Showing posts with label long. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Long Tails
 |
| the put-in boulder |
A silvery grey calm is the salt water today and I start off from the beach, such as it is, somewhere between low and mid tide. Birds are visible as black silhouettes from a half mile or more in these conditions. With the calm, a distant call is all it takes to put name to the shape. A loon lets out a short whoop, then the charming chatter of long-tailed ducks begins to arrive...uh..uhuh (repeat endlessly). Outside of the bay at Calf Pen Creek, twenty or so long-tails are busy feeding. They dive and stay down for 20 or 30 seconds before surfacing. Unlike loons, which usually travel 50 or more yards horizontally, the long-tails come back up to the same place that they started.
Halfway out to Charles Island, in the navigation channel which I suppose is somewhat deep (but not too deep as there is an old oyster boat working its allotment nearby), I find more long-tails, in fact, more than I have seen in one place before, although I have only been familiar with them for a year. There are four dozen, some in a loose flock and others scattered one or two hundred yards away. The noise is fantastic.
I paddle the island counter-clockwise, having realized that I have always gone around it the other way. The tombolo, the half mile long bar that connects the island to the mainland, is well submerged and I coast over not far from the island, which is rimmed in golden spartina grass and centered with grey winter deciduous trees that, during summer, are home to hundreds of herons and egrets. Completing the circle, I find that most of the long-tails have moved off and that four brant geese have arrived. These are the first brants that I've seen since spring.
Back out in the navigation channel, I find a dozen long-tails, and a dozen more when I get to the point. The bulk of the flock is off Calf Pen Creek bay. Each time they move they leave a few more ducks behind, their flock apparently based more on convenience than allegiance.
Friday, 16 October 2015
A Winn Winn situation Paddle a long way around Ireland
This is an unpretentious personal account by Jasper Winn of his solo sea kayaking journey around Ireland .
Spurred on sometimes by the goal of completing the trip, and sometimes by the goad of realizing how dumb he'd appear if he gave up after proudly announcing to someone in a pub what he aimed to do, Winn pushed his way all around the Irish coast in one of the wettest summers in history.
I enjoyed Winn's stream-of-consciousness delivery. It's exactly how things pass through your mind on a long solo trip: the anxieties about landing, the possibility of running into something alive and big with teeth, a lusting for food, or company, or uncertainty about what that flashing light means. It's also how things materialize, like flotsam on a beach, sorted by size and type by the waves, or how people appear out of the mist when you think yourself alone, or take you into their home and feed you when you're trying to pin down your tent in a gale.
He sets out to complete his trip planning to find guitars to play and friends to meet in the local pubs, a roof over his head when he gets tired of being storm-bound in a tent and the possibility of a hot shower and a restaurant meal when fancy takes. He's not out to break a record set by anyone else, or win any race, instead it's a personal challenge.
If like me you enjoy sea kayaking, or think you might, and you'd like to know what it takes to launch from your home town to take what comes day by day, or if you'd simply like to know more about Ireland, then you'll find Jasper Winn's book a pleasing read.
Published by "A Sort of Books" in UK
ISBN 978-0-95600-388-1
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Context How long to canoe 50 miles
How long to canoe 50 miles can be considered one of the information beneath the today Can easily from capture google and bing For you to offer you helpful tips to the subscribers we tested to obtain any closest to relevance pics approximately How long to canoe 50 miles And additionally right you could watch at this time, these kind of photographs are actually consumed belonging to the top rated tool.
How long to canoe 50 miles - this has been posted using the expectancy that we are able to very easily truly motivate used in order to individuals. This content will deliver as the personal reference if you find yourself bewildered to find the perfect direct This How long to canoe 50 miles articles or blog posts may very well be hard possibility to become put on the job strategy, simply because it has got some method could truly feel even more gratified How long to canoe 50 miles - Extremely helpful for yourself consequently all of us want to discover a reliable form which inturn will help uou look for contemplation lacking mix-up. don't forget to be able to take a note of these pages, given that could be someday you may need it all to come back since the inspirational tips.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
