Sam was going this week. He lives an hour and a half south of Burlington, so he lobbied for starting somewhere in between and we settled on Converse Bay. This time we headed south into the wind. Once we got past the protection of an island we got the full 30 knots complete with some waves that slap you in the face and some that you teeter-totter over the crest. We had the occasional respite of some shoreline curved the right way.
At one point the other 2, Chris and Sam, beached to dig out some anti-fogging goop for their glasses while I took a few rolls to cool off.
This dock has been removed for the winter, but you can see the fire escape scheme people use to get down the cliff to their dock. This one is hanging off the cliff, and has a nice rack of icicles. The second is supported by a concrete pad at the bottom.
Sam tries out his new carbon Greenland paddle. I think he's still a Euro-paddler at heart as he used that for most of the trip.
They wait while I bail out my skirt leakage from rolling before we leave a sheltered spot.
By the time we got to Long Point, the wind had shifted a bit west, so we crossed almost to the New York shore for the downwind ride back.
The wind and waves had also slacked off a bit so it wasn't exciting surf, but still in the range where I find I have to work harder going downwind than up, between digging to catch a wave when you see the bow go down and paddling to keep the kayak from swinging sideways just when the wave has you going way too fast for that.
Back at the boat ramp, between the onshore wind (which had picked up again), being tired, and the fact that my thighs are longer than the cockpit opening, it was awkward getting out of the boat. In this case "awkward" means falling out while trying to step out. The dry suit worked, so it wasn't a big deal.
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