I can no longer post to this blog with my phone, so
real-time updates while I am paddling are only on Facebook (@journey of the fishhugger). You can always
see where I am in real time while I am paddling on my Garmin map page (the link is at the top of
the blog homepage).
First, a quick summary: I made it from Elizabeth City to
Kill Devil Hills in two days as planned, June 19 and 20. It was a tough two days because of the
weather. Still hoping to paddle more in
August, but no firm plans yet.
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| My planned route for the two days of paddling. 32 miles. |
The two days of paddling are described below in more detail…
2020 Day 1 – Friday, June 19
The weather forecast for my two days of paddling was
constantly changing. When I woke up, I
looked at the latest forecast and radar, talked it through with Chris, and
decided to get moving. I knew there was
a chance of thunderstorms and planned to hug the shore when possible so I could
get off the water if necessary. I also
knew I had to keep a close eye on changes in the weather.
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| About to unload the boat and take off from Elizabeth City on Friday. |
The day started with crossing the Pasquotank River. The line I took made it a 5.25 mile crossing. A thunderstorm approached as I neared the far
shore, so I boogied on across and took shelter for an hour while it
passed.
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| Had to hide from this storm on land for an hour. |
Once the storm cleared, I set off again
and worked my way into the Albemarle Sound, still hugging the shore. The wind out of the SE (hitting me on the
front right quarter) strengthened. I made progress and did not feel
the conditions were unsafe, but it was hard going.
Most of the shore along this stretch was lined with marsh
grass and jagged tree stumps in the water.
After a couple of hours (I think it was around 2:00 PM) I saw a small
beach and decided to pull over for a break. The wind picked up more. I stayed
there hoping it would drop by 6:00 PM – I needed about two more hours of
paddling to make it to the spot I had planned to camp and sunset was at 8:41 PM.
Happy hour rolled around and I decided to stay there for the
night. I had only covered about 12
miles, not the 18 that I had planned. It was a small beach but a nice spot to camp.
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| Happy hour! |
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| Nice spot to camp for the night. Good view, short commute. |
Among the plastic trash I cleaned up around
the beach was an empty bottle of an “aloe and chia beverage.” Really!?
I tried to picture the kind of person who buys an “aloe and chia”
beverage and then throws the bottle away in nature. You’re going to buy a drink like that and
then throw the bottle out? Really!? Maybe it was an accident. Maybe a lot of the plastic trash in our
waters is an accident. We just use and
dispose of (properly or otherwise) way too much plastic.
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| Behold the rare Chia and Aloe beverage -- now plastic pollution. |
The wind died down around 7:00 PM and biting deer flies
showed up. But there were also a lot of
dragonflies and they landed on me, lying in wait to ambush the deer flies. They catch them in mid-air and eat them. Dragonflies catch 95% of the prey they target
making them the most efficient known predator – their catch rate is twice that
of great white sharks and four times that of lions. I watched the aerial combat
for a while with a rum drink before hitting the sack.
A thunderstorm passed in the night but I
slept well. The forecast for Saturday
was not great.
2020 Day 2 – Saturday, June 20
Saturday morning was calm and clear so I broke camp and
packed the boat as fast as I could – I wanted to cover as much water as
possible before bad weather blew in. Didn’t
even make coffee – the horror! I got an
early start and hit the water around 6:30 AM.
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| Looks good for paddling Saturday AM. |
A pod of dolphins passed by as I crossed the North River. I had no idea they came this far up the
sound. When I got to the far side of the
North River, I stopped at the spot where I had planned to camp the night before. It would have been a good campsite. A nice
wide isolated beach.
After a break and a snack, I pushed off again. There was a bit of a breeze from ESE but
I was in the lee of the land and had nice calm water for an hour or so. That turned out to be the calm before the
storm.
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| This turned out to be the calm before the storm. |
Around 11:30 AM the wind jumped up like a switch had been
flipped. The water started getting
choppy and whitecaps soon appeared. The
forecast had called for winds at 8 knots, but based on the Beaufort Scale,
these were 10-15.
It was blowing out of the SW, on my front right quarter making me
work harder for forward progress. As the
wind continued to strengthen, I slogged forward and thought over my options. I stayed relatively close to shore and
constantly scanned ahead for places I could pull over. I was nearing Point Harbor where the
Currituck and Albemarle sounds meet (see map). The waterfront was lined with
homes. The presence of homes would not
prevent me from stopping if I really needed to, but the entire waterfront was either bulkheads or
concrete rip-rap. The waves were beating
into the shore and there was no way I could land anywhere in this stretch. I was getting tossed around and needed a
break, but I had to push on towards the point.
