It’s windy here in Birch Bay, Washington. I went to the driveway this morning to look at Drayton Harbour and there were whitecaps all across it. But the temperature was a balmy 50°F. Hmmm…
I went down to Ocean Kayak (handy that, having the maker of my kayak so close) to get some gloves. While I was there I bought a pair of drypants and a Necky tuque. (Ocean Kayak and Necky are the same company, really.) By the time I got home about 20 minutes later, there was some precipitation. Let’s wait and see what happens.
Well, the rain lightened There’s even a little sun. My best fiend and I walked down to the shore to see if we wanted to get the boats out.
Oops.
Apparently the trees up here are effective wind breaks. When we got to Birch Bay Drive (the shore road) the wind nearly knocked my feet from under me. The light sprinkles were stinging my face. If we were to go kayaking, we’d have to paddle hard just to lose headway at a slower pace. I’d estimate the wind speed at about 30 knots. It’s amazing we haven’t lost power.
Today was sunny and 50°F. After doing my last-minute Christmas shopping in Bellingham, my fiend and I took the 'yaks down to Drayton Harbour. I soon discovered that sweat pants and a thermal shirt under dry pants and a Gore-Tex jacket, plus a tuque and gloves, was overdressing a bit for the day. I didn’t get overheated, but I could have done with just a T-shirt under the shell. The sweat pants did come in handy though, since I was sitting in a couple inches of water that always enters through the scuppers.
We only went out about a mile, when we noticed we had a following sea. Tide’s going out, and Drayton Harbour is a very wide mudflat when there’s no water in it. We turned around and by the time we got back to the shore we had to drag the 'yaks some didtance in ankle-deep water. After beaching the boats, my friend tried his luck at clam digging. (Not to keep, but just to see. We didn’t have a shovel.) He found a few clams and we put them back in the water.
I bungeed my Ocean Kayak “Drifter” to the rack on the Cherokee and drove home, and he put the wheels (made from a cut-up luggage carrier) on his Cobra and pulled it up the hill.
Nice day for paddling, though short because of the receeding tide.
You go kayaking in - 20C ? That must be a neat trick to pull off
(Actually, I have canoed in temperatures below freezing - works fine on the streams where there’s a current to keep the water from freezing over, but it’s tricky on lakes. Having someone with an axe in the front canoe helps. Not tipping over is recommended.)
Well, I didn’t go kayaking today because it’s about 20 degrees out, two feet of snow on the ground, and accidentally tipping over would almost certainly mean death within 90 seconds or so.
Even so, there are people around here who go out as long as the lake isn’t frozen over. I, however, am not one of those people.
