(Sorry, but as a paddler living near Irondequoit Bay, and a Great Big Sea fan, I realize I’ve probably used that title a few times already. Too bad.)
Today I met up with Doug, Bill and Steve at Baycreek Paddle Center for a paddle on Irondequoit Bay. I didn’t look at the weather beforehand, and just assumed it was going to be as horrible as it had been all week, so I dressed in my farmer john wet suit and long sleeve turtleneck. It turned out to be quite reasonable early fall weather, with temps in the mid 60s, and so I was boiling hot as we got ready. Bill, who was dressed very similar to me, just took off his shirt and paddled only in the farmer john. I, on the other hand, decided that since it was Baycreek’s annual sale, and since I’d been looking for something to wear for weather in between the running shorts and singlet of the summer and the farmer john and long sleeves of late fall, so I bought some better clothes.
It was my first time out on the bay, and my first significant waves, in the Thunderbolt. It wasn’t as wavy as it has been on hot days in the summer, but there were still a few boat wakes. And the consequences of a dump were probably a bit worse, so I’d call it even. There were places which required 100% concentration, with nothing spared for conversation or looking around. But overall, I feel that I wasn’t any shakier out there than I’d been in the early season in the Looksha.
Jim M caught up with us after about 25 minutes. He was as smooth as usual, and was talking about how much fun the waves were in places where I was concentrating on not dumping rather than having fun.
We went up to the bridge, and a little bit further. I’d forgotten my GPS, but the others told me it was about 7 1/4 miles. The first and last half mile were horrible “suck water” as the water level appears to have gone down quite a bit since the time trial season. But it was fun and I’m feeling a lot better about eventually getting comfortable in waves in this boat.