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!
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