Flat calm is great for paddling (if it's not too hot, which it wasn't today). But all of the gunk -- rafts of pollen, mats of dental flossy green seaweed -- is gathered at the cul-de-sac of our little cove. It seems my Pandora senses the chill atmosphere and feeds me a playlist of mellow music.
Are there otters in the creeks? I know I saw them in the gross Canal du Midi in France, and I think I saw similar in Crab Creek.
Made it way deep into Church Creek today.
All was well inside Crab Creek, but once I got out into the South River, I got my butt kicked a bit from the chop.
Well, the South River osprey that attempted to make a home on the canvas of a Sea Ray apparently was evicted. Not to be deterred, it seems now to have roosted on the hard top of another boat. Fun!
Not a very boat-y weekend. Saturday was rainy, windy and grim. We'd hoped to take Heron to the annual meeting of the Chesapeake Bay Sabre Association at Gibson Island, but it was a no-go. Rick devoted Sunday to fixing the electrical problems on Calypso (successfully, we think). Meanwhile, I went to yet another Terps baseball game in College Park to cheer on my nephew Sam Hojnar. He had a banner day with 2 home runs and a double, pushing the Terps to a series victory over Illinois. Go Sammy!
Today's paddle was marred by stratospheric pollen counts. Ugh. Went from Crab Creek to Little Aberdeen Creek. Ran into Century Club candidate Brett Smith.
Shooting for 100 days on the water has me going out on the kayak more often than I might otherwise. Marginal weather, and I'll take my chances. Now that I've embarked on this attempt to log 100 days, I realize that it's the only way I'll have a change to reach the goal. I don't live aboard (would have done in easily in 2014!), I don't race on weeknights, I don't have any charters planned for this year, and life has a way of interfering with those long weekends I'd love to have on Calypso.
So, here I am, on a 45 degree morning, having completed a meander around Crab Creek. The tide is high today, again, reaching the bottom of most of the non-floating docks. Pink Moon?
Extra high tide today; the water reached the bottom of many docks on Crab Creek, South River and Church Creek. It made the floating dock at our community kayak launch nearly flat. Nearly flat calm in Crab Creek, but a lot more play outside of it.
Pollen, so dense it looks like you can walk on it, coats the waterways. I guess it's the springtime analog to the clots of jellyfish we'll see in the summer. Spring in the mid-Atlantic can be so achingly lovely (but frost warnings in late April? WTF?), but it comes with a cost.
Stayed in Crab Creek today for my chilly kayak trip.
Beautiful morning for a paddle. As I left Crab Creek to the South River, I noticed an osprey building a nest. Right on top of the canvas cover on a Sea Ray. Someone is not going to be happy when the owner tries to take the boat out for a spin. Who will win?
It wasn't the loveliest of weekends, but perfection is so overrated. Saturday was gorgeous, if a little cool. We got in a good sail, with plenty of wind and making over 7 kts at times; there weren't many boats out. We didn't go far for the night -- Mill Creek off Whitehall Bay -- and we had it to ourselves. Once at anchor, we caught some big gusts, but all calmed down overnight.
Sunday was grey and not very windy. Pulling up the anchor was an adventure, as Rick pulled up a veritable salad of seaweed, turning this into a 15 minute operation. We caught the 10:30 bridge. Rick is now dealing with some electrical issues. It's a boat - something always goes.
I seem to be getting in a groove of paddling every other day, as long as weather permits. Since I injured my Achilles playing tennis 6 months ago, this has been my primary mode of exercise (a few months ago, I couldn't even do that, since I could barely manage the walk down to the kayak dock). But now that I'm almost ready to get back on court (despite the false starts in February in Florida), I hope I can keep this up too.
Crab Creek crawl today. Dead calm, with a little mist.
In the dim hope of maybe going out overnight over the weekend, it was time to move all of our stuff back on board. Making up berths, stowing towels and clothes, taking inventory of what needs to be supplied and replaced, refilling drinking water, etc. etc. Lots of sneezing from the dust and pollen, but now we're ready to sail away!