I paddled up to Quiet Waters tonight with Shannon. The Chesapeake Paddlers Association (CPA) has several midweek paddling groups scattered around the Chesapeake Bay area that they call "Piracies." I like to paddle Wednesday nights with the Pier 7 piracy which launches on the South River. The South River feeds into the Chesapeake Bay so it offers a variety of paddling opportunities from the protected waters of the river to the more exciting choppy waves of the Bay. So Shannon and I carpooled to Pier 7 from Takoma Park. We got to Pier 7 a little early so we missed the group paddles and she wanted some company. I was paddling with my new Bracsa VII paddle. She paddled for a while with my Epic mid-wing just to see what it was like. The Bracsa VII feels very different. I'm not sure I like it yet. It has a more pronounced cup shape and a smaller blade. And it's very unforgiving. Your stroke needs to be perfect or it tends to want to dive under the boat or just flutter uncontrollably. Truly not for casual paddling, but I was only planning to use it for racing anyway.

As we were coming back to the beach for the evening dinner we were greeted by Greg with a very serious looking camera. I think he was taking photos of everyone tonight and we were just lucky enough to get photographed as well. So here's an action shot of me and above is a posed shot of me and Shannon.

My friend Nigel, from KIOCC, and his son Trevor also visited tonight. Nigel came out to demo the Chesapeake Light Craft Pax 20 and to take out Brian's V10. I didn't get to paddle with them, but they stayed for dinner. And Jenny brought her laptop with pictures of the skin-on-frame greenland kayak that she's making from plans. Not a kit! She's making this cookbook style. I'm looking at the dimensions that she sent me now. I don't know ... I know she was just looking for a good rolling boat but the dimensions on this boat look like it's going to be FAST.

-Susanita