Near-Collisions with Ducks

Conventional kayak safety wisdom dictates that one should always paddle with a partner. As illustrated here, the advantage of paddling with someone else is that when you flip over, they'll be there to take pictures.


Todd was only under for a few seconds, but seemed a bit shocked by the cold when he came up, complaining of an "ice-cream" headache.

The real danger and adrenaline fix came about later though, when we encountered the duck. I paddled stealthily along the shore, not intending to flush out the duck, who ran across the water surface in a panic. Todd, twenty feet from the shore, found himself directly in the trajectory of the feathery beast, who at the last minute altered course, narrowly averting disaster.

Earlier, I'd noted that in the sea kayak videos, the waves are always huge, and that we might have difficulty coming up with such exciting footage. We do, however have ducks.



At the popular anchorage by Hell's Half Acre, we counted at least forty cruising boats anchored for the night. After paddling past here so often when no one is around, our encountering so many boats felt somewhat surreal. Even more surreal was the absence of people, who presumably were below deck.

Back in the Thorofare, we encountered a sunset that just kept getting better and kept us on the water until dark.