chamois

Sunday ended up being a fairly lazy day. One of the contractors we've been talking to came up to see the land. We had previously sent him various documents describing the desired house floor plans and specs but we still don't have them concise enough so people can just tell what we want. So this meeting was also to hand wave over them. The good news is that this guy is pretty well in tune with what we want unlike some of the other people we've talked to.

We also had a cookout with our first local corn of the season. It was just that sort of day that begged to sit outside and enjoy it. Then our land lady got back from the aerobatic competition they'd been at for the weekend. And a little bit later out landlord buzzed the house on the way back to his hangar. There is just something cool about watching him wave his airplane at us.

And for the last fun of the day, we finally got around to picking Tyson's motorcycle up from winter storage. The combination of not enough time and a rainy early summer had kept us from doing it before. We actually rode tandem on the way over with me driving.

To the sailboater who came by to check on us, thanks, but we were fine. To the other boat who was worried about us and called the coast guard, you could have just come asked us yourself. To the first coast guard boat, thanks for coming and checking up on us, we're doing fine, and we'll call when we get back this afternoon. To the second coast guard boat, geez, we aren't late getting back yet or anything. Thanks for the escort though.

sigh

It was a lovely day. One of the first sunny ones in a while. Tyson and I were joined by someone he'd met via the online forums from one of the paddling clubs he's recently joined. This guy will actually be one of our competitors in the Blackburn next week, but his paddling partner was busy today, so he was paddling his solo. We kind of sized each other up at the put in when we met and decided that it seemed like a reasonable chance to paddle out to the Isles of Shoals. These are some islands 6 miles off the coast from Portsmouth.

Going out was kind of slow because there was an opposing wind. There were enough waves that my gloves got pulled off the deck. I apparently hadn't secured them. So we backtracked and picked them back up. The worst part of paddling out was actually the last 30 minutes when I really had to go to the bathroom and we were almost there but not there yet.

We sat on the main island and enjoyed a nice lunch. The weather really was awesome compared to the Seattle imitation we have been enduring recently.

Then we paddled back. The wind had been blowing for long enough now that there were white caps. Unfortunately we were going a little sideways to the wind so we could not quite surf the waves. The combined wind and seas still managed to take us home at a reasonable rate even though we weren't paddling too fast.

There was this one little bird that was nifty to watch. It was a little black and white thing. It flew right above the water up and over the waves and back down into the troughs. And all the while it was skimming its feet in the water.

On the way out we also spotted a dead seal pup in the water.

Sunday I went off to the last day of my climbing safety class and Tyson went to go flying with his dad.

The class was held at a local crag I've never been to before. It wasn't big, but given it's proximity, I'll want to go back. The road to the crag was flooded from heavy rains a couple of days back. This day of the class was testing us on the technical skills we had learned last weekend, and then going over some AMC NH trip leading standards.

Some time during the day mj2q called me up to ask if dinner could get moved from monday to that evening. So then I had to call Tyson to make sure he hadn't made plans with his folks, and the call Mark back. In the end, Mark and Anh decided to get dinner on their own and just stop by for desert. So then I had to run home to make dinner for us before they showed up.

We did the usual tour of the neighborhood. I showed off my skis and boats. And we had ice cream and strawberries.

The neighborhood holds a cookout and airplane rides and fun every July 4th. I was looking forward to the fun. But after Friday's dismal performance paddling, we needed to go back out. This time we just went to Essex bay since it is closer. This time we set out without a goal to cover distance, but rather play around with finding the stability points on the boat.

The day ended up absolutely gorgeous. It was the first sunny day in a long while. We took plenty of stops to stretch. We only went 13 miles, but we managed to feel much more comfortable in the boat. We didn't even have any issues fighting the 15 knot wind on the way back. So, it seems that if we're relaxed, make sure the boat is comfortable, and limber up with some stretching, we should be ok for the race. We've got one more week to practice.

Friday we took our day off to go paddling. We went to the southern portion of Cape Ann, what will be the last segment of the race. There weren't many waves, but there was a bit of chop. The day started off badly with us putting in late and grumpy. Tyson complained that I was still trying to tip the boat over. And we weren't going nearly fast enough. Then Tyson's back started complaining about his backband which we later figured out had loosed up. This caused Tyson to tense up. The one lesson we did learn from the surf skis is that once you tense up, they become ten times tippier. So he ended up bracing while I paddled most of the way back. It was pretty much a disaster, we didn't go nearly far enough or fast enough.

This weekend I took the NH AMC course that is the precurser to leading club trips.

