Sebago Canoe Club -- Opening Day 2014, 4/19/2014

Capsize? Naaaah, that's just Mark B., who I think has taken over the polar roller crown I set down after being told that I have surfer's ear. He's wilder about it than I ever was though, he goes in hoodless and without warming up (or really, cooling down) with a side scull! Intense, dude.

And Ha! I got so excited about my fun fun fun Polar Bear Swim that I almost forgot to write about the weekends' other excellent event - the opening day of Sebago Canoe Club's 80th season (yep, we've been around for a while).

We had glorious weather for the morning paddle, which was a nice leisurely one around Canarsie Pol -- we keep the Opening Day paddle pretty easy because the whole point is for people who maybe haven't been in a boat since October to come out and have a good time. We ended up with a great crowd, started out with 17 and then Derek O. joined us, claiming I'd shamed him into coming out (I swear I just asked him if he was joining us when he turned up in the morning - whatever the reason, nice to have him join us on the water) so we finished with 18. Hey, if your head count has to change between launching and landing, that's definitely the direction you want it to go.

Not too many motorboats out there yet. The brant flocks are probably starting to feel the urge to head north, while the spring birds are arriving, we were hearing the wheet-wheets of oystercatchers everywhere, and as we came around the eastern tip of Canarsie Pol we stayed out good and wide to keep from scaring our resident osprey off of the perch. Their nest is well underway. Oh, speaking of ospreys reminded me of the big soap opera I'd written about earlier in the Spring - Real Ospreys of Jamaica Bay, anyone? - and checked in over at JamaicaBayOsprey.org. Looks like Coley 2 has been forgiven for his tardy arrival and his mate's decided to take him back, but there's still an extra bird hanging around there, so it may not be all settled yet. Oh, the drama!

Lovely paddle, and yes, Mark finally shamed me into a little spring roll action of my own (well, I'd been thinking of it anyways)!

Then it was back to the club for the potluck. Well, actually there was something unusual going on in the basin but that's going to get its own post - so there was the unusual thing and then, woohoo, potluck time!

I'd kind of cracked myself up on Friday when I heard myself tell a co-working that my potluck club was having a kayak - those who know the club will recognize that as actually being pretty appropriate! People from Hawaii who have moved to the mainland make jokes about the paucity of offerings at Mainland potlucks compared the onolicious grindz at an island potluck - Sebago's more after the island model though, we've got some good cooks at the club and there's always a really good spread.

I made my relatively new standby again - this is a nice simple chicken adobo recipe that I found on the Ivory Hut blog. I was so happy to find this, the thing I remember the most fondly from small-kid-time church potlucks at Aiea United Methodists was all the different varieties of chicken teriyaki and adobo all the ladies of the congregation would bring. If they'd ever had a cook-off I don't know how anyone would've judged, they were all delicious.  

So I'm very happy to find that I can make this nod to those days even when work's a little crazy...

and my clubmates seem to appreciate it too. :D

Lunch was finished with this terrific cake from the Couture Cake Boutique, a new business being started up by a friend of one of our club members. She did a great job of duplicating our smiling bear logo, and the cake was delicious.

Another good day at the club. More pictures from the paddle over on Flickr, of course!