Days 19 & 20: Rough Rider Reunion on Lake Ontario

Paddling back into the Lake Ontario sunset. Mark, Dave, Janet, and others in the distance

Yesterday evening turned into Rough Riders Reunion 2014. In the wise (and paraphrased) words of Mike Peet: "Paddling like it's 2009!" The turn-out was fantastic (26 boats!), and the waves were apparently the largest of the summer. It was a perfect evening for rock gardening and practicing towed rescues. A bunch of the original Rough Riders were present, including Jeff H, Mike, Steven, Dan, Jeff B x 2, Rita & Garnetta, Sue, Ann-Marie, Nick, Dave, and I. It was also fun to meet some newer (i.e. in the last 3 years, so maybe not so new) members. Matt from Brooklyn was in the area for a couple weeks and recently bought a boat from BayCreek. I'll be in NYC on Monday to visit friends, and he provided some helpful tips for kayaking around the City...

Dave explaining the plan for rock gardening and rescue/tow practice

The Rough Riders - a BayCreek Paddling Center group - have been around since 2008 and meets at Durand Beach on Lake Ontario every summer Thursday evening. Yesterday's excellent turnout resulted in a late (6:30pm) start, but everyone launched successfully into the breaking waves and we were soon on our way. We paddled 1.5 miles to the jetty at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay. We were paddling with a rear quarter wind/waves, which means that the waves and wind were at our back, but at an angle. This is one of the trickiest conditions to paddle in. With each stroke the boat turns very easily, making it difficult to maintain a straight course. Since we were in a large group, boats were swerving and bumping into each other all around. 

The launch site at Durand Beach

Dan, Matt, and Jeff bouncing around in the waves

When we arrived at the jetty, Dave managed to split us into two groups and explain the exercises over the sound of wind and waves. The first group practiced rock gardening by kayaking along the outside of the jetty. Here the waves crashed most intensely since they were coming from the NW. With each trip up and down the jetty we found ourselves daring to get closer to the rocks. I was immediately aware of the wave frequency. On the west coast, there is typically between 9 and 15 seconds between waves, providing lots of time to adjust and anticipate each wave motion. Here on Lake Ontario (which is a much smaller body of water than the Pacific Ocean), the wave period is shorter, so waves were arriving every 4 or 5 seconds. Sometimes your boat would be touching two waves at the same time, which leads to very different boat behavior/handling. It also made it harder to predict what the waves would do after they crashed into the jetty and reflected back.

Rock gardening along the jetty

Mike testing his boat control skillz

The second group practiced deepwater rescues with towing. When someone capsizes near rocks or other obstacles (which is quite common since these areas can have confused waves/currents), it may be too dangerous to rescue them in place. This rescue involves two rescuers: one person who performs the standard assisted rescue and another person who tows the rescuer's boat towards safer waters. Usually it's best to have the capsized boat empty and parallel to the rescuer's boat before towing, as the process of emptying can be difficult while in-tow. 

Pink helmet selfie

After some practice, the groups switched. I did a rescue with Dan and a newer member who was feeling a bit sea sick. I was the rescuer and Dan towed. The rescue went pretty smoothly, and she was back in her boat in a couple minutes. However, I stuck both our paddles under the front decklines and found that I was not able to extract them at the end of the rescue. The paddles get thrashed around in a wavey rescue. Next time I'll stick them through decklines closer to the cockpit.

Jeff, Jeff, and Jeff

In true Rough Rider fashion, most of us went out for drinks and dinner at Salvatore's, which is just up the road from the kayaking shop. It was so fantastic to see everyone again, even if only for a short while.

Date: August 7th, 2014
Distance: 3 miles + (exercises at the jetty)
Duration: 2 hrs

The Non-Kayaking Portion
A lot of driving and work happened on Days 19 and 20. I'll skip these parts and just say that after Traverse City we drove to Ann Arbor, spent the afternoon in Amer's (a popular student cafe), made a quick visit to the Arboretum and law library at U of Michigan, and met up with Julia for dinner. Julia's first day of classes was the next day, so we had a quick dinner at Blue Nile, an all-you-can-eat Ethiopian restaurant. Yummy!! We also drank Michigan beer (Bell's Oberon - so delicious) on Julia's new porch with Alex, another Cornell ski-team alum and the local groundhog (see photo to left).