We floated in our kayaks below the bluffs of Jims Head. Beyond the harbor entrance, a jagged horizon of rough water undulated offshore. We hoped that it marked the edge of a massive eddy that would diminish as we made our way along Boot Head and the tidal current slackened, affording us the least-bumpy passage around the head.    It was a brilliant, clear day, and Jims Head rose steeply from the sea upon tall fins of dark, flaky rock. There were six of us. Most had been on a Downeast multi-day trip I’d guided at the end of August, and we were continuing from the spot where we’d ha ..read more

Last week we temporarily closed shop here in Stonington to coach at the Schoodic Sea Kayak Retreat. The five-day event gives paddlers of all levels the opportunity to paddle and play in a variety of locations with different coaches each day. Home base is The Schoodic Institute, a former Navy facility in Acadia National Park, near the end of Schoodic Point. There’s apartment accommodations and 3 meals a day at the dining hall… a bit like a summer camp for grownups bent on sea kayaking.    The event is organized by Gerry Polinsky of Sea Sherpa Kayak and Nick Schade, designer a ..read more

As we paddled along Little McGlathery Island, a mild swell washed over the near-shore rocks, lifting our kayaks gently and then dropping them as the waves rebounded from the granite bluffs. Gooseberry Island lay to the south, with Isle au Haut rising behind it. The day had started bright and clear, but now a layer of high, wispy stratus clouds floated over us from the west, the sun a pale disc. Rebecca maneuvered beside me. She said, “Lunch on Gooseberry?” We turned our bows southward.    Paddling excursions had lately been the result of watching the weather, and days ahead ..read more

Our winter excursions tend to be a bit less ambitious than in warmer months, so if we launch from town, we find ourselves at the usual places fairly often. Nothing wrong with that, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d paddled out the Deer Isle Thorofare and, instead of going left or straight, taken a right turn. With all the attention given to the islands between Stonington and Isle au Haut, some nearby neighborhoods are often overlooked, like the southwest corner of Deer isle with its trio of small uninhabited islands just offshore. It really does feel a bit like a watery neighborho ..read more

   I’m lying on the couch, wearing dry clothes, drinking coffee. I managed to sleep an hour or so later than usual. Outside the front windows, fog hangs thick over the harbor. It’s been raining and tires hiss over the wet pavement below. I’m very happy to be here, and happy, for a change, to not be out there on the water. A day off from paddling. My last day off was another rainy day almost two weeks ago, and before that was a similar span of good paddling days, all filled with work. My body feels beat-up. I’ve done my stretches and thinking maybe another ibuprofen may be good. My ..read more

  Although we’ve organized many annual island clean-ups over the years, usually to Wreck and Round Islands, this year it was not on our radar until the Maine Island Trail Association contacted us about their plans, which were a bit different this year. Because of the need for social distancing, it is problematic to put a bunch of diverse people together in a small boat, so MITA has asked people to volunteer for less organized efforts with fewer people. Of course, we could pick-up all kinds of trash out there, but can’t really get most of it back in our kayaks.    MITA organiz ..read more

By ‘remote kayaking,’ I mean ‘remote’ as in ‘virtual,’ as opposed to ‘far away from things.’ I prefer the latter meaning. A month or two ago, the virus prompted pretty much everyone to start conducting meetings and other events via remote computer hook-up chats. For some reason I thought ‘no way, I don’t want to do that,’ and I did manage to mostly avoid Zoom for a while. Maybe it’s part of that tendency that people sometimes have when they get to a certain age where they feel filled-up, overwhelmed with all the new things in the world and want to stop learning. Bad idea, right? I started t ..read more

As with our canoe trip the previous week, we were dragging our feet about getting out to Isle au Haut. I’d made the reservation for Duck Harbor Campground back in early April, which is pretty much the only way to get a reservation for the five-site, National Park campground. As the only public camping area on Isle au Haut, its sites are in high demand. The sites are deluxe – perhaps what some would call ‘glamping’ if you rigged-up a few string lights. Each site has a three-sided shelter, a picnic table and fire ring. There’s a couple of outhouses, and drinking water comes from a well ju ..read more

Because we were cooking chili on the last night, there were the inevitable fart jokes and comments – the lure of sleeping without flies over our tents to allow better air circulation, the hope that the beans would run their course by the next day when we would all pile into the truck at the take-out. One might expect that laughing at flatulence would be the sort of thing we outgrow, but we – all six of us – ranged in age from late forties to early sixties, and we had not outgrown fart jokes.  But then again, it was day three, and we’d been having fun, like kids, laughing easily at just ..read more

We’d been working without much break since June. The guiding business had done well, and in addition we’d kept-on with some of the home improvement work, hedging our bets in case the kayaking work didn’t come-in. But it did come-in, so we worked every day, trying to keep up with it, the rest of the summer stretching ahead like marathons yet to be run. Finally, on Labor Day, we tied the Delphins atop the car and drove Downeast. We felt a weight lifted, just to be driving, a few days-off ahead. We took a few kayak excursions off the Bold Coast, paddling it just the way we like: no ne ..read more