Tuesday, January 28, 2020

January Kayak to Blake







We had originally planned to take ‘Cambria’ over to Blake.  42 feet long, two staterooms, two heads, a large salon with a Dickerson Antarctic diesel heater that bathes the entire boat with delicious heat.  Between that and a covered cockpit, Cambria is made for winter cruising.  Perfect for the 5th annual Sloop Tavern Yacht Club January Blake island cruise. 

Except for the pesky raw water pump which had been ordered, but hadn’t yet arrived.  Cambria was disabled until it was replaced.  




Leigh and I both independently came up with the idea to kayak over.   The party was too good to miss.  Great people, great location and that party seems to kick off the cruising year for us.    The tandem is a virtual station wagon and the weather looked ok for paddling Saturday and Sunday with a wind event sandwiched between the paddling times. 

Steady rain and steady wind would have deterred us, but we could deal with a mix of weather and as it turned out, the weather as a bit better than our expectations.


What’s so special about this particular cruise?  The people.  This isn’t your fair weather cruise crowd.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but this particular group of people year after year are experienced, interesting, and the conversations around the fire are entertaining and illuminating.

Saturday morning was a case in point.  Over coffee an interesting discussion revolved around war movies, world war I and II.  A few of us had seen ‘1917’ and the  movies touched discussed were Gallipoli, They shall not grow old,  Dunkirk, Midway, among others.  Informed views discussed over coffee and a fire.  Guys and gals, and a mix of generations contributed to what I found was a fascinating discussion.  The weekend was full of discussions, reacquainting with old friends, making new acquaintances, just a wonderful time.



Overall the kayak camping worked well.  The only real failure came in the morning after we had gone to the shelter to make a fire and crank up coffee.  Wind gusts increased and finally the tent partially collapsed.  Had that happened at night with the rain, it would have been a different story. 

Our learning with the kayak continues and I need to give thought to a navigation set up so I can better compensate for leeway.  




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