Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

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Briggsy
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Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by Briggsy »

Norm, Bea and Sue mentioned that they would like to practice their newly aquired navigation skills on an actual trip so I suggested Boston Harbor due to the amount of islands, but Norm said they knew the area too well and suggested Prudence Island in Narragansett Bay.
After checking many launch areas online and suggesting a number of possible routes, we finally agreed that Oakland Beach in Warwick looked good and a quick call to Warwick Town Hall confirmed that the boat ramp and parking was free and no sticker was required. The "homework" was to obtain a chart (online or otherwise) and get all the tide and current information we could for the paddling area. Easy enough to find from the NOAA website.

Thursday morning we met at the Oakland Beach boat ramp and Sue and I actually beat Norm to the put-in, a rare event indeed. Norm had marked his chart with one of my suggested routes, including compass bearings and approx times so we decided on that as our days trip. We decided against a circumnavigation of Prudence Island as we wanted to practice our skills and the trip round plus messing about with charts and compasses would've taken too long. We aligned the chart to the surroundings so we could identify what we looking at and after paddling out to the last channel marker near the ramp we took a compass bearing from the chart and headed off to Sandy Point which was not as easily identifiable from the water as it was from the chart. We used ranges to keep us on course. At Sandy Point we went south along the coastine and using "dead reckoning" estimated our arrival time at Calf Pasture Point. On the way we practised taking back bearings from landmarks in order to confirm our position and eyeballing features marked on the chart. Other than a few sprinkles when we set off, the clouds were lifting and the sun was trying to get through. There was very little boat traffic and the water was very warm and flat.

At Calf Pasture Point we could see the military base at Quonset, and a huge car transporter ship docked at Davisville Depot. From here we took a compass bearing from the chart and headed over to Hope Island, 2 miles away. We discussed using ranges again including using a feature directly behind or checking the compass frequently. Halfway into the crossing, a look behind revealed we had been pushed slightly off course as the car transporter ship should've been over our right shoulder but was now over our left. After an early start from home we were all hungry and decided to try to find somewhere to stop for a snack. Hope Island did not appear as promising as its name with its rocky shoreline but at the southern tip there was a nice inlet and a nice small protected sandy beach. We stopped for 10 mins or so and checked the chart. We decided on following the edge of the island to its northern tip where there was a green buoy marked on the chart and from there we would follow a compass bearing to the south end of the long beach on the western side of Prudence Island. With the compass bearing and approx arrival time at the beach in our heads we set off again. Using ranges again and after a 2 or so mile crossing we arrived at our beach within a few minutes of our estimated time. Bea liked the idea of "dead reckoning" rather than looking at a chart for a few minutes and thinking "thats doable"! She will also probably not be moving to the west coast either after I explained that the difference between magnetic north and true north were opposite on that side and all calculations had to be reversed.

Other than 3 other people, we were the only ones on the mile long beach. After a relaxing lunch, we did some more compass practice and planned the rest of our trip. The afternoon had turned fabulous as we paddled north to the gap between Patience and Prudence Island, the sun was out and it was warm. From the North west corner of Patience Island we once again transferred the course on the chart to the magnetic compass bearing and paddled across to the lighthouse on Warwick Neck. The current was slight, about 1/2 kt but was enough to push us slightly off course and emphasised the usefulness of ranges.
A short paddle brought us back to the boat ramp and the end to another great midweek paddle.

Norm and Bea have pictures. The trip was around 15 miles or so.

Briggsy
centered
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Re: Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by centered »

It was a great day, with lots learned. Thanks, Dave for helping us out! Can't wait for the quiz. :)
Sue
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norm
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Re: Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by norm »

Thanks for writing the trip report Dave. I've got about 35 good pictures ready but it's too late to get them uploaded and comments added tonight. I wasn't expecting to see this report till Wednesday? You snuck it in when I wasn't checking.

Don't let Sue fool you, she's already been practicing for the quiz. We learned the real advantage of charting out a course in advance when we had a little trouble identifying nearby islands while bobbing around out in the middle of Salem Sound on Saturday. It was easier to figure out what was what on my chart, using the planned track that drew a line between the rocks and islands we were trying to identify.

She also tested determining our location along a beach by taking a bearing to the end of an island we had just left. Then we were able to confirm it was correct by making a line past the edge of the closer island to one behind it.

