On Sunday, I met Gina, Hank, Lisa and Julio for a day paddle on the Patuxent River. We met around 10 am at the Patuxent River Park Visitor Center on Croom Airport Road. Normally there is a fee to launch in the park but during the winter months the fee is waived. We launched downstream from the visitor center at Selby Landing and paddled upstream. It was a leisurely paddle and we stopped several times to look at the birds along the river.



Both Gina and Julio carry waterproof binoculars. The only way I can see the birds in any detail (because I never wear my glasses on the river) is by paddling up fairly close. I also like to photograph birds. So I've worked out this little technique for getting good shots of birds on the water. First I turn on the camera and set the image stabilization feature on. Then I set the zoom. Then I hold the strap of the camera in my teeth and start paddling towards the birds. It usually takes most waterfowl a few minutes to decide to exit. When I'm sufficiently close to the birds and the kayak is moving forward, I stop paddling and get ready to shoot. The kayak slows down and gradually I get close enough to the birds to get a decent photo. I've had some good shots this way.



So when Julio pointed out a group of Muscovy Ducks paddling close to the shore I set my camera up and began paddling towards my photo prey. Amazingly I paddled right up to the ducks and they never moved. They just paddled around right in front of my kayak. I was feeling pretty good about my incredible skill at not scaring the birds until Gina told me that they were pretty sure the ducks were tame. So not only were they not afraid of me they were probably posing for the camera!



We paddled farther upstream past another put-in at Pennsylvania Avenue until the river started to narrow considerably. It was a little after noon and I was getting pretty hungry. But the shore in this section of the river is just mud and reeds. Fortunately there are numerous duck blinds and we found the cadillac of all duck blinds for our lunch stop. This one had a pier and decorative evergreens. Chocolate seemed to be the snack of choice with dark chocolate being the favorite among the group.



We got back to the put-in and were greeted by Rick and his two dogs. Rick is a paddling friend who is recovering from surgery on his elbow. This is the second time Rick has greeted the group coming back from a paddle. Hopefully he'll be paddling again soon. Thanks to Gina for organizing and inviting me along. Hank explored the lower Patuxent back in June. To read his trip report click here.

-Susanita

On Saturday I put-in at Carrs Warf for a short paddle up the Rhodes River. I was still hoping to see the Tundra Swan but Friday I had listened to a radio broadcast about the migration of the swan to the Chesapeake Bay and they confirmed that it was still too warm. The Tundra swan is a native of Canada and only migrates down to the Chesapeake Bay after the lakes have frozen over up north. We're either experiencing an unseasonably warm winter or just feeling the effects of global warming. But either way ... it's just too warm. However I did see another migratory species on my paddle ... the Canada Goose. With a wing span of about 5 ft these are huge birds ... and very loud.

-Susanita

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I brought the drytop to the pool. The drytop really only keeps you dry when you're in the kayak. The water seeped up through the bottom and pretty soon all the air had escaped and I was soaking wet. But it kept me a little warmer. The pool is heated but when you're not swimming you eventually get cold ... or at least I do.



Shannon brought her Anas Acuta and Dave Isbell showed up with his skin-on-frame greenland kayak. Last summer I didn't try rolling at all in my Mirage and because it's not padded out I doubt I could roll it without a lot of effort. I was totally focused on perfecting the forward stroke and racing the surfski. But I decided this winter I would focus on learning to roll in the sea kayak. Since I started kayaking as a whitewater kayaker, I only know one roll ... the C to C. This is a great roll for whitewater but it's somewhat clumsy in a sea kayak especially if your kayak is loaded down with gear. So most sea kayakers do a sweep roll. And greenland kayakers have something like 50+ different kinds of rolls.

Shannon has a pretty good sweep roll in the Anas Acuta so her goal was to work on a few variations of the sweep as well as work on her hand roll. Here is a short video of her best hand roll.




Here's Shannon trying to reenter her kayak in the pool ... unsuccessfully ...



And here is Dave Isbell rolling ...



After watching Dave and Shannon rolling effortlessly it was time for me to try. Dave padded out the skin-on-frame so I would have maximum leverage with my knees and instructed me in the basics of the roll. Then he had me practice skulling. I have never skulled in my sea kayak .. mostly because I didn't know how. I was surprised how easy it was.


Once I could right myself over the kayak from the skulling position he explained how to layup and follow through on the sweep roll. I had a few problems getting the greenland paddle in the correct position but overall it was very smooth and easy. And despite the fact that my technique "sucked" ... I did it. Next goal will be to perfect the sweep and then learn how to do it in the Mirage ... which is not really a "rolling kayak" like the greenland style boats.

-Susanita

Shannon and I stopped by the Kent Island Canoe Club's (KIOCC) Christmas party before going to our pool rolling session. Here are a few photos from the gift exchange. A few of the outrigger paddlers tried their best to convince Shannon that she should try outrigger canoe paddling but she held firm ... she's totally into greenland kayaking.

-Susanita

This is a repost of an old photo Gina Cicotello took on our kayaking trip to Tangier. Gina took this with her Pentax Optio. It was basically this photograph and others she took on the trip that prompted me to buy a new camera. I like the features on the Optio but in the end I decided to buy the Olympus Stylus 720 SW. And I've been very pleased with it. But I still love this photo. I like it so much I added it to the header on the Links page.

I've added some new pages to the website. Most kayakers enter the website through the blog page because ... that's the link I've been posting. But I encourage you to occasionally check out the other pages. And also to tell me if something is not displaying correctly in your browser. The website was developed on a Mac with a high resolution browser. Sometimes older browsers do not display correctly. Or some people have had problems seeing the movies on the movie page. The movies require QuickTime which is a free movie browser from Apple. To download the latest version for Windows click here. On the Welcome page I have added plug-in photo viewer called Carousel from YourHead. This should work on all browsers without any additional software to download.

Thanks for stopping by,
Susanita