Paddle Day 18: Sneaking between the whitecaps from the wind and the breaking surf from the swells

The helpful dock master at the Scituate Harbor Yacht Club and Bart, Mike and Janet.

The day started out with calm water and a light breeze, as I waved goodbye to my Scituate hosts: Janet, Bart and Mike.

I was dashing ahead of the next weather system moving in, glad that the Small Craft Advisory would not come into effect until the evening, and glad that tomorrow I will not be paddling.  But weather prediction is an imprecise art.

The wind soon became higher than expected, with wind driven waves breaking and crashing into my bow.  The combination of head winds and being repeatedly punched by the breaking waves really slowed me down.  So I developed a new technique.  I opted to paddle closer to shore, where the swells were building right before breaking on shore.  The swells were lower frequency and in a different direction.  They "swallowed up" the high frequency wind waves, giving a much smoother and faster ride.  But it was a little dicy staying in that narrow region between the whitecaps of the wind the surf broke on shore.

I knew the wind would only increase as the day went on, so was trying to make as much speed as I could.

I had forgotten to put the Gaiter-aid powder into my Platypus hydration bag on deck, so was running out of energy.   It was too rough, with waves breaking regularly over my deck, to reach down inside my Snapdragon sprayskirt for the protein shake my host Janet had made for me in the morning.   I figured I had about another 3 hours of power in me, and at my slowed speed, that would just get me into my destination of Green Harbor.  This was another of those "I'm not going to forget that again!" days.

But the wind decreased once I got closer to Green Harbor, so I was able to drink the protein shake and get a burst of energy.

Linda with the van being filled with my "white trash tarp bags"

Steve having fun

My hosts Steve and Linda and two others helped me unload the kayak, and were the first hosts on weeks that got the kayak up on a vehicle.  It was fun having the kayak with us when I spoke at the Duxbury Rotary Club.


Paddle Day: 18                                                      Date: August 12, 2014
Start: Scituate                                                       End: Green Harbor
Distance: 10.9 miles                                              Total distance: 199.85
Max speed: 5.1 mph                                               Moving ave.: 3.2 mph
Kayak storage: hosts!                                             Hosts: Steve and Linda Dubuque