Excerpt from Sunday Bonus Escape - Two Swans and a Goat...

or is that a Pterodactyl? 

Clubmate Dotty L. organized an absolutely splendid Bonus Escape for the club on Sunday, which TQ and I were able to attend. It was billed as a Use Up the Leftovers Paddle (paddle followed by a fantastic feast of Thanksgiving leftovers), nota Bonus Escape, but that's what it was for me. It was so lovely that I just couldn't resist a little frolicking, first since my surgery in October and possibly a little foolhardy as I haven't specifically been cleared for kayak frolicking (how do I even explain this to the plastic surgeon who's tending to my reconstruction?), but I was careful, sliding into all of the braces off the back deck, not flinging myself into them, and everything came out OK...

We had 19 kayaks and for a time we were joined by active sailing committee member Pat in his handsome Goat Island skiff, I Am Zenia, Pterodactyl (IamZ,P for short). Pat stayed out lots longer than the rest of us and as he was finally coming back to the dock, he was joined by a pair of mute swans. These are kind of problematic birds - they're not native to this country, they out-compete native waterbirds, and they can be quite nasty (the one with the raised wings was hissing at me, clearly felt that I was invading his turf but fortunately didn't go beyond visual threats and some small-kine talking stink) but...ooooh, look how pretty, especially when accompanying an attractive hand-made wooden boat.

I've posted more pix from the day (plus these ones) on Flickr, click here to see those. No captions but it was a pretty straightforward paddle - we got ready, Dotty gave us a pre-paddle briefing with the game plan, which was to paddle around Canarsie Pol, come back, put boats away, and then eat some good food and drink some good drinks - and then we did that. Unfortunately the dining pix didn't come out well but the time of the bay was beautiful! And if you want a little more backup on the reasons I gave for not being in love with the beeeyootiful schvansies, the New York Times just posted an article that does a nice job of describing how they got here and why they're rather troublesome. Click here to read that.