Pat on the Back

I guess if you keep a blog, you also get to pat yourself on the back occasionally in your blog.

I just received notice that an article I wrote about the new Carolina Kayak Clubs (CKC) experiences starting up this year (as relates primarily to training activities), was published.  I am the current Safety and Training Chair of the CKC.   The article is the first Club contributed article to the American Canoe Associations (ACA) Safety Education and Instruction newsletter "SEI Focus".

See the article here.

What else is new?  Well I'm keeping a look out on the weather here. 

We are going to see some rain and wind as the remnants of Hurricane Ida pass through.  My regular Wednesday early morning paddle just got cancelled for tomorrow.   Luckily all weather will have passed before my Georgia paddling trip next week.  But, the sailing crew of the EYE who left Masonboro towards South Port his morning will likely see lots of rain for the next few days.  They are planning to play it safe and stay inside on the ICW for awhile on their way to Florida.  And, I've been having some fun keeping up the 'Family and Friends' blog.

Everyone's Paddling Georgia

Seems everyone’s paddling the Georgia Coast this fall, including me.

I’ve got one week of vacation left, and I wanted to take a week-long kayaking trip, but being so busy lately, there just hasn't been any time to do proper planning. So I started looking around for trips offered by outfitters who will have done all the planning and logistics.  I've guided short trips before, but never signed on for one myself.  My only requirements were that it be a trip that would provide some challenge, an ocean trip (no beginners allowed), and close enough to home that I could drive and use my own kayak and gear.

I discovered that there was an awful lot trips going on around me, and that I knew and liked all of the players.

My first plan was to join Nigel Law of Savannah Canoe and Kayak on his expedition of the Georgia Coast.  Nigel, with Steve Maynard and John Carmody were my initial BCU 4* instructors years ago, I'd have great fun with him.  But Nigel’s trip was to leave Nov 1, and conflicted with the EYE launch.

Then I found Ronnie and Marsha’s trip at Sea Kayak Georgia. I’ve met, taken classes, and paddled with both of them during a couple of past Barrier Island Kayak symposiums. This trip looked to offer a little of everything, from a couple of long paddles, to a few nights with beach base camping with days of rough water and surf play. This is my trip, and I leave on the 14th.

Another option if your looking around, is another November GA coast trip offered by Sea Kayak Carolina with Tom Nichols who is visitng from Potomac Paddle Sports, running this trip as both a BCU3* and 4* training and assessment.  Tom was my ACA instructor trainer, and is alot of fun to paddle with.

I leave in a week, and now have lots to do to get ready.  Ronnie's itinerary has us paddling a little over 50 miles of the coastline, just short of half.  I'll get a good feel for this coastline, get in some great paddling and skill work, and should have a year to plan my own trip next year paddling the full 110 miles of the coast with friends.

Moving On

Our family spent this past weekend in Hampton VA for the launch of the EYE of the World sailing expedition. It was a fun, exciting, and bittersweet weekend as parents of the crew watched their young men begin their big adventure.

Paul and I were certainly not alone in our feelings of pride, excitement, and also worry, as we talked to Adam’s and Trevor’s parents, all of us in the same boat (pardon the pun) so to speak.  So I hit on an idea to oganize another blog ‘Family and Friends of EYE of the World’, hoping to create a community of support and sharing of information and communication. Still a work in progress, and probably not really ready for prime time, but it's a start and the'll be gone a long time.

Its certainly been a busy month helping Alan get off, but now, it’s time for us to get on with some of our future plans, while Alan begins to live his own.

I’ve got a great kayaking trip planned for in a couple weeks, paddling the coastline of Georgia (I’ll post a bit about this later in the week). Maybe I’ll even see Alan sailing past, timing might be right. And Paul has a bit of work he wants to do on our sailboat ‘Dawn Patrol’.  And we've decided to start planning our own week-long sailing adventure next summer.

