Today started off with a sunrise trip in Charleston Harbor. I got up at 5 AM, made myself a quick breakfast then headed over to the meeting point at 6 AM. From there we caravanned over to the put-in, about 5 miles from the park. We hit the water just as the sun came up – another beautiful day – and were almost immediately joined by dolphins. There were two to the right of us and a couple more out to the left. They stayed alongside for about ten minutes. That was really cool.
The trip, while really enjoyable, wasn’t very organized. The trip leader’s initial briefing was just that we would paddle towards Ft. Sumter, but would turn around short of the fort so we could get back on time. Except if we wanted to. But then we wouldn’t be with the group anymore. He made no assessment of anyone’s skills, though he did set up a sweep to follow the group. It didn’t take long after launching for the group to get very spread out on the water. I was in the front group with the leader, who was paddling pretty quickly. At one point he did stop and say we should wait for the group to close up, but then he immediately started paddling again. Before we knew it we were landing on the beach at Sumter (the place, you’ll remember, where we weren’t going).
Along the way I had noticed that one woman was getting really panicy. She was paddling an NDK Romany, and said she wasn’t used to the tippiness of the boat. She said she had just gotten it and was used to the greater stability of her old boat, a Wilderness Systems Tempest 170. Since I happened to be paddling my Tempest 170 and am also very comfortable in a Romany (I own one of those too) I offered to switch with her for the return trip. She readily accepted. She had a much happier paddle back, and I got to play in a Romany (still my favorite boat), so it was a win-win. On the paddle back I chatted with one of the woman’s friends, who said that this woman has a tendency to panic under any kind of uncertain conditions, which explains why she was freaking out in what were really very benign conditions – the smallest of rollers from the wind and tide. I’m glad I was able to help her out.
At the end of the paddle I got back into my car and flipped on the GPS to guide me back to the festival, since we weren’t all caravanning back together. Lo and behold, the unit said there was a geocache 350 feet away! I grabbed a pen, hopped back out of the car, and dashed over to make a quick find. By this point the tour guide was ready to leave and lock the gate behind him, so I sprinted back to the car so as not to hold up the last of the group.
I got back to camp about 9:30 AM and had a snack of some cereal and the leftover coffee from early in the morning. Mmmm, cold coffee that had been sitting in the French press for four hours. Maybe not the ultimate gourmet coffee experience, but far from the worst cup I’ve ever had!
The rest of the day was a whirl of classes (Core Paddling with Ben Lawry, Balance Drills w/ Karen Knight), trying out boats (I really like the Valley Aquanaut LV. Must refrain from buying more boats. Must refrain from buying more boats. Must refrain ...), and a spectacular evening show featuring Dubside, Nigel Foster, Alison Sigethy and the team of Karen Knight and Boob Foote.
I finished the evening by hanging out at the campsite with my friends Dan, Kathryn, Marla and Steve. Then I headed back over to my tent where I quickly conked out.
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