Saturday the rain managed to hold off for most of the day, so we had the class outside in hot sunny weather. We reviewed how to set up top rope anchors. We went over a couple of knots and hitches. The new one for me was the munter hitch. Then we practiced rescuing people by ascending up the belay line using a gri-gri. We swapped belays without dropping the climber. And we learned how to tie off an ATC so you can take your hands off it.

Sunday was rainy from the start, so we ended up inside a gymn with lights on motion sensors that kept turning off. Quite the contrast from the previous day. We reviewed top rope setups from bolts. And then we learned the munter-mule knot and how to use it to escape from a belay. My partner and I got done early enough with that excersise, so I played around with ascending with prusiks and then rapelling past a knot in the rope. Lastly we went over some details of how to belay from the top of a cliff which differed markedly from what I had previous done.

I have to practice all this stuff this week for the exam next Sunday.

We took the afternoon off work and went to go paddle the rented surf skis in the ocean. The spot we chose is Ipswich Bay in MA. This area has a combination of a protected bay and easy access to the ocean. It also happens to have a couple sand bars that are good for surfing on, but that's for other trips. However, today the seas were quite small, so there weren't any real waves worth worrying about. The one issue was that the tide was going out until 7PM, so we would have a bit of current opposing us going back in, but we've dealt with it before.

I started out in the skinny V10L. Pretty much immediately I was nervous and tight and constantly battling falling over. Tyson was reasonably calm and collected given that he had already paddled the V10Sport for a couple hours yesterday. I actually made it a good distance before I tipped the boat over. So we did a deep water rescue. Shortly thereafter we came ashore and swapped boats.

Once in the more stable boat, I could actually pay attention to my form. It still felt kind of tippy, but manageable. Tyson in the V10L was doing ok, but really only managing one or two paddle strokes between braces. All this made me start to feel a bit less like a loser and actually enjoy the day. The only issue was that I was getting hungry and thirsty, but everything was back at the car because the boats have no storage space.

Eventually I was feeling confident enough that we swapped boats. This time we managed to swap in the water. For the first 30 seconds I had nice form and wasn't tipping the boat. I was rather proud. Then everything went down hill. Eventually, after I think two swims, I aceeded to trading boats again.

Tyson swapped boats with me hanging on from the water. Then while paddling the skinny boat around to help me into the V10Sport, he tipped the boat over. Thus we now had two people out of their boats in the water. Well, the one bit of gear we had put under the one bungee on each boat was a paddle float. So we commenced our self rescues. I got up onto my boat the first time, but then flipped it over the far side. So I was more careful the second time. Just about as I was getting myself situated, I watched Tyson make the same mistake. So I paddled over and helped him up.

Either from being in the water too long or something, but Tyson proceeded to flip his boat over 3 or so more times within the next 10 meters. Me laughing my ass of probably didn't help. So finally I swapped back into the V10L. By now I was feeling relaxed, and had a little more practice with the more forgiving boat. I still had to pause and relax somewhat frequently, but I was starting to like the V10L. I did ok in some small chop. I even managed to surf a couple small waves. It is amazing how small of a wave a racing boat will surf. So I think we mostly achieved our goal of learning how to be comfortable and paddle well in tipppy boats. I did still end up in the water a few more times.

We did a poor job of navigating the currents going back in. We ended up against the sand bars in the middle. So we portaged those to get past the pinch point with fastest current. We both were starting to get reasonably hungry and cranky. I was tired enough that I requested the V10Sport. And we puttered in to the beach. Tyson actually finally seemed to get the hang of the V10L on that last part.

We got back too late to return the boats, so we'll be doing that tomorrow. And then we found a sub joint open until 11pm for dinner.

Once we get the house done, I think both Tyson and I will be investing in some faster fancier boats, although probably not all the way to these racing machines.

Today we went down to Charles River Canoe and Kayak to rent some solo skinny tippy kayaks. It happened that there was a clinic being offered on the forward paddle stroke, so we signed up for that too.

There was some confusion about which boats we were taking out, so for the clinic, Tyson got an Epic V10-sport and I got a random nice boat whose make I can't remember. It is unfortunate that I can't remember the make because I rather liked that boat. What Tyson was in is technically a surf ski. It is a sit on top, except it is a racing boat.

The clinic was taught by an olympic medalist, which was kind of cool. And there was a group of people racing in the background, so he got to use them as examples. He went over how to do a stroke correctly. Where in this correctly is the way that delivers the most power without fatiguing the body. He went over common mistakes, of which I identified a couple that I do. And some excercises to improve on various parts of the stroke.

