Day 5 - Maine flowers!

Today was sort of similar to yesterday so I decided to post photos of the amazing flowers from just ONE block along Bridge Road that we pass to launch our kayaks. SO many varieties in such a short distance...

                                  Some shots from around the harbor on my lunch break...

Morning class covered  weather (wind, tides, current and clouds), Ethics, UHF/VHF radio use and etiquette, Types of PFDs, Duties of Marine Patrol vs. Coast Guard, Harbor Master and the Maine IFW (our guide licensing agency).

After a break, we hit the water again. Sunny and HOT but nice once we launhed at 2pm. We paddled around the Porcupine Islands in the bay, as usual, but had some issues today. During a "backing up" drill in our kayaks, one trainee tipped over in the cold water after hitting a rock, and we had a real rescue which luckily went well. Then a bit later as we crossed a VERY choppy channel in high winds and rolling waves, 20 minutes to cross, one of the trainees, the nice girl from FL who is one of my housemates, got sea sick. We were due to beach our kayaks and take a break soon anyway, so we stopped at the closest island and stayed about 45 minutes.

We practiced towing on the way home, but I was unable to clip on to another kayak because I couldn't keep up. Yikes. 3rd day in a row I seemed to be at the back of the back heading home on the water. Ive worked on my posture and stroke...no idea what the problem is and the instructor seems to take pleasure in reminding me that if I can't keep up or perfect my paddle stroke, I can't lead a group. Thanks dude. Guess he'd prefer to have me wash out now than take the exam and fail...not a good reflection on him. LOL.

I'm not sore from all the days of paddling, and I don't get tired or out of breath... I'm just slow I guess. Ive never had upper body strength. I was also unable to do one of the 2 "self-rescues" in the pool. After you capsize, it involves turning your kayak over and basically launching/ lifting yourself across the front deck on your chest and wiggling back into the cockpit backwards. I was able to do the paddle float self-rescue so I can pass with that, but... I had unhappy flashbacks to 4th grade gym class when I was the only girl that wasn't able to cross the monkey bars because I just had NO arm strength. I also sucked at pushups during those pesky grade school Presidential fitness tests.

When we launch and later return to the sand bar, the kayaks still have to be loaded onto the company trailer, one person at each end, and they are heavy. Female trainees are expected to help of course, and it's been a challenge with my swollen knee to walk, let along lift heavy things. This is starting to feel like boot camp. ha ha. Tomorrow, we trailer the kayaks to the opposite side of Mt Desert Island and launch from Bartlett Island for an ALL DAY paddle. Oh my.... 

 

Bartlett Island is owned by the Rockefellers and lies just off of the western shore of Mount Desert Island, well protected from the weather far up in Blue Hill Bay. Totaling almost twenty-two hundred acres with twelve miles of shoreline, it is a beautiful island whose rocky shores give way to lovely mixed woodlands and a well-maintained farm of several open pastures sloping gently down to the bay. A simple dock in the middle of the island looks eastward to Bartlett’s Landing in Pretty Marsh in the Town of Mount Desert. My phone/camera has been tightly packed away in my kayak dry bag the last few paddles. I'll try to take some island pictures tomorrow!

We have a DAY OFF on Wednesday... ;)