Release Date 10/27/2015

We paddled across the sound from Orient Point to Stonington CT. 

We were going to to attend some BCU training running in conjunction with the Autumn Gales event run by Kayak Wavelology. 

The Weather and tides were just about perfect.

The details:
Ebb Starts at the Race 11:45
Max Ebb at the Race 14:50 4.0 Kts!

We launched around 10:30 after driving out from Brooklyn. We met at the boat storage location at 7:00AM. Luckily the traffic was light. We even had time to stop at our favorite breakfast place and get egg and cheese on a roll as well as a nice lunch to go and a bit of attitude from the salty fellows running the deli.

breakfast spot out on the north fork.

at Orient Point about to unload the boats

We knew the current would be big. They run the Gales event on the springs or as close as they can get to it. The usual path is along the island string: Plumb, Great Gull, Little Gull, Fishers. Every other time I have done it we went on the South Side of Fishers, but this time we had to be on the North side to get into Stonington. The fastest route would be to paddle East or even slightly to the North to have the current carry us toward the East. This would be a fast but boring trip since it would all be open water not near land, with no chance of a take out. We opted for the usual trip so we could land at Little Gull. My favorite island next to Raul in PNG and 3 Rooker bar in Florida.

A bunch of bird nests not occupied this time of year.

 
We got to Little Gull about 12:30. It was getting kind of rough because of the current and the wind. There were a bunch of pissed off seals on the Island. Some were these huge horse head seals. They are about size of a small cow and they paddled around in the water barking at us. There were just 4 or 5 in the water. As we explored the island we found a bunch more on the East end of the island on the rocks and the shore who didnt pay attention to us.


 

We found a really cool dead seal up on the island that was bleached by the sun with most of its flesh rotted away, just the bones and the skin. We toyed with the idea of trying to take the skull with us, but we didn't have the time or the tools. We later found out that this is totally illegal. This was just a medium one, but teeth were huge you definitely wouldn't want one of these guys biting you!

Yikes teeth. And this is a little guy.

We left Little Gull at 13:30 and headed for Race Rock.


 We pretty quickly had to take a huge ferry angle to keep from being swept way out to sea. As we got into some of the races there were waves to surf. We played a bit, but not to aggressively. We were way out at sea and any out of boat screw-up would have resulted in a mile or two of being blasted straight out to sea.  



Eventually we made it to the eddy created by Race Rock. 



We had a short rest then continued on. I broke out of the race 10 yards further up current than my friend and it 5 minutes he was 250 yards further back than me. I could actually SEE the water 4 inches higher at the top the eddy, there was a ton of current. We really had to fight to get across the 1/2 mile stretch to Fishers Island to have a rest. It was every bit the 4 knots advertised.

Once we got into Fischer's Island Sound we got some current to push us the rest of the way. We landed rigth at 17:30 which was what we planned. We found one free beer in the rental apartment and some hot showers...

You just know this boat is owned by a rich white guy...

Truth: Anticipating something annoying makes it worse.