Cohasset Little Harbor and Minot Light - 7/13/11

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norm
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Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:13 pm
Location: Stoughton, MA

Cohasset Little Harbor and Minot Light - 7/13/11

Post by norm »

This was Briggsy's trip, but I'm going to write the trip report since I have so many pictures that need to be seen.

There was a possibility of getting wet since we were planning to play in the wave at Little Harbor, so Briggsy didn't bring his camera. I had no intention to swim on purpose (due to recent knee surgery) so I had my camera along as usual.

We launched a little before high tide at the Cohasset Town Boat Ramp. The conditions were clear and sunny with very little wind.

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Briggsy, Tracey and I geared up to head over to Little Harbor. We had helmets for safety. Tracey wore hers all day. Briggsy and I put ours on when it came time for playing in the current outside Little Harbor.

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Heading through Cohasset Harbor.

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Tracey liked this house on White Head. Actually, later on I think she found one she liked better, but she likes this location best if I have the story correct.

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There's a name plaque on the house that says Whitehead (may not be readable in this low res pic) but on the nautical chart, it says this point of land is White Head. Hmmm, I wonder if the plaque is the owners name or the name of the land?

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Nearby, we came across this pick-up buoy with Jordan's name on it. I had to back up and take a picture of it to show Jordan that he is bobbing around out there full-time, in spirit, while he recovers from his shoulder surgery.

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Paddling past Windmill Point, we started to turn into Sandy Cove and then realized we needed to go a little further before turning into Little Harbor.

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When we reached Little Harbor, the tide was still going in, so we entered and took a look around. In Little Harbor there are a lot of rocky little islands with many, many birds. The egrets were skittish, so I couldn't get close enough for really good pictures with my little camera.

This is the first time this year I've seen both great egrets and snowy egrets.

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A common tern.

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There are many beautiful homes on Little Harbor. Here are a few.

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This one has a lot of solar collectors.

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There was one more modest home right on the water.

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There were a couple homes under construction.

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Some of the shoreline is steep rocks.

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We had heard about people using a cemetery as a put-in within Little Harbor so we searched around for it since we needed to kill time while the tide turned. We spotted the old cemetery. It didn't look like the type of place that you could quietly use as a put-in (not that we would want to). The grave plots went right down to the water and the roadways were very small. I guess the small beach area might be ok to stop at for a snack break or rest. There don't seem to be many places to land that are not private property within the harbor.

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On the way out, there was a long rock island with lots of cormorants.

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On another larger rocky island, there were a couple snowy egrets in the tops of the little trees.

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Just before getting back to the bridge, there is this buildiong that looks more like a function hall or boat house than a residence.

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Briggsy and I put on our helmets when we got back outside the harbor where we planned to play in the current. Tracey already had her helmet on.

I think Briggsy was giving Tracey some tips here before we entered the current.

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Tracey in the lumpy water.

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Tracey's smiling, so I guess she likes it.

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I wonder if the people in these homes like watching kayakers play in their front yards all summer?

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We stopped for lunch across from this house. I think Tracey said she liked this house better than the one on White Head.

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We waited for the wave to develop more, but it never got all that big, even a couple hours after the tide turned.

Heading back out into the current after lunch.

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Briggsy shows us how to get onto the wave and just cruise there.

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I tried shooting a little video too.

http://vimeo.com/26522995


Tracey and I waited for our turn on the wave.

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Tracey finds out what sitting in an eddy is like.

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After we played for a while, we decided it was time to go if we were going to do anything before heading back to the take-out.

Our choice was either to head out to Minot Light.

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Or just head across to Strawberry Point.

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We decided to head out to Minot Light.

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It looks so small.

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Briggsy led the way.

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I think this is Hogshead Rock.

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I've been out to this lighthouse a couple times before, but have not approached from this direction before. I like being able to see the ladder and doorway.

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It looks like they have a couple owl statues on the railing at the top to scare away sea birds.

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Briggsy arrived first with Tracey not too far behind.

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Briggsy proceeded to circle the base while Tracey and I caught up.

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I made up a story to see how gullible Tracey is. I told her that anybody on their first trip out to the light has to climb the ladder.

Briggsy comes around as Tracey heads for the ladder.

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I thought she was really going to try to climb it.

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She reached out and got hold of one of the ladder rungs.

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And then posed for a couple pictures.

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Then a big swell came around the base of the light and I thought she was a goner and we'd be doing a rescue. I put away my camera quick and got my hands on my paddle to brace for the swell and be ready to head over to help Tracey. But, she survived the swell and we all relaxed. Briggsy took another spin around to see if he could catch a ride on the next swell. I took a look up to try to shoot some close-ups.

The sign above the door says "AD 1860"

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Look at the smooth stonework.

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It was time to go, so we headed for Strawberry Point.

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On the way in, Briggsy cruised close to the rocks while Tracey kept her glass boat further away.

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The tide had now fallen and there were some seaweed seascapes.

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Briggsy admired how clear the water was as he paddled amongst the rocks.

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As we got close to the inner Cohasset Harbor, it looked like there was a traffic jam of sailboats...none of them were moving.

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The Cohasset Yacht Club sailboats had beached on the rising sand bar and some of the kids were going for a swim while others played on the sand bar.

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When we got to the inner harbor, another sailing club was preparing their boats to head out sailing.

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We headed back to the town boat ramp. The end of Bassing Beach on our left was very steep now.

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Briggsy was first to reach shore.

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Here is a topo map of the area with our route highlighted.

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A few statistics from the day's paddle:
Launch time: 10:30am
Distance traveled before lunch: 4.7 miles
Stopped for lunch: 12:18pm
Back on water: 1:02pm
Back to take-out: 3:00pm
Total distance traveled: 10 miles

We loaded up our boats on our trucks and headed off to the Driftway for a planned evening of rough water rescue practice at new inlet. It turned out that we instead got some rough weather decision practice. When we arrived at the spit, we looked back at very dark skies and heard a few rumblings of thunder. A check of our smart-phones showed a pretty bad doppler radar picture so we chose to head back to shore immediately. It was the right decision. It was raining pretty hard when we got back and we saw couple flashes of lightning but nothing close.

Glad 3 of us got out for a nice paddle early in the day. Felt bad that Ron, Bea and Pat didn't get to do much paddling.

We all went to a restaurant in Scituate Harbor for PPR.

Thanks for proposing the daytime paddle in Cohasset Briggsy, It was another beautiful summer weekday out on the water.

Norm
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kayakerjnj
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Location: Randolph MA

Re: Cohasset Little Harbor and Minot Light - 7/13/11

Post by kayakerjnj »

Fun pictures and a great morning. Thanks for sharing these.
Paddle with a big smile, its contagious 8)


Jordan
TraceyJ
Posts: 345
Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:47 pm
Location: New Bedford, MA

Re: Cohasset Little Harbor and Minot Light - 7/13/11

Post by TraceyJ »

Thanks, Briggsy for planning the morning.
I had a great time and it was well worth taking the day off for.

Norm, as usual, great pictures and a great trip report.
Valley Aquanaut / white-on-white
P&H Delphin 150 Surf / Yellow
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