It is already August and I hadn't been out to paddle around Wye Island once. - it was time to correct that. I tried to corral all the regulars for a Saturday Wye Island Practice Paddle, but no one could do it and the weather didn't cooperate anyway, as big time thunderstorms rolled through that morning. But it turns out that I had taken Monday off because of Carole's cousins being in town, but the weather gods and the visitor gods both decided to give me a break - I had Monday open to paddle.
Since it would be a solo paddle, and since I still don't have much "textured" water time with the new boat, I packed up all the gear: spare paddle, paddle float, pump, VHF radio, glasses strap, sponge, water, etc. If I was going to fall out of the boat, I was ready. However, the weather forecast was for light winds out of the west, with temperatures in the low 90's - water conditions didn't appear to be very challenging. It turns out the most challenging part of the paddle was the lack of water in the boat.
After the traditional 7-11 coffee and a muffin stop, I was crossing the Bay Bridge by 0730 and looking down at a slightly rippled Chesapeake Bay. By 0800 I was pulling into the Wye Landing boat ramp area, where every parking spot and every bit of space along the side of the road was taken up by pickup trucks with attached trailers - I'm always amazed at how many people are out fishing and crabbing on "work" days, sorta forgetting that for many of them fishing or crabbing is work. Luckily you can usually find room to park a car (or truck) without a trailer at Wye Landing and that I did.
I started unloading the gear onto the small beach next to boat ramp and watched sympathetically as a dad sweated unsuccessfully trying to get an outboard motor started, while his teen-aged sons looked on in disgust and his younger son kept saying cheerfully "Look, their engine started! Look, his boat doesn't even need an engine! Is our boat ever going to get started?" I remember being a little kid watching my father pulling the cord on our first outboard engine - however, the look on my father's face and the curses he was mumbling under his breath convinced me not to say a word back then. Ah, the old Chinese saying: may you be cursed to depend on outboard engines.
I finally got underway by about 0830 and started the usual counterclockwise loop around Wye Island on smooth waters under a cloudless sky. It was already hot and the water temperature was in the 80's, making paddling feel even warmer, but I was riding the outbound tide on calm water with no wind and the paddling felt effortless. Right before I went under the bridge, the boat with the cranky outboard passed me with everyone on board looking a lot happier.
One of my goals is to get more comfortable in the Marlin in rougher water but there was very little wind and nothing but ripples on the water for the first three or four miles. After the bridge, the boat traffic started to pick up so I worked on taking all the wakes dead on the beam. That worked fine for all the recreational wakes but eventually a big time crabbing boat went by and these two foot high, steep pitched wakes started heading at me. When they hit I immediately felt squirrelly and went into deer in the headlights, paddling for survival (vs. propulsion) mode but made it through. That wasn't very confidence inspiring, so when I reached the Wye River I wasn't sure I wanted to take the usual line which involved crossing the wide part of the river. There wasn't much wave action but there were a lot of working boats chugging up and down the river, so I decided to stay on the island side.
What I forgot was that meant I would be taking the diminished boat wakes from my right but then getting the rebounds from the shore on my left. That turned out to be a nice practice session and I handled it pretty well, so after a few minutes I headed across the river to the Western shore and had no problems. As I headed south on the river I was still riding the outgoing tide and the slight breeze was on my side, providing more effortless paddling as I quickly reached the turn at Bordely Point to start heading up the Wye East River. Once I headed east, I was now going against the tide, and the slight breeze lost its cooling effect since it was now at my back - I immediately realized how hot it was. I saw a "new" bald eagle along this stretch and several mandatory herons - but no cownose rays, I guess they have moved on for the summer.
At the 8 mile mark, I stopped paddling to take a drink and in one gulp drank about 90% of the water I had with me, and I really wanted to drink the last few ounces - oops. There was now a slight swell coming from behind me and boat wakes from the right, so I got to practice some boat control and pretend I was actually surfing the swells. A leisure trawler passed me and started heading the wrong way into one of the coves on the mainland side, while I followed the correct path along the river. They turned around and passed me again, then they started to head towards the Island side at a point where it is hard to tell where the river actually goes.
Here I made a GPS-assisted navigational error. Since the boat had been wrong before, I sort of assumed they were heading the wrong way, even though I had been intending on going in that same direction. So I paged through my GPS display to the map page. It looked like I should head more south to follow the river, so I did. However, I quickly had the "this doesn't look right feeling" after about a 1/4 mile of paddling, so I looked at the GPS map display again and realized that the little arrow that indicated my current position and heading was pointing at a 45 degree angle to the actual track path I was on. When this happens it means the Garmin magnetic compass is confused and has to be re-calibrated - the track plot shows the actual direction you are heading, while the arrow points to a bogus heading. (To calibrate, you have to spin around in a circle three times and I wasn't about to do that - I should have done it before I started) Turns out I was heading into Quarter Cove - which is one of the things the Wye Regatta race directions specifically tell you not to do since it is such a common mistake.
So, after about a .6 mile detour I was back on the right path and starting to feel hot and thirsty. At about the 11 mile mark I finished off my last gulp of water and ate a granola bar but I started feeling impacts of not having done many long paddles this year (I've done mostly 6-8 milers so far) and the lack of water - I was stupid to only bring 16 ounces along on a 90 degree sunny, humid day but I had been too lazy to fill up the Camelbak or go back in the house to get the bigger jug. So, for the next two miles I slogged along panting like a dog, dropping down into low angle barely paddling mode every now and then and releasing the spray skirt to try to cool down. If you look at the speed plot, at about mile 12 I basically bonked and was barely averaging 3 mph. Once I saw the boathouse that says you are nearing the final .5 mile, I forced myself to pick it back up again and got back to the launch ramp with 13.6 miles on the clock. After the usual "reverse launching" I was on my way back home to gulp down some liquids.
I think I could paddle Wye Island every week and never get tired of it - assuming I carry enough water, that is. Each side of the island is different and nothing ever seems to look the same two paddles in a row. I ended up averaging 5 mph, dragged down by the snail-like pace of the last 2 miles. Googleified map below, note the detour into Quarter Cove on the lower middle. You can also see the Motionbased summary of the trip here.
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