Bay Campus to Bonnet Shores

Half of the fun of paddling is the company you keep! My long commute makes it difficult to judge my arrival time. When I got to the Bay Campus at 9:20 no one was there. Was I at the right place? Had we moved to a winter start time of 11? The weather was nice so I jumped on the trampoline of a beached hobie cat and laid in the sun to wait. Along came Tony (great I was in the right place). Then Tim (it was his paddle) excusing himself for not being at the launch site hours earlier. Before long Bob, Rich, Carole, Eric and Heather had arrived and eight, the perfect size in my opinion, were ready to launch. Where were “the others”? It was a perfect day.

Our goal was to explore the west shore and Bonnet Cove which we usually ignore in the summer. We poked along the rocks, all eight of us looking for that sense of adventure seeing just how small or shallow or rough a spot we were comfortable putting our 17 foot boats. Tony had his sit on top up in the air on the rocks. He just hopped out and put it back in the water. I lodged mine on a bed of barnacles. (Less gel coat makes boat lighter.) The water was so clear. One of the advantages of late season paddling.

Bonnet shores was virtually deserted. Two people, two dogs was all there was. The waves were very small but that didn’t stop us from trying to surf. Unfortunately we were missing some of the surfing wanabees (you know who you are). It was a perfect opportunity to catch your first wave. Just enough push to say you surfed a wave. Nothing scary and nice sand when you ran up on the beach. Tim and Eric chose to do their surfing backwards. Tim was proficient. Eric has so little buoyancy in the back of his Q-boat that he managed to bury his stern and roll over a few times. Then he had it working for a few rides until he backed his boat up over Bob’s and into his lap. It was quite entertaining.

We lunched a bit further south. The considerate paddlers brought AND SHARED their tea. (Thank you.) The best we could do for cookies was very hard ginger snaps. Funny thing is, that cookie brought back childhood memories in about half of us.

After lunch there was some call for Whale Rock. (Only because it’s there.) But the group poked around a bit and headed back. The wind was from the west so it really wasn’t pushing us as we would have liked. At the Bay Campus there was a infectious break out of kayak rolling. Tim, wet from rolling, volonteered to swim so I could get the feel for paddling with someone hanging off my bow. This was a rescue that I was uncomfortable performing in the surf a few weeks earlier. It was a bit de-stabilizing. I would still like to try it in a gentle surf some day so I know what to expect. I also tried to paddle with Tim hanging off my stern. The result was similar. Paddling in both cases is very slow. Finally we put Tim on my back deck. I can’t imagine how we’d ever get someone large up there in the surf but, the boat moved much faster without the drag of a body in the water.

The day ended with coffee at a local coffee shop and then dinner and a nice visit with my daughter. A very relaxing way to spend a Sunday. 10/15/06