Waterlines -- A Sea Kayaking Journal, Penobscot Bay, Maine

2-15-04:
I'm setting up an open pool session for kayakers a few weeks from now. I look forward to these sessions immensely -- an opportunity to be a kid and play around with your boat! Experiments at last year's pool sessions included executing an eskimo roll with another person hugging the back deck of my kayak (success), capsizing and then swimming while still in my boat to retrieve a "lost paddle" (success), and hand-rolling (successful twice, drank pool water on other attempts). The clear warm water of an indoor pool invites experimentation in eskimo rolling, bracing, skulling . . . as well as tuning up that paddle float self-rescue and assisted rescue. Suggested gear includes a plastic boat (glass boats damage easily on the pool edges), goggles, nose and ear plugs (optional), and a nylon spray skirt. (Neoprene degrades in the presence of chlorine).

2-13-04:
There is an island not far from here that has sandy beaches, rock ledges, mature hardwood forests, rolling meadows, old stone walls, and winding footpaths. Situated at the north end of Penobscot Bay, the island has a commanding view of the entire bay -- from Fort Point to Castine and Cape Rosier to Turtle Head and Isleboro to Camden and its graceful hills to the bluffs at Bayside and Belfast Harbor. This 940 acre island and its surrounding waters is home to loons, cormorants, heron, eiders, scoters, and seals. It is home to gulls, jay, chickadees, and starlings. It is home to deer, racoon, porcupines, squirrels, and countless other forest and sea creatures. And it is a second home, a spiritual home, to the people who hunt, fish, harvest shellfish, walk, run, bicycle, paddle the island every day.

The island is Sears Island, Maine. It's my dogs' (Rugby & Tallulah) favorite place to dogpaddle, as they can run its 5 miles of undeveloped shoreline as I kayak around the island. As the largest undeveloped island on the east coast, Sears Island is a unique place. It has stayed undeveloped because it is owned by the state and was the site of a contentious (and unsuccessful) battle by the state to develop a major cargo port there. Now the state has a new brainchild -- they want to allow development of a liquefied natural gas terminal on the island.

Probably the world does need more liquefied natural gas terminals. But most definitely it needs to keep places like Sears Island the way they are today. In light of the present and future development taking place up and down the east coast -- and at an accelerating pace in Maine, Sears Island should be recognized for what it is, a rare gem, a tiny jewel amidst the monolith of development that stretches from Maine to Florida.

2-11-04:
Sit-on-top kayaking is as foreign as Mah Jong to most of us here in Maine -- but we hear enough about it remotely to allow that there must be some reason for its that popularity elsewhere. (Why would you willingly expose your body to the elements when the average water temperature is below 50 degrees?) Anyway, I happened upon a highly informative website today: Tom Holtey's www.TopKayaker.net has a wealth of information -- and not just for people who paddle "non-sinks" either. Article topics range from the state of kayaking in Iraq to information on hypothermia and kayak towing methods. The Iraq article focuses on the once extensive marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that were drained by Saddam Hussein (as if I needed another reason to dislike the man) and are now the focus of a restoration effort by an organization called The Iraq Foundation. Apparently USAID is supporting the project, so perhaps we're doing something right in Iraq after all.

2-10-04:
38 degrees, overcast, light wind from the north. Finally got back on the water today after more than a month of no paddling. If you swim enough or ride a bike or a horse enough, you never forget how -- and the same is true for kayaking. Years ago, when I was starting out as a paddler, I would feel wobbly and unsure if I had gone more than a few weeks without paddling. Glad to report that I felt none of that today. Balance felt good, muscles remembered what to do, I got grabbed by a groove and went with it, fully enjoying the physical sensation of the paddle's grip and slip through the water. Against the wind and the tide, cruised up the river, past both bridges, along the wooded western shoreline, past the remains of the old bridge, to the "beavertail" and a bit beyond to where my passage was blocked by ice. These days, in calm conditions, at least, I paddle with my knees up -- as flatwater racers do -- and thereby gain better leverage and more power from my torso.

2-08-04:
The St. George River Race (Searsmont, Maine) is in less than two months. And from there, if you live in Maine and are willing to travel a bit, you can enter a canoe or kayak race (mostly flatwater races beginning in June) just about every weekend until October. I'm not a serious racer and I don't have the right boat to stay with the leaders, but I have a lot of fun entering a few river races each spring. The local races include whitewater up to Class 3, interspersed with stretches of flatwater of up to several miles in length, so my VCP Avocet RMX sea kayak is not a wholly inappropriate craft. (Still I usually get some funny looks from the canoe and whitewater boat crowd). The prospect of upcoming river races helps motivate me to get out and paddle on those damp raw days in March, and also to hit the weights and the rowing machine.

The cross country skiing is finally getting good . . . and now won't be long before the rivers start to open up -- and some of us start beating up those pesky riverbed rocks. Information on kayak races in Maine and New England (respectively) can be found at http://mackro.org/ and http://www.necanoe.org/ And -- as I mention in the forum -- if you'd like to compete on a grander scale, there are both marathon and sprint kayak races as part of the World Masters Games in Edmonton, Alberta this summer.

