Hello Everyone, tomorrow July 28th, I will finish my three month kayak trip in the Baltimore Inner Harbor! I plan to paddle in at about 12pm. If you are in the area, please come and say hello.
Location etc. to follow.
Second To Last Day
6.23.08
Sorry I have been so lax in updating this blog the last week or so (basically since I got to the Chesapeake Bay) it’s just that I haven’t had great cell phone service and when I have it seems like I have been really busy, it has been quite an interesting few days. First of all, I had the most amazing time on Smith Island, I learned so much there about the Chesapeake Bay. I think I had crabs for almost every meal… soft, caked or steamed. It was so great to hang out with Phil. We paddled a canoe which man I stink at. I never would have made this trip in a canoe. Phil kept yelling at me to stop leaning. Next I paddled to Hooper Island, where I got stuck in a thunderstorm. It seems as though I have been stuck in a storm almost every night this week. At least at this point I had researched what to do in an electrical storm. I felt a little safer because I had the knowledge and knowing is half the battle.
The next day my aunt and uncle came down from Pennsylvania. I had my first on the water company which was great. My uncle paddled with me for a couple of days and it was nice because I was talking but not to myself for once. I was having a hard time keeping up with him, he is must faster then I am. On Sat, it was my father’s birthday. He came down from Baltimore with my sister and mother. Then his grandmother, (my great grandmother) came up from Chincoteague with my great aunt. It was quite a reunion! We had lunch and I hadn’t seen my father since March so that was great. My great grandmother is one of my biggest fans, she follow my blog very closely.
I came out to James Island and camped here Sat night. Yesterday when I woke up I felt like relaxing. Since I had a nice hammock set up I decided to stay for the day. I swam, read and made a feast. I should be Annapolis Tuesday afternoon and then hang out for a day. I am giving my self plenty of time, I am in no rush. I love not having to do 30 miles a day and I love being able to lounge. I know I need to upload pictures; I haven’t had a Wi-Fi connection so I will continue to look for one. When I get to a computer I will upload more info about Smith Island… what a cool place, I learned so much. It will be an easy day about 20 miles to where I am headed. More to come!
The details from a couple exciting days since crossing the mouth of the Bay:
Ok lets see.....
After touching the shore of SE VA on at Kiptopeke SP on thursday afteroon I was in a tremendously good mood. The folks at the park had been firm in stating that I was not allowed to beach my kayak if I wanted to camp with them ( I asked whether they were encouraging me to drive in instead to which I didn't get a response) so I paddled very leisurly for a couple more hours staying right off the beach. There were no creeks or inlets to duck into but I didn't mind camping there right under the sandy cliffs and I found a nice little spot between two big fallen trees that would provide a little break from the wind, hide me a little, and prevent morning walkers from strolling by. It was an un-eventful but pleasent night and the next morning I got up ready to paddle what I expected to be 5-6 miles to Cape Charles where I planned to visit South East Expeditions, a kayak/kite surfing shop owned by Dave Burden the brother of Sarah who helped me out in SC, to get some local knoweldge. Turns out I was already in Cape Charles because in ten minutes I had come to their little harbor. I realized why I had been getting looks from passing boats, they probably had never seen anyone camp there before. HERE IS THE SPOT.
Anyhow, I found Dave's shop which was nice and spent awhile talking to John who I suspect is from England (or Australia - I didn't ask) who gave me lots of good information. He did confirm my suspicion that the general attitude to camping along the beach is not a favorable one. Oh well. I spent a few hours poking into their little boutique shops and getting coffee/lunch and generally being a tourist. They were having a Schooner festival the next night (Sat) so I admired some tall ships that had already come in. By the time that I got back underway it was like 1 oclock and I had only gone about a mile earlier. I didn't have much motivation that afternoon either and I took full advantage of the Eastern Shore's ample kayak "rest stops" to relax and just Enjoy. I was feeling very glad that I spent the time and effort to get over here because it was perfect paddling. Very calm wind, I stuck close to shore and admired big empty patches of marsh, all the usual suspects of shore birds, rays, crabs and some nice houses up on the banks. It was just a very relaxing afternoon. Towards dusk my lucky timing once again struck and as I paddled past a large group of kids playing in the water their mother yelled out an offer of a cold beverage for a spin in my kayak. She was probably just kidding but I took her up on it imediatly before she could retract and just like that I was sitting in one of their lounge chairs sipping a rum and coke while she took the Steiner Liner for a little cruise. It was the first time in 2 and a half months that someone else besides myself has paddled my boat. After she was done we let each of the kids (ages 6-10) play in it too. I was so impressed that these little guys were able to maneuver it so well. The best one was the oldest boy, Jordan, who I'm ashamed to say handled the boat better then I do. It turned out two families had rented the place for the weekend and had come over from Virginia Beach. They didn't believe me at first when I said that I had come from Miami and insisted that I had to have a vehicle close by. They ended up feediing me a big plate of spagetti and let me camp there in their yard. It ended up working out well since I had just been warned that morning about camping along the beach.
