WILD FIRST RIDE OF THE SEASON

A gusting northwest fetch from across the sound along with the 2nd third of a falling tide made for a "nantucket like" sleigh ride of a row for the Captn and Kim. Of course it didn't start out that way at least not in the proctected lee of our club house basin. We pushed ourselves along the lees off Peaches, not suspecting what lurked around the point. This is really not big news for some of you. Most of us have seen how much ocean turmoil circulates around that corner. But as G-d (and Kim) as my witness I never have seen the size of the wave that materialized just behind Kim's rhumb line. It was a whale's tail of a curve and most certain would have broached both boats had we been in it's path as it broke. All we could do is share nervous laughter with a prayer in between. Yes, the right brain was saying turn around right now, but of course it was over shadowed by the left brain and so we continued to slog ourselves towards Salem Harbor. We soon discovered we had enough, turning around at Naugus head and soon the fun began. Wave sets each larger than the last one developed behind us. It was all I could do managing the Echo down the back side of these rollers with out crabbing an oar. An occasional glance to my partner showed that she was handling it in style. Both of us turning back to see if the whales tails would should his head as we turn the corner back a Peaches. Taking the corner wide prevented a chance meeting but provided us with larger seas to deal with on the beam as we angled back to the basin and home. Seas dimished as we closed in on the land and howls of laughter erupted from both of us. Those Echos are quite the shells for those conditions. BUT and I mean this You won't catch me out there like that again till the water temps improve. As it was, it was on wide ride. Captn