My first time paddling (whitewater or sea) since October! I decided to revisit Namskaket Marsh, about a 1.5 mile bay paddle from Rock Harbor. On my last visit last October, I did not follow the marsh all the in, only choosing to explore the branch that head to the NE behind the bay facing beaches.
The wind was forecast from the south, which had me anticipating a flat bay, but as is often the case the bay wind and waves seems to ignore the prevailing altitude winds in the weather forecast. The wind was from the west(ish) and the waves were from the WSW. This was also my first time paddling without a phone, but with the Garmin GPSMAP86sci, a marine-grade handheld GPS with built-in InReach for location tracking (and SOS). As always, I also paddle with a waterproof VHF marine radio in my PFD pocket.
I left about 2 hours past low tide, too low to put in at my usual spot so I walked 15 minutes to the Eastham Rock Harbor boat ramp with my kayak cart (which I stow in the rear hatch).
I paddled slow and into the wind with cross-waves to get to Namskaket. Waves were 1-1.5 feet. Partially dropping the skeg always help with the wind and maintaining bearing.
I have paddled all the Cape Cod Bay marshes in Eastham and Orleans. They are all unique, but Namskaket is now possibly my favorite. I arrived at probably the perfect time (mid-tide) where it was just deep enough to be navigable, with a sizeable mid-tide current pushing me in. Navigating marshes in a 16 foot kayak is always challenging (the 12 foot boat is much easier), and while this marsh is very twisty, it remains wide enough that I had little trouble heading all the way to nearly the point of no return — like other Marshes, this boundary is the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which along with Route 6 forms a natural barrier for the Bay marshes on one side and the Atlantic Ocean marshes on the other.
I almost stopped when I came across 3 Mallard ducks staring at me.
None shall pass!
I have a history with paddling and mallards. While kayaking the Toccoa River, I was low-flying dive-bombed by a few. While raft-guiding the Chattooga River, I was chased by 2 angry ducks for over a mile (bringing new meaning to “paddle faster”). Generally they are being protective of young nearby. We stared at each other for a few minutes, and I slowly did a sculling draw stroke to move slowly sideways and edge past them to see how they reacted. They appeared not defensive or uptight, so I slowly paddled by. They just stared with no apparent hostility. On the return trip they had the high ground on the marsh and again just glared at me as I passed by.
The return trip out of the marsh required fighting a significant tide-current. Once out in the bay, I had really good speed with a trailing wind and diagonal trailing seas from my rear port side. This kind of trailing sea makes me a bit uncomfortable paddling – the speed benefit of a trailing sea, but the instability that comes from not always seeing it and coming from one side. But I made great time back to Rock Harbor, with a max speed of 5 mph! (my typical paddling cadence is about 3mph)
I took out at the boat ramp and walked back to the house, hosing off everything.
It takes time getting into a rhythm after not paddling for a while. I cannot find my paddling knife. And I somehow torqued my PVC kayak cart that I made over a decade ago, breaking one of the support legs! I am really dependent on this cart, and Cape Cod Kayak tells me there is no commercial cart that fits in the rear hatch. Mine coincidentally “just fits” into the rear hatch with proper packing when I take one wheel off. I’ll likely rebuild the broken part this week.
My shoulders hurt the next morning. I tried focusing on torso rotations on the bay paddle, but navigating the marsh I likely use them less. I’ll chalk it up to being out of paddling shape for the season.