Saturday I woke up early after something ( I suspect a pine cone) slamed into my poor little tent (I suspect a child with a good arm) and got on the water as soon as I could. It was another fantastic day and I decided there is no reason to push it so I moved along at a reasonable but certainly not aggresive pace. At one point I was saddened to see a large sea turtle washed up, still completly intact except for a large slit down its shell, presumably from a ship. I also learned about a frustrating trap for paddlers here on the eastern shore. When attempting to follow the shore you have to be very careful of marshy bays that you have to back-track out of. For almost the entire length of the ICW I was able to get by using eyeball navigation and perhaps I picked up some bad habits but twice on saturday I got suckered into areas that proved to be dead ends. These impeneratrable marsh walls seem to appear out of nowhere bc they are so low and I still don't carry binocs. Its particulary frustrating to when, like Sat, there is a tail wind and you're crusing and then you have to turn around and paddle back into the wind to get around the jutting laing. and its particularly embarrising when you pass a good sized riviera and wave and say hi to all the shirtless dudes and girls in bikinis and then 5 minutes later you are paddling back in the other direction. I don't know if that makes sense or not to you all but regardless its something I'm going to be more careful of.
Ok, and then the day got interesting. The plan that I had made in my head was to set my self up for a nice, straight-shot open water crossing to Smith Isl on Sunday so I stopped for the night at the tip of IIIIIIIIIIIIIIii so that I wouldn't end up paddling FARTHER from Smith. The little spit of land I selected wasn't like the ideal camp spot but I could have been fine, I've definitely stayed in stranger places along the way. Well it wasn't until I had finished cooking dinner and getting ready to through up the tent right at dusk did I hear over the weather radio that there was a rapidly growing storm that was going to be headed directly for me. I was being stubborn maybe but I was very reluctant to paddle somewhere "safer" so I decided just to hunker down and ride it out. Well it was only like 1.5 hours till high tide and I had at least 10 feet of sand between me and the water so I figured it could be close but I would be fine. I positioned the boate inbetween my tent and the water thinking that might help a little if the water did actually rise. It did, and my little breakwall didn't help. First the storm brought strong winds which pulled out most of my stakes - they don't tend to hold very well in sand - and lots of cloud to cloud lightning. The winds filled up my tent with pounds of sand and put a nice coating on EVERYTHING. I was sure that my tent was going to blow away with me in it. Then as it began to rain the lightning began to struck the ground/water. I'm not one that gets nervous in storms and have never really been worried about lightning but my tent being the highest thing in a large sourounding area I got a little anxious. I wasn't sure whether aluminum tent poles attract lightning or not but I felt pretty sure that I was going to get struck. And then my tent gets smacked by my boat. The water had already risen high enough to move it about 4 feet up the beach and hit my feet (yes, it was tied to something so it couldn't float off). I moved my tent back as far as I could which was not much farther and got back inside right as the rain began to pound. It was almost midnight and I was exhausted so despite all this excitment and my nervousness I fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later and the storm had mostly passed it was just raining lightly and I felt very fortunate. It was without a doubt the worst weather I have had yet - I cant remember ever seeing so much lighning associated with one storm.
Wow this is a long update already and there's still 2 more days to catch up on. Its funny, I'm here on Smith Isl and a very similar storm is coming through as I type this. Tis the season I guess. I'm glad I'm in the safety of a house this time. I was warned that we might loose power and I don't want this long update to be lost so the second half of this update will come once the storm
I am here on the good side!
