Coastal Kayaking - Muscongus Bay, ME

Sunday, April 18 - Thursday, 22, 2010 (written 4/27, my 1st chance to post since leaving for kayaking)

Packing. I haven't been out camping since November but feel like I was getting the sense of how to pack with some semblance of a plan. Hiking and canoe packing are their own kinds of animal. In both we used backpacks and canoeing allows you to pack without as much thought to weight. Now I have to pack my gear for a five day kayak trip into a bunch of dry bags--and they have to be small enough to fit into the two kayak compartments. That means everything needs to be shoved, squished, and mushed down the hatch and weight balanced so the boat lays evenly. Long skinny things need to be placed far up into the ends of the bow and stern.  I have a new mesh duffle to help me make one trip loading and unloading to and from camps and from the boat. I don't finish packing until 2 a.m. I don't fall asleep until 4 a.m. and have to get up at 4:30 to be at GCC for 6:00 a.m.

Beth arrives at GCC and strolls over with two small bags. My mouth gapes open and her wife Darrell says that's the look she'll keep with her for the week while we're gone. One of the bags is a sleeping bag I'm borrowing (still don't own one!). Then she walks over with two duffles. Okay, more like it. I run up to get the van keys from Public Safety and our group piles into the van: Kristi, Jen, Erin, Coquette, Aaron, Joe and Beth. Anna is driving her car because four of us will go to the conference and we need a vehicle to come back. I get in to drive with Anna but don't stay 'cause she was smoking and I can feel my lungs constrict. I join the van group and Anna drives the five hours behind us with a few phone calls to check in with her.

We're to meet Mark, our cert instructor, in Wiscasset, ME and we have lunch with him at Sarah's across from Red's Eats, our original destination but it's not yet open for the season. Mark is tall, hovering around 50, married at 40 and has a couple of young kids. He drove from VT and passed us on the highway but we get to Sarah's ahead of him. We order lunch, go around the group giving him snap shots of who he'll be working with and we put him on a tepid hot seat to get to know him. . . he is going to determine our cert after all, and we're all groggy from the five hour drive.

We follow he and Beth to our put-in at Bremen Lobster Coop. We park, unload and drag boats and bags and bags of gear to the dock, get into our dry suits, booties, rescue PFDs, grab paddles and other gear, then slide boats into the water off the dock. As the kayak rocks with me sealed under the kayak skirt, I take a little time to get my sea-butt again. I begin to feel comfortable as we paddle out toward Hogg Island. We arrive and find that our info was bogus and camping is not allowed. We continue paddling, see a young eagle perched in a tree, then we land at Crow Island which does allow camping. It's a tiny island but serves us well.

After unloading and cooking dinner, we gather and talk about what's up for tomorrow. I suggest that we be ready for 9 a.m., treachery in wilderness circles. Beth gasps. I don't look at Mark. I argue that some of us have had little sleep and after this long day, it can only benefit us in the long run. It's agreed that 9:00 will work and Beth and Mark listen later to the weather reports and let us know that we won't break camp in the morning. What a treat! No packing tomorrow. I've never spent a camp night when we didn't have to break camp.

As we sit gathered, it's time now for my LNT presentation on Disposing of Waste Properly. . .namely, human waste. We all have our allotment of RestStop Bags into which we shall all poop--most of us for the first time. I get to give the presentation and we have lots of laughs. Beth wants me to first give a demo of the former newspaper "burrito style" wrap that gets dumped into a baggie. Before baggies, she references pooping on a rock and tossing the long ball into the sea. Now, we get to open a biodegradable bag, complete with TP, a wipe, and kitty litter type stuff at the bottom of the bag that will suck up moisture and control odor. Beth suggests we use the bag twice to conserve. Before long, our camp has silver poop bags near respective tent sites. Amazing how personal hygiene becomes a public and easy topic. . . "I'll be back, need to use my bag."