Over the last couple years we've become email and blog pals, and fans of Steve who also keeps a sailing blog about his adventures in his own homebuilt Pathfinder sailboat named "Spartina".  Paul and I have often talked about taking a trip like Steve and his sailing partner Bruce have, at the Coast here in NC or in Virginia in the Chesapeake Bay area.  
 
This weekend, Steve came down to the docks to meet us, and check out the EYE's boat.  It was a very fun and comfortable visit.   I'll not post the details as Steve has already done that on his blog in his posting "Crossing Paths, Past and Present".  We even talked about a trip with the 2 boats together.
 

Now time to keep moving on.  I'll be out paddling early tomorrow morning on the Lake, overall fitness and training, and to enjoy the quite and stillness one finds in the early morning on the water.

 

Counting

1 3 7 9 10 3 7 6 9 7 3 5 8 1 2 9 11 16 21 64 87 32 67 2 98 22 100 29 76 39

I’m the type of person who usually looks forward rather than back. I get a lot of pleasure in the planning of things. I also love lists. I love to continually update them, and then check off the items as I’ve finished them. But it’s never occurred to me until just now, that I’d probably also love counting things too. I’m a biostatistician, so I like numbers.

Last year, and again this year, I’ve followed Canadian Ckayaker’s, counting. Last year Michael’s personal challenge was to paddle 100 days in a row. I recall thinking he might have gotten started a bit late, as winter would certainly shut him out, but he did indeed finish.

This year, I’ve noticed he’s tallying again. When I asked him, he said he’s counting the number of paddles he's done this year. I couldn’t help but wonder why I’ve never thought to do that. I’ve always liked having some kind of measuring tool (it’s usually my crossed off lists).

I also have never kept a journal or log of my paddling trips, though certainly my blog has a history over the past 3-4 years. I remember Nigel Dennis telling me how important it was to keep a log of classes I’ve taught and trips I’ve lead, even trips I’ve done solo or with partners. I’m usually too busy afterwards cleaning stuff up, and starting to plan my next adventure. Sometimes the planning begins before the last one is even completed :)

Counting, I can do. I'll think about a log later.

1 3 7 9 10 3 7 6 9 7 3 5 8 1 2 9 11 16 21 64 87 32 67 2 98 22 100 29 76 39

Fall Colors, One Way or Another

I had planned a kayak camping trip up in the N.C. mountains at Lake James State Park with the CKC kayak club this past weekend. This trip was on the calendar for a couple of months, and was timed for fall foliage peak colors . But one by one the fairly large group started to dwindle, until there were only a few of us left earlier in the week, and with weather reports for cold and rain all weekend, we all opted to cancel.

My daughter was planning to join us for a day of paddling. Instead I drove up and visited her (she lives in the area) for the weekend. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful, we took a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a picnic lunch at a scenic overview. Drizzly but not too wet.

Forgot my camera so no great photos, but I did take a cell pic of us to take home. The mountain range in the background speaks to why it's named the Blue Ridge.

No paddling, but pretty busy visiting, driving around, shopping, out to dinner and to a movie, and then a nice jog in the park with Tana and her puppy Quinn on Sunday morning before driving home. It's all good.

Lunch in Oriental

I went back to the coast last weekend feeling the need to paddle some miles. I wasn’t able to find time to paddle the weekend before working the WaterTribe North Carolina Challenge, so I was looking really forward to this.

Lee had organized the trip, and with Barrett, Jay, Abbey and me, our route was planned to take us across the Newport River, up the ICW, camping on the Neuse River, and paddling back down the Harlow Canal on Sunday.

I had hoped we’d see a few nice yachts on the ICW, Snowbirds on their Southern migration, but I think we were a few weeks early. It would have made for a nice roller coaster ride with all the reverberating boat wakes. It was a great paddle none the less. I’d never been on that section of the ICW before.