I made it to the Eastern shore of Virginia, no longer on the western side. It’s all down here from here; I am in a really good mood. I got stopped by a police boat in the beginning of the day. There were hover craft doing tests for beach landing exercises. The police told me that the guys flying the hover crafts couldn’t see me and told me that he needed to tow me. I didn’t want him to tow me because I had come so far. So I went out of my way a little bit out of the course I was intending to take because I wanted to make it on my own. I went 25 miles so here I am! Tons of dolphins and sting ray today!
End of the Intracoastal!!
Monday was a big big milestone. I completed the intracoastal. I came to Norfolk and I felt like a little teeny ant amongst a variety of huge ships. I was a little disappointed I couldn’t see the “mile 0” marker. I wanted to take a picture as a memento. I heard there was one on the there but after looking and looking I couldn’t find it. I paddled along the port and around the piers and saw a ton of boats, container ships, a naval yard, huge Navy boats, aircraft carriers and cruise ships. I rounded the corner to go under the bridge to Hampton a submarine passed me. I saw just about everything coming through Norfolk, it was very lively. The cruise ship I saw was followed by a couple of police boats; they kept following me around, maybe because of my packed kayak and creepy beard? Yesterday, I set out to try cross the mouth of the river to, following the bridge over to Cape Charles. I didn’t get that far though before I felt a little apprehensive. I sat at the mouth of Little Creek and tried to make up my mind; it was HOT yesterday, near record temperatures. The part that got me worried though was the visibility it was really hazy from the heat and the south wind we had from the last couple of days had blown the smoke from the south Carolina forest fires up here and I couldn’t see more then a mile. I was at the mouth of Little Creek and couldn’t see the bridge. I was worried about getting run over once I get out there because I had been told that most guys put their boats on auto-pilot and I am going to cross the shipping channel about half way along. I am in no rush… I have plenty of time to cross the bay. It’s about 8am now. I am going to give it another try right now. I will let you know how it goes, I will keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed as it’s a big crossing. Tons of pictures, next time I get to a Wi-Fi spot I will upload them…
I stayed on Al and Mary’s boat again last night. They are amazing, they have done so much to ensure the success of this trip, and I can’t thank them enough!
Great Dismal Swamp/Norfolk
Here it is on Sunday and I have emerged from the Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina and (very very nearly) the Intracoastal Waterway.
The last two days coming through the canals/locks have been a complete change from the Albemarle region and certainly a grand adventure. I just wish that it hadn't been record setting temperatures. When I got up to the visitor center on friday it was like 5:05 and all the girls were just locking up to go home for the weekend so I didn't get to check out their little center. I was able to step inside the cool, AC filled restrooms to freshen up and take a little break from the heat. When they told me the day before that I would have no problem tying up they must not have realized how low a kayak sits on the water bc I had to literally climb up the 5 foot dock to get ashore. I had been hoping that they had something a little lower so that I would have been able to get into my hatches because I had nothing edible left in my cockpit or deck bag and I was starving. (side note: I used to always say when I was hungry that I was starving but I think I've actually experienced that sensation a few times on this trip. When my body is eating away at itself because I'm burning many more calories then I can take in. This was one of those times). Anyhow, instead I had a lovely vending machine snack and then headed back out to find the feeder ditch that would take me to my intended campsite for the night.
The canal inside the locks is maintained at 6 ft. by Lake Drummond. Connecting the 2 is a feeder ditch that is about 3.5 miles long. Just about at the very end of the ditch is a recreational area overseen by the army corp of engineers which they call "the reservation" and that is where I camped for the night. CLICK HERE TO SEE THAT LOCATION. There's not much there except for a few outhouses, a very cool electric trolley that will take your boat/kayak over to spillway, and 2 screened pavilions. Those were a livesaver. You can imagine being in a swamp how bad the bugs must have been. Not only was it incredibly hot and humid but there was zero air flow. I took full advantage of the screened areas to cook, organize my things, and make a plan for the next day. It was so hot that I sweated right through the night even in a mesh top tent, with no shirt on and, of course, no sleeping bag that night. It was nice being the only one there and there were a few outlets in the laddies latrine that I found worked so I was able to plug in my phone and some auxiliary batteries too.
