| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-08-22 08:54:52 UTC-0400 |
| Description | This was an advanced sea kayak trip from Stonington Maine through the Deer Isle Archipelago to Wheat Island for camping over Aug 17-19. Participants ended up just being me (Rick Abbot) with Sarah Perez and Mike Pintal.
I have now lead this trip 6 times for MITOC as it goes to one of the paddling meccas on the east coast. This is due to a high density of small islands, many with public access. Wheat Island, where I usually try to camp, is about 5 miles off the coast, with 2 sections of open ocean crossings with a dense island archipelago between. The last of the crossings is an exposed 2 miles. This area can be very foggy so navigation skills are required as well as the ability to handle rough seas. We launched from Old Quarry Ocean Adventures and Campground which I have always found to be very nice with easy ocean access. We found 3 others on our camping island who we joined by their below-tide-line and driftwood-only fire at night. We found one of them to be a very good musician who managed to try to honor all our song requests. It rained hard on Saturday morning, and then it cleared with wind, and so we ended just relaxing on the island for the day. Except that Mike did some snorkeling for mussels which we steamed for dinner; they were the best as I've ever had. Our return crossing had us heading directly into a 20-25 knot wind. Certainly a defining trip. Some of my pictures were taken through a waterproof case which did get salt and spray on it and you'll see that. |