Eastern Egg Rock, July, 2005

This past July, Judith and I spent a week in Maine paddling in Muscongus Bay. One of the trips we planned was to go puffin watching out at Eastern Egg Rock. I had gotten an email from Celia, and acquaintance from paddling.net, who was interested in doing that paddle, too. She and her husband Jim were staying in Friendship, about a mile and a half from where we were staying in Medomak as the crow flies, 3 miles by kayak, & 18 miles by car. The maine coast is like this.

The greatest morning view around!

We got to their place, and started getting ready. Mike, a local paddler and professional kayak builder that Celia & Jim know, showed up & got his stuff together, too. Our plan was to cross Muscongus Bay from Friendship south to Black Island, & then hop out to Eastern Egg Rock, some 8 miles out from our launch, and then paddle back after hopefully seeing puffins.

Eastern Egg is the southernmost rookery for Atlantic Puffins, and is listed as a 7 acre rocky island, and you can't land there because it's a wildlife sanctuary. Once you get to the outermost of the main body of islands in the bay, you see little egg to your left, Eastern Egg due south of you, and Western Egg to your right, all about 2-3 miles away. Easy navigation on a clear day.

The day was warm, sunny, and the winds were light & the seas near dead flat. An onshore breeze was supposed to kick up in the afternoon, and that would push us back to Friendship. Sounded too good to be true. All but Mike wore drysuits because of the distance we'd be offshore, and he said he'd considered it, but went with the local custom of a bathing suit and t-shirt once the water temperature gets slightly above that of liquid nitrogen. Actually, the water was 60 degrees, and a pair of neoprene rodeo shorts and a surf shirt would have been adequate (Which is what I wore the rest of the week).

Franklin Island

We paddled to Black Island & took a short stretch. Then, it was on to Harbor Island, and then Franklin, where we'd make the crossing from. We got a compass bearing on Eastern Egg, and made our crossing. We had been escorted by harbor porpoises all morning, and they stayed with us all the way out, about 100 yards to our west & paralleling our course. We watched puffin tour boats & lobster boats chugging around the island as we approached.

Mike & I got to the island first, and Celia, Jim & Judith were right behind. Cameras were unpacked, and the hunt began. There were shearwaters, guillemots, eiders, & gulls all around, but not a puffin to be seen. We started circling the island at a slow pace, keeping an eye on the rocks. There was an inflateable boat on the rocks, and several researchers walking around the island. Still no puffins. I looked at Judith & asked if she saw anything, and just as I asked, I saw three puffins swimming in front of her kayak, maybe 5 feet away. We both pointed and said "puffins!" loud enough that everyone else heard, and we started shooting pictures.

Celia and Mike went around to the south side of the island, and came across a dozen or so puffins in the water, and they flew a short distance away & went about their business. Celia & Mike came back & told us about it. We had about 6 of them swimming near us, and I was hand paddling behind them taking pictures. I spotted a huge puffin (OK "huge puffin" is a contradiction in terms, but you get the idea) on a rock, and I paddled closer as slow as I could to get a picture. I got the picture and started backing away. When my angle to the sun changed, I saw that I had taken a picture of a decoy! I paddled back out laughing & Jim said he'd just done the same thing. We had a good laugh about it.

OK, so Puffins are hard to photograph with a fixed-focus camera.............

Once we had seen all there was to see, we paddled back to Black Island for lunch, still escorted by porpoises. We had the wind and the tide at our backs now, and we made great time all the way back to Friendship. The heat had caught up with those of us in drysuits by this time, so Judith and I had an impromptu rolling session once we got back to the cove. Felt great! Jim said that we had entertained several locals in the process & that now when he & Celia practice rescues in the cove, people won't think they're just a couple of weirdos. Well, they might just think that they have company in their dementia.......which is good.

We had drinks & snacks at Celia & Jim's cabin afterwards & decided the next time we're all up there, we're paddling to Monhegan.