Saturday morning I was moving slow and by the time I got all my things together and packed the kayak back up it was 930 and I realized I hadn't left myself much time to make the 130 Deep Creek Lock opening which was a little over 15 miles away. The water in the canal is totally flat with no current so I could paddle 4-4.5 mph easily but it was hard to maintain that pace in the heat. I was sweating like I never have before. The air was so thick and humid in that canal that it was like paddling in a sauna. I couldn't take in enough water, I was stopping to drink every 10-15 minutes it seemed like. I tried my hardest to stay along the east side of the canal and get any shade I could, the only problem being that there are so many overhanging limbs and submerged obstacles along the side that it makes it tough. I pushed it as hard as I could and reached the lock right on time, bc he was running the southbound traffic first I really even had a few minutes to spare and I slipped under the low bascule bridge and got right up in place while a little nordic tug-looking thing that had passed me miles back sat waiting for it to open. The Deep Creek lock tender couldn't have been nicer and we chit chatted while he lowered me down about 7-8 feet and he brought me out an ice cold pepsi because he said it "looked like I desperately needed something cold to drink." He couldnt have been more right. I rarely drink soda, and I normally never would while I was paddling but that was one delicious pepsi and it saved the day. I felt totally drained at that point, and I was to find out later that the record high for june 7th in norfolk was set yesterday at 99.
When I got out of the lock it was like dorothy stepping out of her house into color after the twister. What a change! Whereas I had seen a total of 4 other boats in the canal on emerging I was immediately surrounded by at least 20 wave runners. Back and forth. They never seem to go anywhere exactly, they just stick within a little 1 mile range zipping around, hooting and hollering, and putting up bath-tub wake. That was when I realized that I had just about had it for the day. I called a really nice fellow named Al who had contacted me and offered a place to crash and we arraigned to meet at a public ramp another 4-5 miles up north. I am so luck that he was able to help me out because I was completely worn out. It also meant that I didn't have to worry about paddling through the Norfolk harbour while tired and with the tall ship festival going on.
Al and his wife Mary helped get me all fixed up last night. I had a nice big dinner, an unbelievable shower (it felt so good to get 4 days of sweat and river/canal water off me) and played with their awesome dog Pandit before crashing hard for the night. I took advantage of their generous offer to lay low for a day to hang out in some AC, hit the grocery store to resupply, and do a little planning. I'm 90% sure I have a good strategy figured out for tomorrow but it could all change at a moments notice. We'll see what happens. I've really enjoyed meeting Al, Mary, their son Chris who was nice enough to cart me around today, and hearing Al's great stories about his own adventure up the ICW with his daughter as his first mate. THANK YOU GUYS!
BTW I'm really glad I decided to go the Dismal Swamp route. It really was an experience. Not only is it the oldest waterway in the country (1784) but it was surveyed in part by George Washington, was a hide out along the banks for freed slaves, has the only joint highway/waterway visitor center in the country, and is listed on the registry of national historic places. I did hear a lot before I started about its tranguility and that's true I guess in parts but it does basically run parallel to rt 17 so there is a lot of car/motorcycle noise which is strange. From what I've read though many cruisers are scared of the canal bc of the many horror stories of broken props and snagged mast heads so the ones that do run it are part of a special little group. Plus not every boat can - you have to draw 5 ft or less. I would like to consider myself part of that group now.
Oh, so I didn't even mention: I'm not done with the ICW yet. I took out at about mile 4. So unless there is a VERY LARGE unforeseen problem tomorrow morning will be another milestone in the trip and I will leave the ICW behind. Its very exciting (to me).
Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter but on the bay there should at least be a breeze.
“Lock it up”
After a great stay in Elizabeth City I ventured farther north today to the Great Dismal Swamp, woke up and the day seemed fitting because there was blanket of fog over the city, it was thick, I figured that it wouldn’t be very hot until it lifted. As I was getting ready this morning, I pulled a real bone-head move, I accidentally put my GPS and the spot locater in the water … kind of a long story, bottom line, it happened. I am an idiot. I found out that my Spot locater floats but the GPS apparently does not. I was tied up at the ramp and I saw exactly where it fell so I was able to wade in, walk down to the ramp and try to find it. I had to getn up to my shoulders in the beautiful, brown Pasquatank River before I could locate it. Fortunatly I was able to do so with my feet and I brought it to the surface like I was collecting sand dollars so I didn't have to go under with my head.
