Category: Paddle Bob

sunrise_09_17_08.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

My friend Tom was over on Tuesday night, and we were marveling at the moon. It’s started to wane, and Tom noted it’s a gibbous moon and that the light the moon casts across the earth is called the moonglade. Needless to say, that was on my mind before sunrise Wednesday when I was paddling through the light of that gibbous moon as it reflected off Lake Loudon.
I really wanted a photo of the moon. It was impressive. But I had to settle for this sunrise. Not a bad bargain, I guess. But I really wanted a shot of that gibbous moonglade.
I paddled Prater Flats again, focusing on center islands and stumbling across a few shallow coves I’d yet to explore. Probably put in about 6 miles or so.

rock_city.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

I came across this odd scene just upstream from Choto Marina during this morning’s paddle. One of the little people on the bench was painted white, which I guess was an attempt to mitigate the racial weirdness of the little black dude holding the U.S. flag. The white boy gets to proudly wave the Vols colors. Gotta love the Rock City birdhouse …
The water was calm this morning, quite a contrast to yesterday, though the wind start picking up as I paddled. I cut to the south shore and followed it up past the entry to Prater Flats. I explored a few coves upstream from the flats and then cut over to the north shore at the daymark at mile 614, so that means I put in at least 8 miles. I didn’t see one boat out there the entire time, though I did scare up a bunch of herons.

boat_rack2.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

It wind was gusting today and there was a heavy chop in the cove while I set up the boat rack in this photo. After I was done, I decided to tempt fate and get out in the rough stuff to gain a few paddling experience points.
I had a lot of fun paddling into the wind and watching the water break over the bow of the kayak. When I got to the main channel, I decided to make a run over to Tom’s to do a drive by. I dropped the rudder for the first time since I bought the kayak to help me stay on track in the waves. It worked beautifully. (I’ve been shunning the rudder for the most part to force myself to learn how to control the boat through paddling, but today I figured I needed to focus on staying in the damn thing and decided the rudder would let me focus on that rather than drifting off course.)
It was a nice adrenaline rush overall. Almost dumped a few times but managed to stay upright and I even stopped by Tom’s dock to talk with him for a bit before heading back. I had a harder time paddling with the wind at my back than I did moving into the wind. It was harder to read the waves and roll with things, but once I got the hang of it I managed to “surf” a few times, hopping on a roll and staying with it for a bit.
Overall, pretty minor league stuff in the big picture, but it built my confidence and made me want to get out in the ocean that much more.
As for the dock, I put in a Suspenz rack to organize things. It’s designed so the boats rest on straps instead of the cross bars.Very easy to load and unload them. I have the canoe in “backward” to keep water out of it, and I’ve ordered a cockpit cover for the kayak with the same scheme in mind.
I bolted the entire thing to the dock to make sure it doesn’t get blown into the cove. Even in the gusty winds we had today it seemed pretty stable and solid.