Then we all paddled around a bit. Despite how easy he made it look, I felt like I was trying to juggle while holding a spoon with an egg in my mouth. He gave everyone a few words of constructive criticism. I don't think I have learned anything yet, but I have a list of things to work on.

Then the outfitter was closing so we had to go find my actual rental boat. They eventually found it. It's a really fancy boat that I'm not supposed to blow on wrong or it might break. I paddled it briefly to get from there back over to where we had parked, and wow is it tippy. It's an Epic V10L, so mostly like what Tyson has but a little skinnier, a little longer, and a bit lighter.

By the time all those shenanigans were done, it was dark and late, and we are still driving home now.

Yesterday, we went and had lunch / afternoon cake with Tyson's family for his nephew's birthday and father's day. There was the usual mahem of kids running around.

We finally managed to do 20 miles in the kayak today. However it wasn't all we had hoped for.

We headed out from Portsmouth, NH going north along the Atlantic coast. The initial bit in the bay was fine, but once we got out to the unprotected coast, the waves started to be an issue. The seas were at least three feet and some of the bigger waves were headed towards six feet. Despite our surfing experience the previous week, Tyson was getting stressed and tense from trying to keep the boat upright. We ended up stopping at a beach about five miles out to stretch and take some pain killers for unhappy muscles.

The next issue we ran into was that when I use my whole body to paddle, my leg movement rocks the boat. On flat water, Tyson had managed a similar technique and we were ok. But on the ocean, Tyson felt the need to brace a lot. So we were sort of working at cross purposes. I thought it worked well when I convinced Tyson to stop bracing nearly so agressively so that I could help brace too. However, I'm willing to let the boat tip a lot more than Tyson is, so he wasn't nearly as happy with it . At times the best compromise was to alternate who paddled and who rested.

Then I started getting sea sick. I rarely get seasick, but the waves combined with the twitchy boat was enough to get to me. This started just before the turn around point. The whole way back, I couldn't even look down at my chart to figure out where we were.

And then most of the way back was just a terribly long slog with both of us tired. Today was eight miles longer than the longest we have done this year even on flat water. I did request a stop back at the beach five miles out to let my queasiness subside enough to eat some and get some energy back into me.

5.5 hours total time which would just barely get us back before the end of the race.

Listening to the radio, I heard them play a song titled 1919. This made me think about how we used to say dates as hundreds and then ones — nineteen nineteen — and now we say the complete number — two thousand nine. Somewhere around 2002, I heard someone else discussing this issue and they postulated that we would switch back around 2010, but I haven't observed this happening. Instead, my guess is that it will change back in 2100. The difference between saying two thousand one hundred and saying twenty one is significant.

But then it occurred to me that I won't be around to learn if my hypothesis is correct.

We went out for our second time with the kayak meetup group that we found through Mike. Every other week this group appears to have a kayak surfing session off the NH coast. Tyson suggested that we should take the tandom so that we could learn to deal with it in waves in a somewhat protected environment with other folks around. I thought this was somewhat of a waste of a surfing oportunity since I didn't think the odds were high that we would surf a 23 foot boat.

There were fewer people than last time. I think one of them other than Mike we had met before. Tyson had also dragged a co-worker along. The put in spot is in a completely protected bay, so we couldn't tell how the waves were going to be until we got out a bit. The first spot, which we had also skipped last time, was somewhat tame and had lots of rocks. We then tried the northern beach which was where we ended up last time. That had plenty of fine waves, so we stayed there a while. And finally we tried the southern beach which had more powerful but slightly more erratic waves.

Well, we found out we could surf the Bullitt. There are still plenty of coordination issues to work out for optimal performance. But we spent pretty much the whole evening surfing in, turning the boat around, punching back out, and turning the boat around again to catch the next wave.

The boat is long enough that surfing is a little interesting. When we caught a good wave, the nose tends to dive, which means that I get water running against me and spray well over my head. When we get pushed sideways, the boat is long enough that Tyson can be bracing against the wave, but I'm far enough out that I can't do anything. Punching back out is kind of interesting too. Either I got a full body slam from the wave as we went through or I got a roller coaster ride over the top of the wave as I rode up into the air.

And, to answer the question we had set out with, yes we definitely can handle waves in the boat. We only got rolled over once (which was many fewer times than everyone else out there) and we easily rolled back upright.

All in all, a great evening with plenty of shrieking on my part. Photos will be posted once we get home or tomorrow or something.