Back Bay Paddle 10-16-12

We watched the morning news and the weather forecast was not the best for a paddle in Back Bay, but we headed to Little Island City Park anyway. The forecast was for sunshine, highs in the upper 60’s with north east winds between 15 & 20 m.p.h., 2 out of 3 is not bad I thought.

Margaret & I met Bill B. at the Hardies on Mount Pleasant Road around 7:45 and we ate breakfast and took some pictures. Leaving there about 8:30 we arrived at the city park at 9:00 A.M.. I could see Ellis holding onto his hat so as not to let it fly south never to be seen again. Yes, the winds were blowing pretty hard. All of the pigeons were hunker down on the south side of the Old Life Saving Station trying to stay out of the winds. We all talked it over and thought that we could miss some of the strong winds by paddling around and through some of the islands there in the bay.

The first major hurdle was to get the boats down to the put in, which was about 250 feet from the parking lot, with some sand to walk through. Most of us had brought some kind of wheels for our boats and everyone shared these and in about 30 minutes all the boats were in the water. It had been 10 years before that I had put a boat in at this put-in and most of our group had never put in here. So of course we paddled south right into a dead end and had to turn around and look for the right way out into Back Bay. This was a small passageway through the tall grasses which surrounds the bay and most of the islands, called Pragmatic.

Paddling out into the bay waters we found we had some white caps from the strong winds that blew out of the northeast. I thought if we could go south along the west side of Long Island we would be O K . This was good for only about one mile then the winds shifted and we all thought we were in a wash bucket being spun around by a Big Giant. Making it to the cut through that breaks the island into, we paddled over to the calm waters on the east side of the island. Here we had the best of two worlds, calm water and south winds that pushed our boats along with very little paddling. In this area we could see south for miles down into North Carolina and I had everyone raft up, to point out a few land marks. As we held onto each others boats the winds pushed us along at a good speed.

Making it to the south end of Long Island we were lucky enough to find a small beach where we had a good long break and some ate their lunch while others just rested and had a snack. With the 9 boats pulled up on the black sand and out of the winds with the sun shining down on us we thought we were in paradise. On this trip there were10 people and 9 boats. Ellis & Marti had their canoe and did a great job paddling through some of the waves that we encounter on this paddle. In kayaks we had Sandy, Dottie, Margaret, Bob S, John F, Bill B, Mark C, and Bruce. Out of all of us I think Bill B. had the best time riding the 4 to 5 foot waves we had. I could hear him saying “OH BOY, OH BOY THIS IS GREAT”, from over my right shoulder most of the time as we paddled.

Leaving our little paradise we knew we had to head back north and the winds had not calmed down in the least! Stopping about every 200 yards up next to some tall grasses and catching our breath made the trip a little easer and kept the group together. On the west side of the island there were not very many waves, but the wind was strong and hard to paddle. Knowing what lay ahead for us at the north end of the island after paddling out of the protection of the smaller island I knew we would see some of the largest waves of the whole day, and we did. Everyone paddled through it and no one over turn and we all made it back to the put-in safe and sound and had a good time doing it.

After loading our boats we headed to, you guess it, Pungo Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor. Bob’s wife Marion met us there and all had a good meal after having another great Tuesday Group outing. Thanks for all that paddled today and don’t forget next Tuesday. Ellis has another paddle at Merchants Mill Pond, it’s a long trip so please be on time.

Bruce

Bill B has more pictures to share with you: https://picasaweb.google.com/b.billings/TuesdayBackBayWindyPaddleOctober162012Bruce?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWOsL2b6f6uwQE&feat=email