Minot's Light Wednesday October 30

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Tegan
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Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:37 am
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Location: Stephens City, VA

Minot's Light Wednesday October 30

Post by Tegan »

Planning a long weekend, Wednesday 10-30 through Sunday 11-3, in Massachusetts, Wednesday looked to be the best day to paddle to Minot's Light. Leaving Virginia at 3:30 AM I was at the lighthouse at 2:30. It was a warm sunny afternoon and though the sea was calm, approaching low tide, the ledge was causing waves that wrapped around the base. Finally there was an opening and I tied onto the ladder. The ""mission"" was to try a new three pound anchor, which set almost immediately. With camera around my neck, I got out of the boat, pulled along the line, and climbed the ladder. The rungs were coverd in dried, chalk-like bird droppings. Looking through the door there is a window on the opposite wall I could see the form of a commorant on the ledge, a nice touch for a couple pictures. Again a beautiful day. Back at the Miss Audrey I took the camera from around my neck and put it in the cockpit. My first paddle-float re-entry, September Minot's Light, was " textbook". Could there be any other way? The second was not going well. I rolled off the boat but managed to kick such that the boat did not flip upside down. That was interesting. The third re-entry while not pretty got me back into the kayak. Where is the camera? The boat had flipped enough to send the camera " to the bottom".
While packing up to leave I went through a long series of how could you be so........ careless........stupid questions. But then I thought; No I'm not doing this - I came to take pictures and I'm not leaving....... With a second camera in the dry bag I got back into the water, side stroked the 75 feet to the lighthouse, and again climbed the ladder. Successfully back in the boat I prepared to leave. I would like to have everything " shipshape"; 75' of line to the lighthouse, 50' to the anchor, 40' to the anchor trip line - each rope on it's own reel. Well, not so shipshape, it all came up in one easy to handle tangled mess. The sea by now was glass calm as I paddled into the sunset.
The Hull Lifesaving Museum Head of The Weir Race was on Saturday November 2nd. The second year of perfect conditions- warm sun and flat calm water for the 5 mile race. A race for many, a nice paddle for me. This day was sandwiched between howling land winds blowing Duxbury beach sand out to sea one day and howling winds off the Atlantic blowing foam onto the beach on Sunday. Richard Webber
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