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The
time was about 12:00 noon after everyone got onto the water. I will
not say it was the smoothest launch I have ever witnessed. Many
things conspired against us. First, it took awhile for everyone
to realize that we had switched from fixing things to paddling.
After that, there was a surprise change in the weather! Sure, we
had lots of sunshine and calm skies when we were working, but now...We
were watching a dark cloud slowly come towards us from upriver,
and the wind was picking up too. What would happen? Todd listened
to the radio, and made sure everyone was comfortable and willing
to go. Frank claims to have heard that the weather would be worse
up north (where Marshal was having his Eastern Neck Paddle on the
same day. Oh boy!). So we decided to go anyway.
Leader Todd and his Pirate Parrot.
(Photo Mary & Vitas)
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Yes.
It was getting windy, and it was getting choppy. Enough that
I think some people were a little nervous. But there seemed
to be enough cohesiveness amongst the group that everyone
felt comfortable being on the paddle, even if not totally
confident on the water. We took stock of who had VHF radios
available and tested them, and we counted the tow ropes in
the group. 'Just in case!'
To
tell the truth, it was a great paddle. The sky was dark at
times, but the wind blew us down along the shore at a good
pace. We went down river behind Roosevelt Island and then |
crossed
over to the D.C. side under the Roosevelt Bridge. I think that everyone
was Ooh-ing and Aww-ing as we passed under the Cherry Blossom Trees.
The site of their color against the highly contrasting clouds in the
sky was beautiful, to say the very least.
Do
I need to say again that we got down to the Tidal Basin Inlet
very fast? Well, we did. Then when we got there, it was enough
of a challenge to get everyone turned around faced in one
direction while I took a few snapshots, and before everyone
got blown into the rock retaining wall. |
Most
of the paddlers under the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin
Inlet. |
It
did not take people long to get the idea that we should get out
of there fast. We started back up river, slowly, against the wind.
I heard from a few people during the paddle that they felt unstable
in the waves, and that they were not sure they would make it back
against the wind. They way I figure it, we spent about two hours
on the water, at least an hour and a half of that time was spend
fighting the wind to get back to the docks. Kingsley sent me a Wind
Report from National Airport when he got home that said at 3:00pm,
we had wind at 21 mph from the NW, with gusts up to 29 mph. But
according to the report, that rates as 'breezy'. They should have
been on the water with us.!
Testing
our Drysuits.
(Photo by Mary & Vitas).
Super-Todd
towing the entire group ->>
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We
plodded along, back to the Roosevelt Bridge, where we all
regrouped. We then sneaked behind the island again to reduce
some of the wind. Just as we grouped up for the last time
at the top of the island in order to cross over to the docks,
Todd decided to stretch his muscles by attempting to tow the
entire group of paddlers. I think Kingsley clocked
the speed of the group at 0.3 mph. Not Bad! When when
we got back at last, a few of us decided to take this
opportunity to jump into the water and see how our
drysuits would fare. This might be our last 'cold
water' day this year, we had to try it out. |
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