Surprised but excited that the water was already so warm, I was happy to head back out. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the week did not look so great for Friday (my paid day off during the summer), and Saturday I would have to work our booth at Stratford Day. Fortunately Wednesday was nice, so I took the day off as comp time for Saturday.
I got to Birdseye Dock around 1pm and it was beautiful. I unloaded my board and walked down to the water, which was about two hours from high tide, so I didn't have to walk through the muck or duck crap to reach the water. I stretched at the edge of the water then carried my board over before loading up on sunblock. As I paddled out into the river I stood up and took my first look through the water, and was pleasantly surprised to find there wasn't a single jellyfish visible, red or otherwise. After waiting for some boats to pass I headed across the river towards the marsh. I tried to go in the first entrance upstream, but unfortunately winter and spring weather had dammed that path since last year. I headed farther upstream, my music cranking from my waterproof speaker, and soon reached a more significant entrance to the marsh (although not the main channel through it).
I paddled into the marsh, sending ducks flying as I passed the first corner. I stuck to a familiar path, taking left after left until I ended up in a nice calm pond in the center of the marsh. I could see a few turtles checking me out from various spots across the calm water, poking their heads up above the surface of the water. I paused the music and sparked up, enjoying the calm water and not having to paddle every few seconds to keep myself in position like my first paddle of the year.
After finishing I started paddling back out, again scaring some ducks who had settled in my path out. After a few rights I saw some kayakers approaching in the distance. They quickly neared, and I saw it was an older gentleman and his very cute daughter of probably 20 or so. They asked me if they could get to the main channel of the marsh through this path, and while I advised them there was a path through one way or another, it had been a year since I had found it and their 14-foot kayaks were unlikely to be able to turn around at the dead ends in their attempts to find it. I gave them directions to the pond I had used, knowing they could easily turn around there. We departed company, and I turned my music back on as I continued my paddle back out to the river.
I headed back downstream, paddling up the middle channel of anchored boats from the Yacht Club. I slowly approached Birdseye Dock, arriving just as the anchored boats began to turn with the changing tide.
Couldn't have asked for a nicer day on the water. It would be nice if I could go out again Friday, but I wasn't getting my hopes up.
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Friday came with strong winds, making it too dangerous to go out on my SUP. Saturday I did Stratford Day with our agency Access Independence (formerly Disability Resource Center of Fairfield County), and by 5pm when it ended I was wiped. Fortunately Sunday brought nice weather, so I was able to go out again, launching at Birdseye around noon and heading upstream then into the main channel of the marsh.
Sunday's paddle was rather uneventful, other than having to head back to the dock to grab some bottled water from the food truck after my Camelbak bottle abandoned me overboard. I didn't even see it go, so having only one bottle of water left I was forced to head back to the dock, fortunately only 10 minutes away at that point.
The only other thing worth mentioning is the very strong upstream current that made my paddle back from the marsh to Birdseye an arduous task. I stopped at a small beach along the marsh briefly to change my music specifically for the hard paddle, throwing together a quick playlist of faster-paced music by Offspring, As I Lay Dying, Suicide Machines and NOFX. That made my strenous paddle against the current a little easier, and I finally reached Birdseye after almost an hour of paddling (a paddle that takes like 15 minutes in calm water).
Unfortunately week 3 was a week of thunderstorms and strong wind, so tune in soon for updates on my week 4 paddles including pictures, which I will make sure to include from now on (per request)!
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