Pirates! And cold water gear test, oh my

Yesterday, I schlepped across the city after work to paddle with the Pirates of Georgetown, a group that's loosely affiliated with the Chesapeake Paddlers Association. They were an overly welcoming group of people and extremely helpful (from parking to what to do and who to pay for the launch fee to helping me carry my boat down to the boat dock). Jack's Boathouse on the Potomac River opens its docks each Thursday evening to the Pirates of Georgetown.

One of the things that drew me to this particular paddle was the advertised "mini-clinic" of testing out your cold water gear. The Potomac River was right around 60° F. Having a support crew in the unlikely case of sinking like a rock (or slightly more likely becoming hypothermic) was comforting. At the end of the paddle, in the dark, I jumped out of my boat and into the water to see how a wet suit feels, how cold water feels and how I respond to it. Other than the ill-fitting PFD and mild rapid breathing (which I was able to pretty quickly get under control), it went exceptionally well. I do think I might want to invest in a heavier shirt as my chest and arms felt a little cool.

Otherwise, the paddle was pretty uneventful. We paddled from the Key Bridge upstream to just below the Chain Bridge. Dave Biss tells me that it was approximately a 5 mile roundtrip. It took me about 2 hours. Thankfully, Dave stuck with me and hid what had to be frustration with my painfully slow paddling speed.

My cold water gear:

• 3mm Farmer John Wet Suit
• Expedition-weight base layer pants
• Mid-weight base layer shirt
• Poly t-shirt
• PFD
• Hat (but, forgotten for this trip)
• Poly sock liners
• Neoprene socks

My cold water lessons learned:

• 60° F isn't terrible, if you're dressed for it
• My hands got pretty cold, but were still usable
• Tighten my PFD! Nothing's cool when your PFD floats, but you don't
• Don't use the mesh bag for my paddle float (I had a bear of a time getting the mesh bag opened while it was under the deck rigging; I'm not sure why.)
• My carabiners should have flotation (I didn't lose any, but the thought of dropping one worried me a little)
• Always be prepared for immersion; I'm glad I planned on jumping in because I ended up falling in when trying to get out of the boat and onto the dock

Map of Jack's Boathouse, Washington, DC