Here's Kayak Boy working his way across the ice sheet at the mouth of the Paerdegat -
and there goes Stevie, oochin' along towards open water...
oops...well, maybe not so VERY open! This was on the far side of Ruffle Bar - funny, we came around the island and all of the sudden, there it was.One might say we were stopped cold!
nyuck nyuck nyuck!
It was windy, too, and getting back across the ice sheet in the basin was even MORE interesting, because when you stopped, the wind would slide you back. It was funny, too - I'd paddled the downwind leg, out to Ruffle Bar, with my Greenland paddle (handmade by Jack Gilman) - coming back into the wind, I finally switched back to my Euro (I know a lot of people think that's just where you need a GP - personally, I just find the more positive "bite" of the Euro to be reassuring - it's funny, I think a lot of it really is mental, just using the paddle I'm better at using makes me feel stronger) - but then when we got back to the ice, out came the GP - far better suited to crunching along through the ice! Glad Jack made it stout. Paddle tip's kinda fuzzy now. That'll be a good story to tell in the summer.
OK, I know Stevie's taking my picture here and I'm exaggerating - but you really did have to do a little spearing to break through. Eventually it just got too thick & that's when the knuckle-walking started. Anyways - it's lots colder today, a glimpse of J-Bay from the Belt Parkway yesterday showed a lot more ice, the ice band sealing off the basin was more visible from the dock, it's not supposed to go over 20 degrees f/-6 c today and, oh, let's go check out the marine forecast...
NEW YORK HARBOR-
1022 AM EST MON FEB 19 2007
LOW WATER ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON
GALE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON
THIS AFTERNOON
NW WINDS 20 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 35 KT...BECOMING
W 15 TO 20 KT. WAVES 2 TO 3 FT. TIDES RUNNING 2 TO 2 1/2 FT BELOW
MLLW WILL CAUSE LOW WATER PROBLEMS DURING LOW TIDE.
Yeah! Really cold, basin ice-locked, way more ice on the bay, lots of wind, and on top of all that, that low-water business, applied to Jamaica Bay, means no water in an AWFUL lot of the bay! Just lots of ice left high & dry. Guess I won't go paddling today!
We had a sea kayak committee meeting yesterday at Sebago, a number of us had gone to Greenwich for the pool session & got back with time to spare. JH and I had wandered out to the dock, and we'd noticed that the water was freakishly low - new moon was the night of the 17th, but this was extreme. Spring tide + high wind = floating dock that may be at least touching bottom on the inshore side!
Looking down at the dock from above -
Looking up the ramp from the dock. Amazing pitch - way steeper than normal. I wouldn't have come down here if there's been ice on the ramp!
Looking back towards the clubhouse, surrounded by slick & icy crusted snow.
Sailing dinghies, waiting for spring...
a beautiful winter sunset at Sebago.
Speaking of beautiful sunsets, it's about as bad a paddling day as I can imagine - but it's absolutely stunning out there & as I've been uploading these pictures, I've been gradually layering up. Can't stay inside on this vacation day - it's the perfect day for a Coney Island/Brighton Beach stroll. Outside, yet never more than a few minutes from a nice hot pierogie. Perfect!
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