Anna and I share her two person tent. Two person tents are a joke when there's two people actually sharing. I wake up every morning stiff and sore from not being able to move or stretch. Didn't help my daily paddling. Spent a chilly night. I took off too many layers and didn't fully zip my bag. Anna and I got up once to pee, both encouraging the other to get up mid-night in the cold. I am the first person up in the morning. I brush my teeth, use my bag, and am thrilled that I brought my down puff and balaclava. I'm warming up and will put the face covering up for a few laughs when the others are up.  I'm not much of a tent buddy since I left my matches at home and can't find Anna's lighter to get hot water started. Anna and I each have our own stove so that makes it easy to cook our own meals. I realize how self-sufficient I feel when I can start my own stove to cook when I'm ready.

Don't want to wake Anna so am taking advantage of this time to write on the rocks looking at the sunrise mirror in the water. Yesterday we were close to Thief Island which is out a ways but winds are expected today and had we ventured out that far, Beth says that as novice paddlers, we might have been stuck there for a few days. Now, I sit on this quiet and calm scene of low rocks that stretch parallel to the small shore. Below is a jungle of rock weed, slippery wet from the ebbing tide though I think it may never dry. Beth says if we've never walked on it we'll probably fall once or twice. I haven't but don't. Later she pulls a bud, tastes it and suggests we give it a try. I don't try it until several days later but then enjoy the sea salt taste.

As I gaze out from our island, I count what I think are twenty six islands if I've separated their detail well. Some are likely a couple of miles out. I watch the passing current and am reminded of my presentation on Tides and Currents, totally new material that I've always wanted to understand--it's quite detailed and I don't exactly have it down.

We head out for the day on Monday, have a presentation or two and paddle up and around a few islands. Each night we gather for a short while after dinner but the tense pressure to get things done on other trips isn't present on this trip. Tuesday I wake and begin a downward spiral getting ready. I'm first up again but last to the boats and the camping crazies start up again. Mark makes note that we need to be on time. I let his chastisement get to me and while others have buddied up, I'm struggling to get my skirt on while everyone's waiting for me. Bow facing shore, I'm in tears as Jen paddles over to see if I need help. Paddled through the morning, came across a big old boat wreck and an old lobster pen at the Bremen Lobster Coop. We talked to the guys up on their dock and truck. They used to keep lobsters in the pen and feed them but it became too expensive. Now the pen serves as a place we could enter and practice strokes without current. Eventually worked out of my funk. The next day I was determined to be first at the boats. . . made it, not quite first but maybe 3rd.

We spent a lot of time working on our presentations. Mark wasn't especially crazy about any of them and kept pushing us to use what we had in front of us rather than talking about the topics. We were front-loading and using people to demo but it wasn't enough. We were also supposed to be presenting to beginners but the topics and amount of time to present was confusing. Rather than talk about waves, show the waves by piling sand in rows. I went to Beth and Mark the night before my presentation to let them know what I was planning and to see if they had other suggestions. I had figured I would have one person be the moon and circle the earth. Both would circle the sun to demo gravity's pull creating tides. Needed clarity on the neap tides vs spring tides and where to place the moon. Kind of messed up the direction piece talking about tides being vertical to shore while current was horizontal to shore. Simple but not exactly correct. Came out okay but I missed the so-what aspect as I concentrated on the visual presentation. On our 2nd last day we fit in my Rules of the Navigational Road. Mark stopped me part way through saying I was talking too much. He told me to pick the nuns "Red Right Return" into the harbor and do it right then.  I put my red PFD on the ground and someone suggested using Erin's green PFD to be the green "can." Nuns and cans mark the shipping channels that kayaks have no business being in. I had a few people be a big boat coming down the channel and I steered Anna along the red right return but actually confused the situation with words. Agghh! Made Mark's point again though he appreciated my use in the moment of what I had with me. And, Aaron said, "Oh, that's what it means!" So, Mark made note that the change in method helped someone get the concept.

