Nantasket to Little Harbor

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Johnysmoke
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Nantasket to Little Harbor

Post by Johnysmoke »

Friday the 10th, there were some waves coming in on Nantasket, so I decided to give them a shot in the Chatham. Some sets were coming in pretty big, and there were a few people out surfing. I packed a lunch in my kayak, so I could do a little touring after a few rides in the waves, and set out to break off the beach. It took some work to get off the beach, as most of the waves were breaking right around head height, if not a little higher. I made it out, turned the boat around, and put on my trusty crash helmet. After a few miss timed attempts, I finally got the boat shooting down wave, at pretty good pace, proud that I was doing so well, until I reached the inevitable moment of the broach. Toppling sideways into the water, I pretty quickly decided against rolling, and just bailed. I got behind the boat, and watched as it got pushed onshore by the breaking waves. I figured I'd write this one off and try again. I dumped all the water out of the boat, and headed back out into the waves. This time I got dumped by a little wave that shot me sideways as I was trying to break through. Again I bailed, and had to dump out the boat and try again. At this point I was feeling a little shakey from getting thrashed around in the surf. My trusty crash helmet was acting like a parachute, every time my head ended up in the water, the helmet would catch and brake hard, causing me to get sucked out of the boat even faster.

Having had enough of getting thrashed in the waves, and not wanting to give a growing audience any more satisfaction of watching me almost drown myself, I set off downwind for Little harbor. There were some pretty big swells coming in from directly offshore, and these would send up some pretty big boomers on the rocky shoals. I was careful and picked my way through, so I didn't end up between some big swell and anything that would cause it to break.

I hit little harbor about an hour before high tide, and got pulled in by the current. I just kinda lazily floated through, glad to be out of the wind and waves for a little bit. I made my way to the other "graves" and pulled out for some lunch. The wind was dying down, and the sun was going strong, so I started to dry out a little after my ordeal in the waves.

Thinking I would be able to get out of little harbor, I paddled back to the bridge, to find the current too strong to work against. I sat for a little bit after a few failed attempts, and then decided to play in the current for a little, enjoying the little whirlpools and eddys kicking around. Practiced ferrying across the current, and peeling out from the eddy into the current, and vice versus. Ended up going over once again, but this time the roll worked fine, and I popped back up no problem.

After engough time, I was able to work my way out of little harbor, and headed back to Nantasket. By this time the wind was pretty much gone, and there was just confused water everywhere from the swell and choppy waves. I saw trails of foam, presumably from the boomers breaking on the rocks and shoals earlier, and was glad I had avoided these areas.

Made it back to Nantasket, to get one last ride in, only to broach once again close to the beach. Emptied out the boat, and carried everything up to the car. Went in search of my car key in the pocket I had stowed it in, only to find the pocket open, and containing nothing but sand. Had to borrow a cell, call home, and have an extra key brought over.

All in all a pretty fun day of paddling, sans the lost keys, but it was worth it. Going to hide a spare key somewhere under the car for future use.
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kayakerjnj
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You are game!

Post by kayakerjnj »

HI John,

I really liked the report, and from the sounds of it you sure got a day full.

Hope to paddle with you again soon!

Cheers,

Jordan
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Birdseye
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Post by Birdseye »

Hey Kahuna... You are a madman! How did the water feel? Were you wearing a wetsuit/drysuit??

Hope you didn't break your paddle again :lol: Speaking of which, did you ever get a replacement for the other one??

I'm hoping to get out again soon but I don't think I'll be doing any surfing.
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Mark
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Post by Mark »

John: I was surfing a favorite break in Scituate on Friday morning with a couple of my kayak-surfing buds. We had some set waves with ten-foot faces, so I bet 'tasket saw at least some five-footers. Nantasket is a tough break to surf. The waves tend toward closeouts and usually pack quite a punch. Then at high tide you have the seawall to contend with.

So the Hanson-skills Rolling Champ took a couple swims in the soup zone? Nothing like playing in surf to help you develop a reliable combat roll! 8)
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Todd
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Post by Todd »

John,

Sound like you had some fun and I bet the next time you'll be up more than down. How were you bracing? Stern rudder? High brace into the waves?

From the reports that other turkeys have posted about Little Harbor, it would take 1 hour after high tide in order for the current to slack enough to get through. I rode into Little Harbor this past summer and played around the eddys, great fun. I also paddled back out against the current and had to work hard to get out. I got close to the rocks on my starboard side, started paddling like hell and sort of tacked across to the port side. It was a cardio workout and you couldn't let up even after you got through.

It's a great place to play.
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Johnysmoke
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Post by Johnysmoke »

Birdsey, Werner covered the paddle, repaired and shipped for free. They did warn me about using it in rock gardens, surfing, etc. Seems the foam core isn't quite as strong as their other paddles. I've found I like my fiberglass Shuna much better though, and the Cyprus is going to pull spare paddle duty. As far as clothing, I was wearing a dry top, a base layer, and my farmer John hydroskin. The water is still fairly warm, but I'm going to have to bust out the drysuit soon. Haven't paddled with it, so I'm going to have to do a few trial runs before doing anything serious in it. I was thinking of just putting it on and going for a swim, and see how that works.

Mark, my roll is far from combat ready, but getting a little better. I kept ending upside down in no mans land, couldn't decide which way to get up, would try and set up, get rocked by another wave, then just decided to bail. Maybe we need to start getting some rough water skills sessions going for us turkeys.

Jordan and Todd, and everyone else, it will be fun to paddle with the turkeys sometime soon...
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