We had a very good day of practice and the plan worked out perfectly to keep us out of the worst traffic in a very busy area.

I'll plan to add the pictures tomorrow night, unless by some miracle I can get out on the water...
Johnysmoke
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Re: Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by Johnysmoke »

Glad to hear there was some on water follow up to the nav class!
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norm
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Re: Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by norm »

Here are some pictures form our navigation compass practice with Briggsy.

There is a nice little sandy area beside the Oakland Beach boat ramp. A perfect place to launch for a trip around Prudence Island if you want to avoid the long crossings from Colt State Park. The only drawback is that you have to drive through Providence to get there.

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For a while it was hard to distinguish what the big structure was off in the distance, but once we got closer, it became clear that it was a very boxy car carrier ship at the dock.

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Lots of stops for discussions about methods to identify our exact location.

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Starting to head across from Calf Pasture Point to Hope Island.

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Heading into the inlet at the southern end of Hope Island.

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Hope Island was full of birds. These sea gulls looked very young.

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Since the tide was going out, there was a good amount of sandy beach to use for our short break.

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Looking back out from the beach of this little cove. The bottom was sandy but there were some pretty big sharp rocks to avoid.

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Looking at the high tide line on the rocks, it appears there is no beach half the time. I took a look around to see if there was any way off the beach to the inner part of the island but it was very overgrown. The history of the island says there was a farm here in the 18th century and that it was used by the Navy in World War 2 for ammunition storage. I thought maybe they used this cove in WW2.

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A couple minutes break from staring at charts or compasses.

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On the way back out of the cove, these two birds looked a little different than the rest.

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There were so many birds, Sue tried to take a couple home balanced on her greenland stick. I guess they thought it was a tree.

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The sea gulls and cormorants aren't bothered by us passing nearby.

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Sue said she has not seen so many cormorants in trees before. They seem to segregate themselves from the snowy egrets.

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It looks like the bird guano kills the trees.

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Even on the beach, the snowy and great egrets stay together and the cormorants stay together.

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Along the northeast edge of the island is an old pier area, obviously from the WW2 era.

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Northeast of Hope Island is tiny Despair Island, which apparently is a little set of sand covered rocks. I wonder if its completely covered at high tide or if this might be a sandy spot to land when the cove has no beach.

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Heading for the green buoy.

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From the green buoy, we had figured out what compass bearing was needed to reach the beach on Prudence Island.

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Approaching sandy beach on the west side of Prudence.

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Behind the beach was a marshy area.

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The water was incredibly warm, but not very clear compared to the cape or the outer harbor islands, so only Bea took a swim and Sue didn't even bother doing any rolling.

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Even at lunch time we had the charts and compasses out.

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Back on the water, approaching the northwest corner of Prudence.

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Patience Island on the left and the top of Prudence on the right.

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Bea studying hard.

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Briggsy called us all together to explain something and I thought the yellow boats made a nice picture. Then afterwards I realized Bea's boat looks naked as the only one without paddle britches, a compass and a spare paddle on the front.

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Crossing the channel between Prudence and Warwick Point.

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Turning west around Warwick Point.

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Warwick Point Lighthouse.

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A nice country club on Warwick Neck, with golf, tennis and a swimming pool.

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Heading into Warwick Cove.

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The day had started off with a few raindrops and lots of clouds, but as we finished, the sun had come out.

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Here is a Google Earth map of the area with our actual track highlighted.

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A few specs from the trip:

Launch time: 10:00am
Stop at Hope Island: 12:18pm Distance: 7.28 miles
Left Hope Island at: 12:46pm
Lunch stop on Prudence: 1:41pm Distance: 10.55 miles
Back on water: 2:43pm
Take-out time: 4:35pm
Total Distance Paddled: 16.90 miles

Thanks for sharing so much compass and navigation knowledge with us Dave! It was exactly what we needed as the next step after our class with John. And thank you to John for getting us started and Bea for hosting John's class a few weeks ago.

It was fun to explore a new area that none of us were familiar with too. And so many more places to check out down there in Narragansett Bay.

Norm
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Re: Prudence Island. Thursday 19th July 2012

Post by NorwayLady »

Thank you Dave for helping us navigate through unknow territory, and thank you Norm for sharing it with all your photos. I only took a couple of photos that day. Too busy trying to learn the compass I guess.

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Bea
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