Today was a much different story...no wind or waves.
I thought it was just going to be Jordan, Sue and I. But, Gif replied at the last minute that he'd be joining us. He had heard about the trip posting from a more observant turkey he had paddled with on Saturday.
The first leg of our trip was into Mattapoisett Harbor. Gif had a lot of information about the area...it's always nice to gain some local knowledge...if I could only remember the details.
Looks like this is the fish pier.
I think this is a town boat ramp between a few piers with parking. I don't recall if there are access limitations, but Ned's point is so close, I couldn't see using this ramp anyway.
At the shallow end of the harbor, there is a marshy area called East Pond that was inaccessible at low tide.
To the left of the marshy area was the opening to the Mattapoisett River. There were a couple SUP board paddlers heading into the river. The water here was also really shallow since it was just about dead low tide.
Heading out along Mattapoisett Neck, Jordan and Gif looked over a new house going up on stilts that had a very nice, new sea wall.
Sue admired some large sailboats out in the channel.
Jordan cruising close to the rocks of Ram Island.
We headed toward the southern end of West Island with plans to circle it clockwise after a stop for lunch on the public beach. Between Ram and West Islands there is a lot of aquaculture. Gif and Jordan headed through the marker buoys while Sue and I were further out beyond the farming area.
The southern end of West Island has sandy beaches protected by clusters of rock outcroppings.
We did a little follow the leader through the rocks.
The water was very clear and calm with the bottom alternating from sandy to blotches of sea weed type plants.
Sue wanted to try a couple rolls with her Greenland storm paddle, so Jordan held her gear and spotted for her. Of course she didn't miss a roll.
The World War 2 tower caught my interest earlier this year on another paddling trip. I was curious about whether you could go inside or not. A quick look after lunch was in order.
Gif picked out a sandy spot to pull up for lunch.
I don't think anyone sat down for lunch. We all stood and ate our food and chatted. After eating, I took a walk to check out the World War 2 Tower and Sue joined me. The tower is in a parking lot for the public beach.
We took a walk around the tower to see if there was an entrance and found that all openings except the top were sealed with steel plates.
Here is the sign on the side of the tower.
On the way back to the boats, I took a shot of the beach to the left and to the right.
Gif was ready to go.
A few homes along the southwestern shore of West Island.
At the bridge to West Island, there is a marina with a boat ramp.
The bridge to West Island. I read that you need to watch the tide direction for passing under this bridge. That is why we chose to circle the island clockwise, to be heading under the bridge with the tide. But on this day, close to 2 hours after low tide, there was very little current under the bridge.
On the northern end of West Island, there's a little private island with a gated bridge. Jordan's done this trip many times and mentioned he liked the house on the island before it came in sight.
Gif had headed toward the bridge while Sue and Jordan paddled around the island. I made the mistake of following Gif. The tide was too low and we had to portage under the bridge.
A view of the nice house from the east side.
We gathered up and decided to head back to Ned's Point rather than explore Nasketucket Bay.
On the way back, we paddled to the inside of Ram Island and came across a seal or two. They didn't come very close, so you'll have to just believe me that the bump in the middle of the picture is a seal's head. Sue got to check off an item on her bucket list - seeing a seal from a kayak.
The water got a just a little bit choppy crossing Mattapoisett Harbor.
Landing back at Ned's Point.
After we finished loading our boats on our vehicles, the wind seemed to die and the water went completely calm.
The lighthouse and parking lot at Ned's Point.
Here is a topo map with the route we traveled highlighted.
A few stats from the trip:
Launch time: 9:56am
Stop for lunch: 12:10pm, Distance paddled: 7.81 miles
Back on water: 12:45pm
Take-out time: 2:33pm
Total Distance Paddled: 14.081 miles
To finish off the day, we stopped at Oxford Creamery for an ice cream cone. Thanks for the treat Jordan!
Thanks Sue, Jordan and Gif for joining me on this trip. I hope we can get out a few more times before it gets too cold.
