddling of the whole trip. The currents and the winds conspired to give us some nice following seas. Even H got into the action.
Day six was our last day at Paradis Marin. We needed to check out by noon. It was also a beautiful paddling day.... So, we packed up camp first thing in the morning and then went kayaking. We were still hoping to paddle with whales, but were prepared to be skunked once again. We could not spot any whales, but made up for it by enjoying the nice weather and the paddling.
PB and LB had fortuitously, headed back to camp before the rest of the group. After dropping LB off on shore, PB headed out to catch some waves. Meanwhile on shore, H spotted a Minke whale heading right towards PB. H yelled her head off to get PB's attention. When he finally spotted her, he reacted immediately. The whale surfaced right in front of him. It was perfect. PB had put a lot of effort into making the trip happen and he definitely deserved to see a whale close up.
After we got off the water, the group, minus LB and PB, headed to Quebec City for the night. We stayed at one of the universities. The accommodations were "dorm room" sheik, but the price was right. The university was also directly on the bus route to the old city. We wandered around the old city for the evening and saw they Silo exhibit. It was a nice way to end the vacation.