The idiom is: Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. The meaning: Before judging someone, you must understand his experiences, challenges, thought processes, etc. Earlier this year I struggled to accept the loss of Lexie, my love, my Soul Mate for the last 12 years. Sure, she was a dog, but…
I hadn’t been Motor Free since I was 11. By 11 years old, I had earned enough money working to go buy myself a Mini Bike and thus ended my bicycling days. The Mini bike turned into a dirt bike turned into a car, truck, motorcycle and so forth. Somewhere in all of that progress, I got the idea to get back into bicycling.
A little more that two months ago I had paddled the entire length of Lake Champlain and then the Champlain Canal. Until I reached the last of the locks in Troy, the Troy Federal Lock, I had gone through every lock on the canal alone. Today was different, very different. Today I was packed into the lock with two hundred kayakers and three boats. It was an amazing sight and an amazing opportunity.
I made an announcement on Facebook and the “Welcome Home” messages began arriving, but there was a problem. I wasn’t home. This wasn’t home. Home is where your heart is, right? So where is my heart. I walked around; I visited with my neighbors whom I use to spend so much time with. I walked into my old room. Saw the basement I had worked so hard renovating, all finished. I walked down to the water, the water I had missed so much. This wasn’t home. This is where I use to live and perhaps this will be where I spend a few months as I work things through, but home, no, its not here.
The paddle was leisurely compared to the day before and I had to laugh when a fisherman I was paddling bye commented that I was brave paddling against the current; if he’d only known what I had paddled through to date. Life is relative to your prior experiences. As I approached my last bridge in New Jersey, I turned on my VHF radio to listen to the large fishing boats talk to the Bridge Tender and each other. I enjoy listening to their chatter. I passed under the bridge, turned to Starboard and I was officially in Cape May.
Shortly after I departed, I was trying to stay out of the boat channel, as it looked narrow. Suddenly, my paddle was touching bottom. I shortened my stroke, but the ground was coming up fast, due to low tide. I was trying to get back to deeper water but the wind had other ideas for me. Then it happened. I ran aground…in a kayak!
The tide that had been fighting me started helping me as I neared the next inlet and I reached the end of Sea Isle in record time. I was surprised at how small this inlet was. There was a drawbridge that had to be opened to let the big fishing vessels in from the ocean. I easily paddled across this inlet and reached Avalon just after 5pm.
August 21st 2016 Tuckerton, NJ Rutgers University Marine Field Station I awoke early this morning to the sound of high tide coming in. I quickly checked on Lex-T-Sea and saw her moving in the water. Although she was tied off, I decided to pull her up out of high tide and then back to sleep…
After a rough emotional day yesterday, today was energizing. I left the marina around 9:30 am and paddled down the canal and into the bay. As soon as I hit the bay, I checked my route so I could try to find a landmark to navigate to and realized I’d be paddling right across the large open bay. I was a bit nervous about that as there were no real boating lane here so I’d have to watch all around me for large recreational fishing boats to make sure the saw me. I picked a water tower barely visible on the Eastern Shore of the bay and I began to paddle.
Since landing on Sandy Hook, I’ve lost my drive. At first I figured it was because of the struggle to get through NYC Harbor without being run over. Then battling the Atlantic, then the beach regulations. Now being on the Bay side, the water is easier to deal with and the people are nice, but I still don’t have my drive and desire.