The caprice of the wind
We have six different canoe trips on the Annisquam River that we try to take every summer. One of them is to an inlet called Goose Cove, which we didn't make last year because we never had the proper alignment of weather, tide, inclination, and free time. This was particularly unfortunate because it's a really nice place, very quiet and surrounded by forest, interrupted by a few houses; there's never much in the way of boat traffic there.
The trick about Goose Cove is getting there and back; a causeway carrying a major through road has narrowed the entrance to the cove to about 20 feet, with the result that the tidal current rushes through it with a force that human power cannot overcome; thus a trip there has to be timed so that high tide occurs while we're in the cove. (There's also not enough water in it at low tide to be worth the trip.) However, the entrance is north of here, which is "down-tide", which means that the bulk of the trip to and from is unavoidably against the tide. If there's significant wind, at this time of year the banks always funnel the wind on the river so that it comes from the south (at least in any weather in which we're likely to want to be out), which means the return trip is likely to be against both wind and tide, which can be challenging.
So we were very pleased that last Thursday was a pleasant day, warm but not too hot, not humid, high tide was at a convenient 2:07 PM, and there was almost no wind.
Except... "almost no wind" on land, even 100 feet or so from the shoreline, does not mean "no wind" on the river itself. So, after a very pleasant visit to Goose Cove, we found ourselves fighting headwinds all the way back. Also against the tide, but one advantage to having to time the trip to be near high tide is that the tidal current isn't very strong. And the wind was lighter than it sometimes is; we've had occasions in the past when we had to paddle as hard as we could to avoid going backwards, and at least once we had to grab somebody's floating dock so we could take a couple of minutes' rest before we felt strong enough to continue. We did not have that much trouble on this occasion, but it was something of a workout.
Sorry, no pictures; I prefer not to risk photographic equipment in the canoe. jwg has a waterproof case for his phone intended for such occasions, but he couldn't find it.
The trick about Goose Cove is getting there and back; a causeway carrying a major through road has narrowed the entrance to the cove to about 20 feet, with the result that the tidal current rushes through it with a force that human power cannot overcome; thus a trip there has to be timed so that high tide occurs while we're in the cove. (There's also not enough water in it at low tide to be worth the trip.) However, the entrance is north of here, which is "down-tide", which means that the bulk of the trip to and from is unavoidably against the tide. If there's significant wind, at this time of year the banks always funnel the wind on the river so that it comes from the south (at least in any weather in which we're likely to want to be out), which means the return trip is likely to be against both wind and tide, which can be challenging.
So we were very pleased that last Thursday was a pleasant day, warm but not too hot, not humid, high tide was at a convenient 2:07 PM, and there was almost no wind.
Except... "almost no wind" on land, even 100 feet or so from the shoreline, does not mean "no wind" on the river itself. So, after a very pleasant visit to Goose Cove, we found ourselves fighting headwinds all the way back. Also against the tide, but one advantage to having to time the trip to be near high tide is that the tidal current isn't very strong. And the wind was lighter than it sometimes is; we've had occasions in the past when we had to paddle as hard as we could to avoid going backwards, and at least once we had to grab somebody's floating dock so we could take a couple of minutes' rest before we felt strong enough to continue. We did not have that much trouble on this occasion, but it was something of a workout.
Sorry, no pictures; I prefer not to risk photographic equipment in the canoe. jwg has a waterproof case for his phone intended for such occasions, but he couldn't find it.