I hoped there would be somewhere along the point I could stop. There was also a new factor now – a big storm
cloud in the distance moving my way.
As I got close to the point, things got hairy. The wave size increased, and they were not
all coming from the SE anymore, they were coming from any and every
direction. I knew from research and
experience that wave action and currents can often be tricky and confounding
near major points, but this was like nothing I had experienced. The depth near this point goes from 9 feet to
1 foot in a matter of a few yards (see depth notations on the NOAA chart above), so all the wave energy was being forced to
the surface. Wave energy was also
bouncing off the bulkheads on shore and reflecting back against the waves
driven by the wind. It was a mess.
It was easily the roughest water I have ever kayaked
in. I wasn’t sure I could get the boat
through it. My main concern was that I
would get hit broadside by one wave while trying to manage another coming from
a different direction. I wasn’t
concerned for my life (shore was not too far and hypothermia was not a
threat), but I thought I might capsize or be knocked off the Fishhugger and get
separated from the boat. Waves broke
across the boat and I was soaked from head to foot. Having no choice, I pushed on.
Once I cleared the point, the seas reverted to 2-4 foot
breaking swells, but predictably from the SW. Now I was relieved to be in conditions that
had scared me just 30 minutes prior. As
I came around the point, I could see that there was some calm water in the lee
of the land but I could also see that the entire shore was covered by three
foot bulkheads, making a landing impossible.
A loud part of my brain really wanted to go to the calm water and rest,
but over my right shoulder the storm was making it’s slow advance towards me.
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
I did my best mental calculation of how long the storm would
take to reach me vs. how long it would take me to cross the Currituck Sound to
Kitty Hawk. I thought I could beat the
storm. The line I took was 3.3 miles –
about an hour and 20 minutes at my normal pace.
Instead of resting, I took off to make the crossing of the Sound
ahead of the storm. It was rough all the
way. There was so much pressure on my
rudder by waves and current that my fingers went numb holding it in place to
keep my course.
I really wanted to take some video in order to convey to
folks what it is like to be in a kayak in those conditions, but I did not dare
pull out my phone or occupy a hand with anything other than managing the
boat. I continued to take breaking waves
over the boat all the way across the Sound, but after the crazy waves on the
Point, I knew the Fishhugger and I could handle this. It was just a matter of outracing the
storm. I made it to the far shore in 50
minutes, beating the storm by about 10 minutes.
I got to the Kitty Hawk shoreline and saw the protected
entrance to a harbor serving homes and boat slips behind Shellbank Point. I pulled in and
breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion.
The storm was very close now and lightning was visible. So I did a little reconnaissance and found a
vacant-looking home with a low dock. I
tied up the Fishhugger and took shelter under the house while the storm rumbled
through. I was still soaked from head to toe and the wind from the storm was
cool -- I started shivering in late June!
But I was glad to be off the water during the driving rain and frequent
lightning strikes.
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| View of the incoming storm. |
As I stood under the house looking out at the storm I felt
something brush my leg and looked down just in time to see a very sweet and
very old dog plop down right on top of my foot.
I gave him a pat and some kind words and he looked up at me with his
wise, old, knowing eyes. He kept me
company during the four hours it took for the weather to clear. It’s not the first time a dog has lifted my spirits
on this journey and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
The rest is a bit anticlimactic after all of that. I kept looking at the weather radar and
talking with Chris trying to decide if it was clear enough to cover the last
three miles to the take-out. Finally, I
decided to go for it and had an easy uneventful paddle to the public boat ramp
at Kill Devil Hills. A rainbow appeared
during my last quarter mile of paddling.
It was 8 PM by the time I had the Fishhugger out and unloaded and Chris
came to pick me up. I was so glad to see
her – could not do this without her support.
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| It doesn't show up very well, but a rainbow appeared as I finished out this leg of the Journey of the Fishhugger. |
It was just two days of paddling, but I was spent. I covered 21 miles this day, but man, they
were tough miles. The day had taken me
pretty far out of my comfort zone. But
that’s something that a journey like this will do. Indeed, it’s part of the point of doing it.
I hope to be able to paddle south from Avon in August or
September of this year and will post an update if plans firm up.
Thanks for following!
