Ches Bay, above & below..

Posted by Stephen P on May 29, 2004

I too am fortunate to paddle on the Ches Bay, down in the area where the Patuxent River enters. It's not wilderness but definitely not a built up industrial wasteland.

Some of the recent wildlife I've seen in the last couple of years are the schools of mating rays that are tremendously powerful and stealthily eerie in their flying swimming. I have been fortunate to float above a group of ten plus of these animals and been in awed by their majesty. I accidendly rear ended one in my Yare last summer and there was a ten foot plume of water as the ray exploded into life and a shuddering thump through the entire hull.

Another recent addition is the brown pelicans. There is a colony near Smith Island that is twenty plus miles from where I paddle but in the summer I will often see a group gliding above the surface of the water looking for their next meal.

Stephen

PS I did a few practice rolls this evening after my workout paddle. I am self taught and there are some good instructions available on the web, took about a week to succeed, visualization of paddle and body placement helped a lot.

However, if you can't roll (Kurt), learn how to re-enter with a paddle float. Even my stripped down race boat (Pax18) has bungies on the rear deck to perform this most essential maneuver should it be needed.

I had a lot of fun flipping over and righting myself. A nice change of pace from paddling with a mission.

sp

In Response to: Re: clapotis, from the gr by Petewp on May 27, 2004

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