It wasn’t the best way to start the day but Im just glad that I recovered it. Coincidently, I haven’t dropped anything in the water in two months, not one single thing, yet here at the Pelican Marina I nearly lost 2 things to the river. The night before while trying to board Josh, the dock master's boat, my croc (shoe) slipped off and immediately began to drift away. Without a net handy I could only watch it disappear into the night. I tend to have the best luck with these sort of things though so the next morning when I took a walk I found that it had floated in about a 1/4 mile down the road. It would have sucked to only have one croc left - they are the best paddling shoes.
Anyhow, what they say about Elizabeth city is entirely true: the people are so kind, generous and hospitable. Everyone I met welcomed me so warmly and was excited to teach me about their town and make sure I enjoyed my time there.
I felt very fortunate to be able to stay on Dave’s boat. He is the photographer for the coast guard. His boat, "puffin," he got in a most unusual way. He actually got it for free from a fellow off Craigslist who just wanted to see it go to a good home.
Dave's slip neighbor (whose also named Dave, but goes by Hippie Dave) is a live aboard and certainly one of the most interesting people that I have met along the way yet. He's in the early phases of constructing a dingy of his own design out of discarded water bottles, vinyl duct tape, solar panels and an electric motor. I saw the plans and it looks quite impressive. He'll call it the Solar Gondola. I'm glad I was able to contribute a couple of empty bottles to the project.
The manager and dock master of the marina, Josh, was a big help as well. He is very enthusiastic and couldn't have been more accommodating to me. I can tell he is great with all of his customers and very fun to hang out with. I highly recommend if you are going to Elizabeth city (which is the thing to do) to go the Pelican Marina, they are great. I can’t wait to stop back there my next time through.
This picture here on the left was taken by Dave (my generous host) a few weeks ago. I loved it because it looks exactly like it did this morning.
So back to the swamp, don’t let the name deceive you, the name sounds scary but it’s actual quite beautiful and tranquil. It is very hot and muggy, well at least it is today. I feel like I am in the rain forest, I am baking. I missed the 1pm lock opening only by a little bit, but once I got up there and radioed to the tender he opened it got me through early so I didn't have to wait till 330. You are supposed to have two lines -bow and stern- to keep you against the side while the strong currents from the quickly filling lock try to move you. I only carry one and the lock master wasn’t too psyched about that so he gave me his dock-line stick to use to hang on to the wall. It worked fine I locked up about 8 feet or so and now I am on the other side and I’m going to cruise up here to the visitor center and then hopefully find some place to camp. That’s the plan for the rest of the day. Have a great Friday everyone!
Good bye Albermarle Sound
It feels good to have Albermarle Sound past me and be in the Pasquotank River. It was an adventure yesterday, but it went really well. It took me from 9am until 2pm or so. It wasn’t too bad, the wind died down and from 12 – 2 it was relatively calm. I have been thinking about crossing this sound for the past couple of days now, it’s been in the back of my mind and I was anxiously anticipating it. I had heard scary stories about it. It really was just a mental thing; paddling yesterday wasn’t that much physically harder then any other day. Yesterday coming out of the sound, I saw this huge building in the distance, I saw it for hours. Turns out it was a blimp storage facility. It’s one of the largest buildings in the world.
Here in Elizabeth city now. They have a big public dock here downtown. They greet each cruiser with a rose and a wine and cheese party. They are a very generous town. I explored a bit yesterday and talked to a nice fellow Dave who offered his boat for the night. This was great. Tomorrow I will start my way up to Great Dismal Swamp which won’t take that long. Hopefully in about 2 days here I will reach the end of the waterway which will be a huge milestone. Hopefully I will have fun going through the swamp tomorrow.
