Saturday, May 26, 2012

Sea Kayaking in Muscongus Bay Maine

Sea Kayaking Adventure

Muscongus bay Maine

Muscongus  Bay is one of my favorite places to paddle. It has many islands and tons of wildlife making it one of the best places in the world (in my humble opinion) to be on the water. On this particular day we (my friend Dave and I) launched from a private location. You could launch from the ramp at Port Clyde harbor where there is a great little general store or restaurant for some great lunch. Parking can be an issue so make sure you don't park where you are not supposed to. On this particular day we headed out in the thick fog (visibility 10 feet). As we often do, we put our GPS away and navigated by chart and compass only using the  GPS to occasionally check our position for safety reasons. It can be a little eerie paddling in the fog. Usually it is very quite, and you can hear the lobster boats all around you working hard for their catch. I always carry a VHF radio just in case I need to get in touch with a bigger boat bearing down on me who may or may not see a kayak on a foggy day. That being said, I ALWAYS! try my best to stay out of their way, the boats are usually working and don't need me in their way. You can see the route we took from the picture of it above. Not much to see in the fog but it is a really good way to hone your navigation skills. There are no land marks to look at, so you need to estimate your speed, keeping in mind the current, which can move very fast in this part of the world. Another cool thing is that the seals will come right up to your boat, sometimes it's startling the way they seem to come out of no where, staring at you with those curious eyes. About half way through our route the fog lifted exposing a beautiful marine environment filled with life. Fish, birds, eagles, seals ducks, plus a dramatic landscape of water and rocks. This was not a small little paddle. It was an all day event somewhere around 17 miles (I can paddle an average of 3 miles per hour). We were prepared with plenty of food, water and a good attitude- all being essential. If you have any questions or would like more information post your questions below.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Tom!

    I am hoping to do a smaller two and a half day (Sat-Monday)sea kayak route out of Muscongus Harbor over Memorial Day weekend. I would love any suggestions of where to paddle to and camp. If its easier you can forward any information to my gmail (jennifermarielangdon@gmail.com). Thank you so much!
    Jen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jen,
    There are a lot of great islands in muscongus bay. I would highly suggest contacting the maine island trail asocc. Mita.org they have tons of info and are a great organization to support.

    ReplyDelete