Sunday Paddle -

No, I didn't get out of work in time to go paddling yesterday, or today. I think that 100 days of boating thing that a lot of people are setting as a goal isn't one that I could dream of pulling off given my current work situation (busy) and travel from work to the club. Even in the summertime it's a shlep - with a giant bag of winter safety gear, it becomes daunting.

But boy, yes, I went paddling on Sunday!

Now in normal northeastern kayaker chronology, we have theoretically entered Pool Season. The chlorinated fun seems to roll into action in January - during the holidays, we're all just too busy, but once we've cleared New Years...pool time!

It does look like I missed a fun pool session. But I'd looked at the forecast...and mmmm. Weather like this in January is a gift not to be missed if at all possible.

Or as I said to Chalu in my response to his mentioning that I was missed (thanks, though, nice to be missed) - The pool called.

But the bay called louder.

And I was selfish selfish selfish and didn't tell anybody about it. Decided to make it a solo. No, you're not supposed to do that.

But with a forecast like we had, and conditions like this...

(Canarsie Pol around 2)



seguing to this (Canarsie Pol a couple hours later...one of those evenings like the inside of a shell...)


I just couldn't resist.


It was an unusually short paddle for me for the wintertime - just out along the shoreline to the Gil Hodges Bridge and back. Usually with the amount of crap that I have to pack up and put on, I tend to make 'em longer. But OK...I was feeling lazy here on the first non-holiday type weekend in a while. So I gave myself the morning & lazed. In addition, though, I guess that as the winter season stretches on, the packing up of gear that at the beginning of the winter is sort of time-consuming & haphazard (oh, cripes, where's my other good glove, and the lid of my thermos, etc...) gets refined & a lot smoother. By now, I've got everything collected & a lot of the stuff that I stow in the day-hatch (lights, vhf, flares, first aid kit, all that good stuff) just goes from bag to day hatch and back to bag. When I get home again, stuff does come out for washing, drying, charging, whatever - but once whatever is done, mostly it just goes straight back in the bag ready for the next go, instead of making it's way back to the gear shelf in the linen closet. It's still a ton of stuff to haul around on public transportation (you non-city-slickers with your cars, think of me next time you're tossing your gear in the trunk & be glad!), but the organization is a lot better than it was - so the inclination to go for the two or three hour afternoon spin, which I just lose when the gear first starts piling up, starts to slide back in.

Still, sitting under the bridge looking out at the lower harbor and Breezy Point, I did regret not having gotten an earlier start. The temptation to keep going was there.



But I did have some things I had to do at home, so I wheeled under the bridge and headed for home.

Got back to the Paerdegat as the gulls were settling down for the night (say, if a gull that lives by the sea is a seagull...does that make these...er...baygulls?)

and the sunset just got more and more amazing. "Pool"? What is this "pool"?

Back in the Paerdegat - I know it's late for festively decorated boats now, but the lights on the Holiday Yacht (shoot, why didn't I think to get out & check for a name??? - next time maybe!) were reflecting so perfectly. So here it is. Only thing disturbing the reflections were the ripples off my bow.

Fabulous 2nd paddle of 2008!