Out on the Water

Today the weather was perfect, and my kayaking friends were available for a kayaking afternoon. At last we took our new kayaks out for a spin. Shana and I have had them for a couple of months but were a little nervous about loading them up and actually going for a paddle. We wanted to get out with a couple of experienced paddlers for our first time out so we would be prevented from looking too stupid.

We went down to Mashpee Neck and put in there. From there we were able to take a paddle through a marsh where we could enjoy a bit of nature and a bit of peeking at the backsides of the summer houses of the 1% , then out to Thatch Island where Sue, Shana and I had a nice walk on the beach and Sue and Dea were able to have a little swim. In contrast with the crowded public beaches, the beach on the south side of Thatch Island was deserted and beautiful. Shana was in love! The water was reasonably warm today, but the air temperature was pleasant; it was a perfect day to be out on the water. I was pleased to note that my new kayak and paddle were comfortable to use, and my flotation jacket was very suitable for the sport. I kept my old iPhone to use as a kayak camera that I could upload from later because I already have a waterproof case for it. I didn't take my new one with me because I was not sure about my waterproof storage, but the things I carried in there were just fine. Since I was overturned in a matter of minutes the last time I kayaked I did not want to take any camera that was not protected out with me. We had a great time, topped off with a delicious fried fish dinner from Cooke's Seafood before we went our separate ways. Shana and I will definitely go back there to kayak, especially after Labor Day when parking is less of a problem. There are just a few pictures here, as usual I will upload more to my Flickr gallery.

What I learned today: 1. put your paddles in the car so you don't have to go back to get them. 2. quick dry clothing is really only effective if you have quick dry underwear. 3. take a snack bar or something out with you because if you don't you will be starving. 4. We know how to load up and put in well enough to enjoy a kayaking afternoon. This is valuable information because Cape Cod is a kayaking paradise. There are dozens of nice places to paddle accessible to us with a very short drive. The place where we went today is probably about 15 minutes from our house. Now that we feel confident about our skills we can go out any afternoon for a couple of hours without thinking twice about it.

 Holiday knitting is proceeding slowly. I have run into a classic problem of the pattern I want to use and the yarn I want to use not matching up. I'll know better in about 37 rows (!) if it's possible to make the yarn bend to my will. Something tells me I will do better to scale the pattern a bit to use the needle size the yarn wants instead of knitting on when I know I will not be happy with the fabric the needles that will get me gauge will make. Hard lessons, and ones I seem to have to learn afresh every single year. I'm hard headed. I should really look for a pattern that suits the gauge this yarn wants to be knit to.


And Just for you, Richard, a chicken video borrowed from Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff!