# A Great Day on the Water



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Up at 6:30 AM. Breakfast, and the hour and a half drive to First Bridge and the launch site. In the sea kayak and on the water by 9:15, riding the ebb out onto the waters of Little Egg Harbor. A glorious morning, with a steady 6-knot ESE breeze in my face as I headed toward the outer perimeter of the marshy islands that lie just off the NE shore of the Great Bay Boulevard State Wildlife Management Area, better known as "Seven Bridges". Perfect weather for a day trip, with just a few patches of gauzy cirrus overhead. The line of cumulus stops at the water's edge, as there are no columns of rising warm air over the bay to sustain cumulus development.

Several rays swirled up from the sandy bottom as I passed overhead, and innumerable Diamondback Terrapins would suddenly slide into the water from the marshy banks. Gulls, terns, willets, and American Oystercatchers screamed overhead or nearby, as cormorants and brown pelicans lumbered into flight. I moved easily along, from one island to the next until East Sedge, where I and the archipelago shoreline turned 90 degrees and I headed due south. About a mile off, the official New Jersey Tall Ship, the reconditioned old Delaware Bay oyster dredge schooner A.J. Meerwald placidly glided along the Intracoastal Waterway off Beach Haven on Long Beach Island.

As the tide continued to ebb, I crossed over to the Holgate unit of the National Wildlife Refuge that occupies the southernmost part of Long Beach Island. A low sandy shoreline with occasional pockets of marsh and dune, a precious secluded and protected nesting ground for threatened shorebirds; no landing or trespassing allowed. I continued SSW along the shoreline on the ebbing tide. Three US Fish and Wildlife Service employees were distant figures inland onshore, watching birds through binoculars and taking notes. As the ebb slackened and then turned to flood, I had reached the farthest point of my journey, and I crossed back the mile or so to reach the shoreline of the Seven Bridges peninsula where I stopped for lunch and watched the flooding tide build in strength. I would have a fair wind and a fair tide for my return to the launch site.

The run north along the Seven Bridges shoreline was effortless, helped by tide; I hardly had to dip my paddle. Glossy ibis, long-billed marsh wrens, various sorts of sandpipers, the ubiquitous gulls and terns. Rounding Foxboro Point onto Marshelder Channel, I now additionally had the breeze at my back. There was the usual gentle tide rip at the point, and schools of leaping baitfish trying to escape predators. More terrapins. A distant group of three bald eagles, perhaps uncertain as to my intentions, took flight and began their spiral searching for a thermal to take them high aloft. Then a profound silence, broken only by the sound of the wind, the distant surf from the far side of Holgate, and the gurgle of the tide around my kayak, hurrying it along--that hurry-scurry murmuring of the flooding tide is one of the real pleasures of paddling a sea kayak on tidal waters.

Finally back to First Bridge and the load-up. Near-perfect conditions all day, and about 15 nautical miles paddled in a state of near-enchantment and sometimes ecstasy. My 35th year daytripping on New Jersey tidewater, and it never loses its Strange Magic.


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Beautiful evocation, S.M., I was close to tears.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

LezLee said:


> Beautiful evocation, S.M., I was close to tears.


Thank you. The first time I ever sat in and paddled a sea kayak was when visiting an old friend who had moved to Puget Sound, Washington and had bought a well-used kayak. I had previous canoeing experience on fresh water and had always had an affinity for salt water, so the kayak brought the two together on a cherished day on Puget Sound. My friend and his son had installed me in the kayak while they went off in their small powerboat to gather crabs, and I pottered happily about for several hours running mild tide rips in a state of bliss: I knew immediately that this was something I was going to do for the rest of my life--explore tidewater by kayak.

I knew enough about marine boating to realize that one had the most minimal physical assets out on open water in a kayak, and therefore had to compensate by being the best-informed mariner on the water, so I bought and read all three of the then-available sea kayaking manuals, and have paddled prudently and safely right from the beginning. It is a wonderful activity, but does require judgement and knowledge of water and weather conditions surpassing those of the ordinary boater. But for me, it has been a transformative experience.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Nice account, SM - and it puts my unenthusiastic visit to the local supermarket in the shade somewhat.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> Nice account, SM - and it puts my unenthusiastic visit to the local supermarket in the shade somewhat.


E.G., as an Englishman, sea kayaking is in your blood. Two of the first three texts were written by English kayakers; the third by a New Zealander. The English produced the first modern fiberglass sea kayaks, including the legendary Nordkapp, designed by Frank Goodman, which he used to first round Cape Horn by kayak. Many stirring accounts of early circumnavigations of, first, Scotland, and then the British Isles in their entirety. Hair-raising descriptions of visiting The Hag, the dreaded tidal whirlpool off the coast of Jura. For decades, the training regimen and proficiency grading scheme of the British Canoe Union has been a standard for both instructors and those seeking to optimize their skills.


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## RogerExcellent (Jun 11, 2018)

fyi
A friend of mine and his colleague was the first to row the Atlantic


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

RogerExcellent said:


> fyi
> A friend of mine and his colleague was the first to row the Atlantic


How old is your friend? The first crossing was in 1896.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Nice account!

I spend quite a bit of time on the Thames, coaching usually. Seen quite a bit of local wildlife over the past six months, most excitingly an otter, not the usual fare for the upper reaches of an English river. Herons (the sods who go for my pond goldfish) and kingfishers have been quite prevalent this year too

But your second paragraph reminded me that - most disconcertingly - a couple of months ago saw, basking on a fallen tree just above the water line, a terrapin; about the size of a dinner plate, these are very alien to the wilds of Oxfordshire. This hot summer might even mean they could start breeding and properly establishing themselves. Are they edible???

(apologies if I sound a bit like an ecological Nigel Farage here. It was a real terrapin, not a wider metaphor for anything more non-PC!)


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The Diamondback Terrapin was the turtle of commerce and the raw material for turtle soup. The demand was so great that they were almost hunted/trapped to near-extinction. Here's Wikipedia:

"In Maryland, diamondback terrapins were so plentiful in the 18th century that slaves protested the excessive use of this food source as their main protein. Late in the 19th century, demand for turtle soup claimed a harvest of 89,150 pounds from Chesapeake Bay in one year. In 1899, terrapin was offered on the dinner menu of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City as the third most expensive item on the extensive menu. A patron could request either Maryland or Baltimore terrapin at a price of $2.50. Although demand was high, over capture was so high by 1920, the harvest of terrapins reached only 823 pounds for the year."

They are now protected in several Atlantic Coast states, and are again thankfully abundant in the undeveloped areas of suitable NJ tidewater.

Otters. English otters. Otter of course is a character in _The Wind in the Willows_, and otters always seem to be having great fun. One of the more depressing aspects of Izaak Walton's _The Compleat Angler_ is Walton's merciless zeal in finding and killing otters, especially mothers with pups, as he perceives them a threat and rival as a fisherman. Sad indeed. I hope otters are now protected in Britain. We could have a lot more wildlife about if there weren't so many bloody people!


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

Strange Magic said:


> Otters. English otters. Otter of course is a character in _The Wind in the Willows_, and otters always seem to be having great fun. One of the more depressing aspects of Izaak Walton's _The Compleat Angler_ is Walton's merciless zeal in finding and killing otters, especially mothers with pups, as he perceives them a threat and rival as a fisherman. Sad indeed. I hope otters are now protected in Britain. We could have a lot more wildlife about if there weren't so many bloody people!


Hapily yes

"How otters are protected
The European otter is the only native UK otter species. It's a European protected species (EPS) and is also fully protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

You're breaking the law if you:

capture, kill, disturb or injure otters (on purpose or by not taking enough care)
damage or destroy a breeding or resting place (deliberately or by not taking enough care)
obstruct access to their resting or sheltering places (deliberately or by not taking enough care)
possess, sell, control or transport live or dead otters, or parts of otters
If you're found guilty of an offence you could get an unlimited fine and up to 6 months in prison."

Yes Terrapins have naturalised in a lake in Victoria Park east London.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Are your Victoria Park terrapins breeding???? Or merely surviving?

My rowing crew saw our "otter", it was brown and otterish. I have been told it may have been an escaped mink, I hope I can tell the difference!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Robert Pickett said:


> Are your Victoria Park terrapins breeding???? Or merely surviving?
> 
> My rowing crew saw our "otter", it was brown and otterish. I have been told it may have been an escaped mink, I hope I can tell the difference!


Evidently mink are quite widespread in Britain these days--I had no idea. Here's a comparison:

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british-wildlife/how-tell-difference-between-otter-and-mink

This may help decide, but a daylight sighting seems to favor a mink.


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