As I previously bogged, this past weekend I spent a wonderful couple of hours paddling in the Sinepuxent Bay. Because this was my first experience with a "bigger" trip, I was a little nervous about going at it alone. My goal was to do some calm/flat water paddling and be able to explore for 4 to 5 hours. In my "book" learning, I knew that I'd need to primarily be aware of boats, wind and the tides.
I narrowed down my launch locations to a small vicinity around where I'd be staying at. I found 2 public boat ramps that lead out to flat water. The first being the Gum Point Landing public boat ramp that would allow me to explore Trilled Creek and possibly even stick my nose into the Isle of Wight Bay. The second being the public boat ramp at Fisherman's Marina and going south into Sinepuxent Bay. Both paddles presented interesting water ways... but, I was more drawn to paddling behind Assateague in Sinepuxent Bay. I don't know why- I just was.
The first part of my pre-trip planning was simply finding the public boat ramp on Trilled Creek. We stopped at the boat launch and watched the water and other boaters for a few minutes. Far from being full-fledged recon, it was sufficient in giving me a feel for the water.
The next part of my planning was to review maps & charts of the area- to become familiar with with my surroundings and to research potential bail-out points. The map that I checked of the area was simply using Google Maps of the vicinity. Using "My Maps", I was able to create a map that had some pointers dropped onto it to identify launch locations. The night before the trip, my sweet wife suggested that I use my topographical map and scope out the area. It identified both public boat ramps as well as helped solidify my potential bail-out points. For charts, I'm cheap and didn't want to plunk down money for paper-charts when electronic charts would give me a good overview. I found a free online chart-viewer that had chart #12211 that is at 1:80,000 ratio of the area. It has an inset of the Ocean City Inlet (at 1:20,000 ratio) that covered Fisherman's Marina launch area and the northern most part of Sinepuxent Bay.
So, the things I needed to be aware of- #1, boats. Each paddle presented it's own challenges with power boaters. For the Turville Creek exploration, there did not seem to be well defined channels and the few minutes that I watched the boaters on the water, they were really hauling er.. fast. Sitting in the midst of the islands and being low to the ground - visibility was a big risk to try and manage. For the Sinepuxent Bay paddle, I had the obstacle of navigating out of the marina with the power boaters and large ships. On my side, the marina is a no wake zone. Once outside of the marina, there was then the power boaters gallivanting off to their fishing holes at high rates of speed -- but! in a well defined and designated channel.
#2, wind. With the Turville Creek exploration, wind would be a much less issue. I'd be down low enough and in the grassy areas, that I don't expect that wind would be much of a factor. For the Sinepuxent Bay paddle, I wanted a wind from the south so that I would be paddling into it on my way out and have it at my back when I was returning. Easterly or westerly winds wouldn't matter much; though, from the west would blow bugs at me. As I don't have much experience with wind, I would lean towards the Turville Creek paddle if the wind were out of the north.
#3, tides. With the Turville Creek paddle, I was warned to be aware that the tides could really rip through these areas. I didn't have tide tables with me when we did a preview of Turville Creek. With the Sinepuxent Bay paddle, I was also warned to watch the currents near the Ocean City Inlet, that they could get rather rip-roaring, high-flying "fun". My goal with that paddle was to avoid the inlet area. I did want to watch the high and low tides and be able to either paddle out against the current and ride it back. Or, paddle right around the changing of the tides and still be able to ride the current back. If I missed both of them, I'd settle and just paddle it anyway.
Armed with a decent amount of knowledge of the area, I decided that it was best to wait until the day before to make a decision on which paddle to make. I was leaning towards the Sinepuxent Bay paddle from an interest perspective, but wanted to ensure that the winds (most importantly) and tides (secondarily) were in my favor. On Thursday night, the winds were forecasted to be out of the South/South-west at 5-10 knots. The tides were predicted be at their lowest around 11:00am and be at the highest around 4:30pm. Everything aligned to make my choice for me.
Next in my pre-trip planning was ensuring my wife that I was confident in my choice (and arming her with knowledge of my float plan), calming my mother and quelling my mom's boyfriend's curiosity of where I was going and what I would be doing. To do this, I would use the:
- Float plan - I used the float plan offered from Sea Kayaker Magazine
- Area map - I used a print of the vicinity map from Google Maps and hand wrote on it my intended float plan
- Atlas map - I used my topographical map and visually & verbally talked through my float plan
I made 2 versions of the float plan - one I left with my wife and family; the other I took with me in my dry bag with the hope that if I got detached from my boat, someone would riffle through my stuff, see it and at least know when I left, when I expected to return and who to call. Thankfully, I didn't need it- so I don't know how that would have actually gone down. On both my float plan and area map, I indicated my potential lunch/stopping points and the point where I would not go further south of.
The last part of my trip planning was what to take and where to stow it for the trip. The Dirigo's layout is very inconvenient - in that I can't really reach any of the deck rigging while sitting in the boat. And to add insult to injury, I planned on paddling with the sprayskirt which requires me to have 2 people to secure it.
On deck (but out of reach):
Under deck, accessible while sitting:
- Accessible while sitting:
- Pelican box containing cell phone, wallet & money
- Nalgene water bottle
- Behind of seat:
- Paddle float
- Sponge
- Bilge pump
- In waterproof container that isn't reachable whilst sitting:
- Snacks (bad idea, I would have liked them while on the water and resting)
- In bow (the Dirigo has no bulkheads):
Stern hatch (this ended up being reachable while sitting still):
- Extra water (6 x 16oz. bottles to be precise)
- Dry bag containing fleece vest, splash top, charts, float plan)
- Lunch cooler
On PFD:
- Knife
- Whistle
- Mirror
- VHF radio (borrowed)
And lastly, here are the things that I would have liked to have, but didn't:
- Spare paddle
- Different snacks (I had pretzel sticks)
The VHF radio was interesting - my mom's boyfriend has one on his boat and he let me borrow his handheld one. We agreed on the channel that we'd communicate on. Unfortunately, I unknowingly changed the channel as I was putting it into my PFD pocket. He tried calling me on it, but didn't get me. Figuring I had my cell phone, he didn't overreact - but, it was definitely a lesson learned.
The water was in the low 60s. A good bit cooler than I expected, as I am quite used to the 70+ degree water that I typically paddle in. In hindsight, I am debating on if my clothing were adequate for the conditions (80 F air temperature). My clothing choices were:
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