Mark kind of blew it for Coquette's presentation on Wind and Waves. Beth said that she and I had the toughest presentations because they were technical and detailed. Coquette's was going on a little long and Mark butted in asking, "Is this almost done?"
"Well, almost," said Coquette slowly, contemplating the interruption.
"Okay 'cause I'm f'ing done!"
"Whoa," was all that came out of my mouth though what I wanted to say was "That's really harsh! How is someone supposed to continue after that?" But she did and when she was done, Coquette looked pretty angry.  Mark apologized and said he had meant it to sound funny. He hoped he didn't blow the trust of the group. He had. He apologized several more times to Coquette and again to us but the damage was done. And he's human. But he's also our examiner. Never felt quite the same again. Coquette said later that she's used to assholes in her corporate past but didn't expect it here.

One day while paddling we came by the Lobster Coop to see if we could buy some lobsters. Beth was all about it, having grown up in Falmouth fully raised around the sea. The boat wasn't back yet so we headed out to practice strokes and do more presentations and leadership which included "surprise" capsizes for the leaders to show their T-rescue stuff. Also learned how to paddle in "HOT" to a paddler in trouble and capture their kayak to tow them in. We learned to manhandle the boat rather than try to line up exactly in the T. Grab the boat and push it around. I did it well on our initial day but not as well on my test day. Beth went back to the lobster guys a little later and paddled back with a bag full of rubber banded crustaceans destined for the pot. Kristi and Jen wanted a lesson in lobster cracking and I thought I would try it again but couldn't look at them or hold them much. Gave mine to Anna and Beth. I'd get a lobster roll sometime before I left Maine. Vegetarians and vegans, I know.

On our 2nd last day, Coquette was leading the group and I was supposed to lead after her. I think it was Jen who noticed the sky. Mark had us leave stroke instruction behind and get moving. At some point the black sky became ominous enough that he took back leadership and pushed us to cross the channel and paddle hard for at least 45 minutes maybe an hour to get back to Crow Island. Part way through Beth suggested I drop my rudder and see what that felt like, knowing it would help. We're discouraged from using them because rudders can break and we need to know how to maneuver the boat. I think it's also important to have the experience at least once so that when teaching someone else, I will know what I'm talking about. The rudder took a little getting used to and did help though I had to get used to the rhythm again without it. We made it back to Crow and the storm dissipated and passed off. We could have gone back out but spent the rest of the day getting warm and making dinner.

Our last day was short. Beth, me, Kristi and Anna were going to the AEE Conference in Nobleboro and Beth needed to be there by 11 for meetings. Anna started the lead and I took it up for maybe an hour. I had to rescue Coquette and started doing the T-rescue but she had been given instructions to do a different rescue, I think it was the hook. Mark was yelling over that I need to use my command river voice but since the drill was changed, I didn't know the instructions. Once into her boat, I got the group to the Lobster Coop and our dock where we could unload our 4 boats. The rest of the group stayed with Mark for a little longer.

It was disappointing that in our 5 days there, we never got out into real waves. I had been reading Shelley Johnson's A Woman's Guide to Sea Kayaking and was expecting to learn how to maneuver through waves, how to land and launch properly while using tide charts. In reality, it felt to me more like paddling on a rough lake. We had some current but had more current and white water in our white water canoeing and kayaking. This felt pretty tame. I guess if one of us had been thinking about going for Level 3 cert, we would have gone out. It didn't occur to our group to say we wanted to get out there. The thrill factor was missing on this trip. Other than running from a storm, it was mainly practice paddling and drill those presentations, teach strokes, and demo leadership. I guess that's the difference with certification but we all think the next group will likely have a sea experience. Mark offered to have any of us upgrade to Level 3 with him for free since we've taken this course with him. In the end, I got my American Canoe Association Level 2 certification as a sea kayak instructor. Not sure it's sunk in yet.