We left early Saturday morning to beat the tide change and made such good time we opted for a seafood lunch over at Oriental. Fried oyster burgers, delicious! And the weather was perfect.

After lunch and a short walk around the waterfront, we paddled back across the Neuse for a nice camp on a sandy beach. We set up tents then sat around and watched a local fisherman drop his net then take a nap in his boat just a short ways from our camp. Unfortunately we couldn’t see his catch as it was dark when he pulled it in.

The evening offered an absolutely beautiful sunset then a huge bright full moon. Later during the night the wind kicked just a bit and I slept to the sounds of waves breaking on our beach. Just perfect!

On the water in the morning, we paddled and enjoyed the narrow and forested Harlow Canal, much of which borders the Croatan National Forest. When it was all done, we'd paddled about 45 miles, a weekend trip with a bit of everything.

WaterTribe's 2009 N.C. Challenges

I've been very busy.

The inaugural 2009 WaterTribe North Carolina Challenge and North Carolina Ultra Marathon is now one for the record books. A strong cold front over the weekend made the Challenge truly worthy of a WaterTribe event.

The NCC started with 5 sailboats (two solo), 9 kayaks (one double), and 1 sea canoe; the NCUM with 2 sailboats and 2 kayaks.

NCC finishers included 3 sailboats (1 solo) and 5 kayaks (all solo), NCUM finishers were 1 sailboat and 1 kayak. Finishers picture below.

There are lots of great pictures and video’s on the WaterTribe Viewer, and their should be lots of great stories posted on the forum throughout the week, results are here.

Unlike the shark and alligator tooth necklace award one receives in the Florida challenges, the NC challengers received 'Pieces-of-Eight' necklace awards, homage to NC's coastal history of pirates.

I spent the past year planning and organizing this new event with WaterTribe, and then ran it as Race Manager. Quite an interesting job; a big change from being a regular participant, yet certainly a challenge in itself. The weather made for some worry, having my husband and son in the race also added a bit to the emotional roller-coaster, but all the excitement and interest helped make it more fun than work.

We'll make some changes to next year’s event having learned so much this year. Bigger and better. First, we’d like to add a longer option, maybe a 50, 100, and 300 mile concurrent challenges. Special thanks to friends Frank, Maria, and Dave for their help and support over the weekend, and thanks to Chief of WaterTribe for help and support, you all really came through for me.

Now it’s time to get my paddle in the water for some of my own adventures.

And then I need to do some housekeeping on this blog. It seems to have reformatted and re-colored itself a bit. It's time for a new updated look.

Change of Plan

High winds and high surf required a change of plan last weekend. Not deterred from paddling, but outside ocean side was no longer a possibility.

Sunday afternoon was spent paddling on Snow’s Cut off Carolina Beach State Park, and then finding a small cove for some roll practice. Virginia’s finally got it. If you haven’t already seen this video she’s proudly posted everywhere :) here it is. I love the last second showing all the excitement and satisfaction on her face.



Monday we spent the day paddling the backside of Masonboro Island, enjoying the beauty of the salt marsh trails and mazes. We paddled over and looked out Masonboro Inlet and stopped at one point to walk over and check out beach side. Not the trip we planned, but I was happy to be in the salt. We made all the right decisions, we'll just reschedule.

Beach Weekend

Another beach weekend for me!

A play day on the water Sunday with no real plan per se. then a circumnavigation of Pleasure Island on Monday. Sounds a bit naughty. It'll be about 20 miles, half ocean paddling, and lots of tidal current when inside.

Pleasure Island is on the southeastern coast of North Carolina, north of Bald Head Island and Cape Fear, and home to Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher.

It's all part of the plan, paddling up the coast one weekend at a time. This will be trip #2.

Trip #1 trip report here.

YIKES

Alan and Adam continue to work hard on the boat for the big adventure. Not much time left, only a couple months.

Pics below are of Alan on the mast, not what a Mom likes to know about or see.

Check out the adventure at Eye of the World.