6.4.08
I crossed Pamlico where the jelly fish were still crazy! I will update tonight so look for new pictures tomorrow. It was a beautiful morning; I had a bad camping spot the night before so I was on the water very early saw the sunrise. It felt like a big stretch the water was still and looked like it was frozen. , came up the middle of the Pungo river, could see a mile an a half to either side, I was out there all by myself, it was gorgeous. I pulled right into Bell Haven, was trying to get some supplies. I got some local advice which I am glad I did because I have a tough stretch coming up. Got a great lunch at this place called farm boys it was the most hoppin place in town. I met a guy named Mike and his juvenile Macaw Einstein. He let me borrow his bike. I used it to go down to the town and get some groceries. It started to get really blow so I ended up staying in Bell Haven, moved my boat around to Riverside Marina and ended up staying there in their dock house. There I met Keith who is coincidently he was on the second day of a bicycle trip, you can find out more about the trip on his website: (link to site) Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page! It was cool because I actually felt like I had advice to give him because he was just starting.
Got a pretty good start the next day after some Sunday breakfast, went further down the Pungo there was a huge Redneck Riviera. I talked to them and I wanted to get out and have a beer but I kept going because I knew camping spots are sparse through the area. Low and behold I got a killer camping spot, so much better then I had anticipated. I will upload a picture, it was gorgeous. It was right on the shore, tons of pine needles. Supposedly there are brown bears in the area but I didn’t meet any. Met a huge deer, climbed a huge deer stand and had a great evening.
The next day I didn’t want to leave (Monday) so I made breakfast and slow start and took my time packing up. I finally got going around 9:30am. I immediately wished I had got an earlier start because the weather report was dead wrong. The wind was flowing north not southwest as the report had predicted, NOAA seems to be wrong a lot of the time. I got up to the Alligator River; somehow the wind was still right in my face… it made for some of the worst paddling conditions. 1-2 foot chop coming straight at you in open water. My boat comes up and over the first hard into the second wave. It totally kills your speed and its draining to do that all day long for 5 or 6 hours, the up and down, you get soaked (event though I have my skirt on) it’s very tiring and if you stop paddling, the water pushes you back. The banks are impenetrable in this area. The cypress trees make cypress swamps. The old cypress trees that used to grow on the shore, so although the trees have died, the stumps and knees (roots) are still there. You can’t see them but if you get too close to shore, my paddle hits them or my boat hits them and some are very sharp. That have died and fallen down have left their stumps 40 feet out of from the shore and it’s like a mine filed. Even if you try to get close to shore it is pretty tough and I was really getting frustrated. Finally about 8:45 that night I got into the marina.
Later, a green 36 foot sail boat called the Transom that I have been noticing for a while, invited me for dinner. As I was changing, they left me a note on my boat saying they had noticed me as well and invited me to dinner on their boat with their cat named Mr. Mischief. They served me some fantastic goulash and we exchanged stories. Its funny, I have noticed that a lot of these cruisers have cats instead of dogs because it’s easier. They clean themselves and they aren’t interested in jumping into the water.
My body hurt badly from the past couple days, especially from the rough day yesterday. I have been contemplating which way to go because the waterway splits; there are two waterways from here up to Norfolk. I am about 80 miles from the end so I am in a pretty good mood! Tomorrow will be the most open water yet, it will be about 20 miles across. I decided to go up to Elizabeth City, its more scenic and pretty. It is going to be a big day; I am planning on leaving early and get going first thing.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Fish
Yesterday I came out of Oriental, it was awesome. I headed north and I pretty much paddles all day heading east of the Neuse River. As I went through the sound, there was nothing out there, it felt like the ocean. I stopped and had some lunch at a beachy point around broad creek. I paddled until I got to the bay river and found a little cut there. There were very limited places to camp. All day today I saw soo many jelly fish. The night before at the silo barn I had been warned by a diver that the jelly fish were crazy right now and he told me I would see tons of them, well he was right, I must have seen 1000 jelly fish. I don't think there as any time that I looked and didn't see one. These weren't the jelly balls, they were the fish, they were white or purple with tenticles and I knew it was a matter of time before I got stung and sure enough one got wrapped around my paddle and bit me. I was testing my luck after seeing a few good camping spots that afternoon, thinking I would be able to find something better. I was wrong though and ended up having to camp at an awful spot at the end of the road. It was so buggy. the bugs were just out of control, they somehow infiltrated my tent just as I was about to get in for the nigth. It's about 6:30am now (Sat. 5.31.08) I'm heading up to bell haven.
(More to come, including locations...)
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