Man, what a great day.
It was 64 in The 'Dena when I left for home. Long 2.5 hour paddle all the way past Magothy "12" -- beyond that the breeze looked a little too demanding.
But even though there was a Small Craft Advisory, there was very little breeze in the lee of the North shore, being protected from a rather gusty NW'erly.
Clear water and warm sunshine, oh yeah.....
Sorry to say, there's a 2-3 pound chain pickeral swimming around in the backwaters of Blackhole Creek with a small shad dart and white paddletail hanging from the back side of his mouth. Pickerel's sharp teeth mean I MUST use a heavier leader.
Otherwise a pretty day on the river. And getting my 25 foot mast home, on top of my 15 foot car, went pretty well.
Sort of another Grondhog's Day with the partly cloudy skies & gale warning prediction. But once again, the breeze was very moderate back in the creek. I figured I'd take a rod and take a few casts. I've had great luck with a shad dart/white paddletail combo. Chain pickeral can't see to resist it this time of year and it should be fished deep (e.g., the channels of back-water creeks and coves). I hooked a nice pickerel and got lucky as it shaked itself off right at the boat.
Then things got real. I was taking the last few casts before heading to a beach for lunch, when I felt the lure hit something. I figured I was hung up on a sunken log, but then the line started to move. I reeled in a little and took all the slack out of the line and HOLY CRAP, this is a fish and it's no grotty little chain pickerel.
There was some serious weight on the line...what the heck could it be, this time of year? It started towing the kayak!!! For about ten yards and then the line went slack. DAMN! I really wanted to know what this was! But I reeled in and got a clue. On the hook was a what looked like a piece of plastic. On closer look, I saw it was one giant fish scale. I guess when fishing deep, I must've foul-hooked a big ole carp. Because to this is a carp scale, for certain.
I'm sorry for wounding you, Mr. (or Ms.) Carp, and I hope you heal up OK and survive.
VHF Wx Radio was playing up big breeze, and crossing the Key Bridge seemed to validate that perspective, but I don't think I saw more than 25 in the creek, which of course is pretty protected. Pintails seem to have disappeared, but I did not venture out of the creek, so who knows. Really beautiful day on the creek though!
Ostensible purpose was to get my rig down and also attend a club meeting. But I had heard that Magothy River R "10" was missing in action. I put in a kayak and went out to see for myself, and sure 'nuff, it is gone and there's a new floating mark there now. I hope it's temporary, because the club has been going through the motions of getting federal permission to put a small weather station on the shoal pole.
Otherwise it was a fantastic day to paddle. Calm, warm and the lighting this time of year is just stellar. Saw more Pintails than Buffleheads for a change.
PSA's Jan 1 hangover bowl - sailed completely in the creek in flukey and spotty breeze. We saw way too many transoms but it was a blast and fantastic to get a sail in on Jan 1.
FAIL.
Won't make 100 days this year, too many things went wrong. I figure I lost an anticipated 25 or 30 days due to:
- retiring from Newport - Bermuda Race - 10 days lost, as I was slated to do the delivery back, too
- no Classic Yacht Races in Maine - 5 days easily
- Cancelation of Rock Hall, Gov Cup and one other CBYRA race - 7 days
- Getting COVID for 10 days - lost a few days due to staying in isolation.
That would have brought me up to 98 days and I would've found an excuse to bump that up to 100. In any case, the 73 days were great, I don't think there's one that was abject misery, maybe the first 18 hours of N2B as I was seasick as heck, and throw in a little hypothermia.
Today's paddle was absolutely brilliant though!
We had a club member tie off a submerged line, I guess to a mooring? Anyway, it should have been in last month's NOTMARs. It had about 75 feeting of line just below the surface, and it was a wrapped prop waiting to happen. So it was kayak time--to tow a larger red barge mark out and replace the grotty little lemonnade bottle. Mission done, but with cold fingers it wasn't the best example of marlinspike seamanship. As the saying goes, "if you can't tie good knots, tie a lot of them!"
Wind W at 10-12 gusting 24. The mission was to find a sunny spot out of the breeze to eat lunch and have a beer. No prob, plenty of scenic spots in the creek.
I definitely love this time of year!
Buffleheads are back, too.
EYC Leftover Bowl is always a blast, depending on the weather of course. Our's was fantastic and as soon as the race was over, I ducked below to shed all the stuff I had sweated through. We took 3rd in Spinn. EYC had some pretty wild "leftovers," including an AYC cup from 1974 and a NASS cup from 1972. I forget who, from our boat, took these home. Topped off the day with a very easy nighttime delivery back to the Magothy in mercifully calm conditions. Just the apparent wind from motoring at 7 kn was chilly enough by 8pm, a few hours after sunset.
I remember once during a CBYRA Star Wars race, there was a very large vessel anchored just below the starting line at Severn River G “9” QC. Same thing with this year's Leftover...someone parked this little 28 foot cabin cruiser just below the line (see photos)