Apalachee River to Causeway VII
Thursday, August 19, 2004 brint.adams@us.army.mil
It has been over a week since I was last on the water and I was anxious to get out and see if I had lost anything. While off, we traveled to Roanoke to see our oldest, Bradley, get married to Misha. It was a great time, everything went very smoothly and the newlyweds seem destined for great things as they start off their new life together. I even got in a couple of days of mountain biking in a great park, with plenty of vertical (a big change from Mobile!) and technical one-tracks to give me some great workouts and beautiful vistas.
One thing that is constant about paddling the delta is knowing that every trip will be different. This particular workout started out with a stiff 10-15 mph breeze out of the SE with 90 degrees and not much current. The tide charts indicated two highs and two lows this day, with the closest a high tide at 4:15 PM, before I started at 6:00, with the next low tide (very little drop) at around 11:00 PM.
So, I headed east towards Blue Gill's, hugging the south shore to try and stay out of the wind and came across my good gator buddy right away. He winked as I passed and I called out "Howdy" to him. There was a live band playing out on the back deck at Blue Gill's, so there was a nice audience as I smoked by. However, when I got to Apalachee, my time of 8:20, didn't seem so smokin' after all. I doubled back and stayed more out in the middle of Pass Picada to try and pick up a little crossing breeze, but my return time was still slow at 17:00.
The conditions got worse as I headed out into open water and angled southwest towards the Causeway and then WNW on to the Interstate bridges. When I got to the turnaround, I was surprised to see my time was a faster than expected 36:10. Somehow the wind, partially to my back, was helping push me along, even though I was fighting to keep heading straight. Once I saw the time, I knew the return would be ugly, as it was directly into a headwind. So, I took a drink, hunkered forward and took off. It was a struggle, and gave the fishermen along the Causeway something to chuckle about. But, even with the tough wind conditions and the week layoff, I managed to finish in 56:13, which I thought was respectable.
It has been over a week since I was last on the water and I was anxious to get out and see if I had lost anything. While off, we traveled to Roanoke to see our oldest, Bradley, get married to Misha. It was a great time, everything went very smoothly and the newlyweds seem destined for great things as they start off their new life together. I even got in a couple of days of mountain biking in a great park, with plenty of vertical (a big change from Mobile!) and technical one-tracks to give me some great workouts and beautiful vistas.
One thing that is constant about paddling the delta is knowing that every trip will be different. This particular workout started out with a stiff 10-15 mph breeze out of the SE with 90 degrees and not much current. The tide charts indicated two highs and two lows this day, with the closest a high tide at 4:15 PM, before I started at 6:00, with the next low tide (very little drop) at around 11:00 PM.
So, I headed east towards Blue Gill's, hugging the south shore to try and stay out of the wind and came across my good gator buddy right away. He winked as I passed and I called out "Howdy" to him. There was a live band playing out on the back deck at Blue Gill's, so there was a nice audience as I smoked by. However, when I got to Apalachee, my time of 8:20, didn't seem so smokin' after all. I doubled back and stayed more out in the middle of Pass Picada to try and pick up a little crossing breeze, but my return time was still slow at 17:00.
The conditions got worse as I headed out into open water and angled southwest towards the Causeway and then WNW on to the Interstate bridges. When I got to the turnaround, I was surprised to see my time was a faster than expected 36:10. Somehow the wind, partially to my back, was helping push me along, even though I was fighting to keep heading straight. Once I saw the time, I knew the return would be ugly, as it was directly into a headwind. So, I took a drink, hunkered forward and took off. It was a struggle, and gave the fishermen along the Causeway something to chuckle about. But, even with the tough wind conditions and the week layoff, I managed to finish in 56:13, which I thought was respectable.
posted by brint @ 11:34 AM
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