2-06-04:
Just received my renewal reminder from MITA -- The Maine Island Trail Association. In MITA's own words, MITA "is a leader in balancing recreational access and conservation on the coast of Maine. From its establishment in 1988, MITA has grown to become the largest water trail association in North America and a model for new trails across the country.

"The Maine Island Trail® system is a 325-mile-long waterway that consists of islands and mainland sites that are available for day visits or overnight camping. Through partnerships with the State of Maine, as well as land trusts and generous private property owners, MITA ensures access to these sites for visitors in kayaks, sailboats, motorboats, and other watercraft." A printable trail map is available at http://www.mita.org/img/trailmap1300.gif "

The best thing about the Maine Island "Trail," of course, is that it isn't a trail at all but a loose web of more than 100 islands that traverses the Maine coast. Unlike a hiking trail that funnels travelers down a singular route, the island trail by its very nature suggests a nearly infinite number of adventures.

From my own experience MITA is a great organization full of people who like to have fun and are passionate about preserving Maine Islands. A MITA Guidebook (free to members) is indispensable for those who want to take an extended tour along the Maine coast. Please write if you know of other organizations doing similar work in other parts of the country. I'd be happy to include them in our listing of regional paddling resources.

2-5-04:
Last update: 02/05 5:00 AM EST
Buoy I - Eastern Maine Shelf Wind: WNW at 24.3 knots
Wind gust: 29.1 knots
Wave height: 8.0 ft Period: 6.4 sec
Air temp: 24° F (-4.4° C)
Visibility: 1.6 nm (1.8 miles, 3.0 km)

2-3-04:
Our very unscientific poll on preferences in a next boat showed a strong preference (36%) for a "low volume rough water boat." Compact lightweight day tripper came in a distant second at 14%. Of the remaining 8 types of kayaks, only "all around performance kayak" (11%) broke into double digits. A total of 40% were looking for a kayak that would fit in the smaller, lighter category. In contrast, only 8% were looking for a high-volume expedition kayak.

The results pretty much confirm what I might have predicted -- a growing interest in smaller, more maneuverable kayaks more suited for day trips than overnight expeditions. As the paddler's gain in experience and skill, it is natural for them to seek out new challenges -- and paddling in rough water conditions is one of them. The recent strong interest on paddling.net and elsewhere in boats like the Necky Chatham seem to confirm this trend.

2-2-04:
Thinking more about the rare stray hooded seal that came ashore 10 miles south of here a couple of days ago (see 1-31-04) and how our experience of the world is at times diminished by media-based knowledge of it. So we see a 900 pound seal with a magnificent mottled blue-grey and black skin (and inflatable nasal bladder) totally unlike anything we have seen before, except maybe in photos. We go home and we look it up in books and read about it online -- and we thereby come to "understand" the seal and the "significance" of its sudden appearance on our shores.

Contrast this with experience the Native Americans here -- the Penobscots -- must have had when such a creature mysteriously appeared, as if dropped from another planet. My guess is they would not have eaten such a creature but rather looked upon it with awe and wonder; the appearance of the seal would have been taken as a sign of something was out of balance. The seal's story might have become the stuff of legends.

Ironic that we have satellite dishes tuned to receive messages from other planets -- when there are messages being sent to us every day from sources much closer to home.

2-1-04:
"Maine has two seasons: winter and 2 months of damn poor sledding," goes the old joke. The quote betrays a bemused acceptance of long winters. I imagine a cynical Inuit might have said pretty much the same. The Inuit were obviously highly skilled in surviving the extreme conditions of the arctic winter; and many times, it must have felt to them that winter was the dominant force in their lives. What they lived for, however, was to get out in the water in their kayaks.

It occurred to me while cross country skiing today that a kayak was very probably the first "ski." As a group of nomadic hunger / gatherers moved north and encountered ice, they likely found that they could tow their loaded kayaks across smooth ice with a minimum of effort. From there, it wouldn't take much of a cognitive leap to lash two kayaks together catamaran style (the first sled) and eventually to lash smaller versions of "kayaks" directly onto their feet as skis.

Kayak touring and cross country skiing do bear a lot of similarities -- and not just in muscle groups used. Cross country skiing also involves maximizing glide and minimizing drag while moving across the surface of (frozen) H20. And anyone who has set a kayak down on snow or ice knows that the kayak just begs to go careening down even the slightest slope.

Again proving that you can find anything on the web, there are several sites featuring "snow kayaking." My adventures in snow kayaking" includes several cool photos and a moving background. The Des Moines Register has an article on snow kayaking in Iowa of all places. Reportedly whitewater kayaks work best, but I still think a touring kayak would give more speed.



Waterlines Archives:
December 2003
January 1 - 15, 2004
January 16 - 31, 2004

lives a mile from the water in Belfast, Maine with his wife, 2 daughters, and 3 dogs. He is owner of Water Walker Sea Kayaks and also teaches English at a local public high school. Please write him with comments, questions, or suggestions.