Another questionable paddling day. A group of people from the Rhode Island Canoe & Kayak Association planned to paddle from the Bay Campus of URI in Narragansett to the town beach in Wickford, a paddle of about 6 miles, and possibly back if conditions permitted.

We met at the launch site and looked out at the bay. A sustained  20-knot wind coming straight down the bay, the tide running in, and 4  - 6 foot swells going up the bay below the Jamestown bridge. No breakers, but obviously a small craft advisory out. Of the 20 or so people who showed, all but 3 left immediately and went home. It was early April, after all. I stayed, and pondered it. It was rough, but within my comfort zone, and really wouldn't be all that bad heading into the wind the whole way. Mike and Dave were doing the same, so it was obvious we were going to do something. Eric appeared in his kayak on the horizon, coming from Wickford. He landed, and said it wasn't all that bad going with the wind, in fact, he made record time getting to Narragansett. Just a little bumpy.

That was all the encouragement we needed. We all donned our best cold-water gear, and launched. Eric and I went out about a half mile into the bay to take advantage of the tide and the swells that were opposing the wind. Dave and Mike lagged about a mile behind us, but were together. After about a half hour of little to no progress, Eric began shouting to me that his GPS said we hadn't moved in 15 minutes.  We decided to hug the shore, where we might do better.

After another half hour, we landed on a rocky beach just south of the bridge, and waited for Mike and Dave to catch up. Mike had started the day with a Greenland paddle I had recently built for him, and he wasn't used to it yet, especially in big water and high winds. He switched paddles out on the water, and they got blown backward for a short distance. We all took a break, and decided to stay along the shore because we were making steady progress now. We set back out, and headed for the bridge. This particular bridge is enormous, and spans the entire west passage of the bay. It also acts as a giant wind break / wind tunnel.

Eric waiting for Dave & Mike to catch up with us at a sheltered spot

We got to the bridge, and were all blown backwards by the force of the wind coming under it. We picked our various ferry angles, and got through. We once again took a break about a mile north of the bridge. Mike said coming under there was "Like paddling through the gates of hell".  We were halfway to our destination, so continuing on into the wind seemed to be the best course, considering the swells were now behind us, and we would be better off facing the wind waves that were coming down the bay. We launched again, and headed for Wickford. There are several coves from the bridge on up, and we took advantage of every wind break we could.

This is when the day got interesting. Dave is an enormously strong paddler. He is young, and in really great shape, and still a little too fearless for his own good. Well, he hit his stride, and rocketed away from the rest of us heading towards Wickford. I tried to catch him, to no avail. I had my own problems with the wind -- I had trimmed my boat out towards the bow so it would handle the waves better, so crossing the wind was torture, as it needed to be trimmed to the stern to handle a beam or quartering wind of that magnitude. Needless to say, whenever I crossed the wind, I had to fight with my rudder (Which is why I no longer paddle a boat that needs a rudder). I was keeping an eye on Dave, who was now about a mile ahead of me.

Just as I decided to drop back with Eric and Mike, a power boat passed close to Dave, and I didn't see him anymore. Great. I signaled back that we had to head towards where I last saw Dave, and that something was wrong. We looked over the entire area, and saw no Dave and no debris. One good thing at least. We continued on up the shore, hoping we wouldn't find pieces of Dave's boat, or his severed head floating in the water. We got to the beach, tired and concerned, because Dave wasn't there. We then realized that he probably didn't know where the beach was, and kept going up the shore. There is a large breakwater just north of the beach, which shelters Wickford Harbor, and we hoped he had the good sense to go in there and wait for us.

We waited about 15 minutes, and decided to go into town, and look for him. If we didn't see him, we'd have to call the Coast Guard, and report him missing. Just as we were about to leave, our friend Aline, who decided not to paddle, drove into the parking lot with Dave's boat on her car, Dave inside the car, and she was yelling at him all the way. OK, now it's funny. Sort of.

She was driving through the center of town, and saw Dave sitting on a bridge eating a sandwich. She asked him where we were, and when he said he didn't know, she went off like a volcano. Rightly so. He did not know where he was going, and broke from the group in conditions that warrant staying together for any number of safety reasons. He got out of the car, walked past me, and muttered "Guess I did something stupid, huh?". Well, yeah, he did. We were just glad to see him in one piece. The paddle normally takes about 2 hours at a moderate cruising pace, and we had just done it in 4 hours paddling for all we were worth. No time to be out alone. It was OK to be out there, but not without company and good rescue skills. All in all, it was a fun paddle.

The reason I tell this story is that we've all done this at one time or another, myself included. It's just a good reminder for experienced people and a quick piece of advice for the newbie --- STAY TOGETHER IN LESS THAN OPTIMAL CONDITIONS --- YOU'LL LIVE LONGER.