I figured today was my last chance to do a long distance paddle before Saturday’s 10 mile race. So today I set off up Irondequoit Bay up to the bridge and back. That’s about 5.3 miles. Monday when I tried to go 6 miles, I got sore in the shoulder and had to cut it down to 4 miles, and that had me worried.
Today I started off slower, but set myself a goal to get all the way to the “One Mile Point” without stopping, which I did. I took a good long drink, and the set myself the goal to get to “Two Mile Point” (closer to 1.8 miles, actually) without stopping, and while I had a few one stoke pauses, I managed to paddle mostly continuously all the way there. Then I set myself the goal to get to the bridge (about 2.7 miles) continuously. I had to take a couple of short pauses, but I managed to get to the bridge, turn around and paddle part way back before I took a long pause for a drink. But part of that is because the amount of boat wake up that end of the bay was getting crazy, so I had to wait for a long enough gap between the wakes, at a place I think of “The Bermuda Triangle”. The sun was starting to go down, and it seems like every boat in the bay had to make one last run down the length, and I was getting hammered all around. At one point two very fast boats split and went around me so their wakes hit me from both sides simultaneously. I managed another long drink at Two Mile Point, but the next part between Two Mile Point and One Mile Point was absolutely crazy – I remember yelling at one point “THIS IS NOT FUN” as I braced like hell. An absolutely gigantic fast boat went by when I was near Two Mile Point – the wake was very large, but well spaced and well defined so it wasn’t a problem, but the reflections kept coming back and combining with other wakes from other directions to make things difficult.
When I got to One Mile Point again, I took another long pause and a drink. And then I tried to make it all the way home without any pauses, but I still needed a few short ones. Unfortunately I didn’t bring a watch so I don’t have times, but it felt a lot faster and I felt like I was doing a better job of paddling continuously. And afterwards, I didn’t feel completely bagged, although now it’s a few hours later my shoulders are starting to feel tight.
Oh yeah, “The Bermuda Triangle” – I should explain. It’s about half way between “Two Mile Point” and the bridge, and not quite in the middle of the bay. It’s directly off-shore from a marina and gated community on the west shore. The waves sort of swirl around this area, and you can see it from a distance away because of the way wakes sometimes break on it. Right in the middle of it, there is a gas bubbling up that smells like sulphur or mercaptan. Somebody should go out there with a boat and collect the gas to see if it’s a natural gas leak.