Salem Neck

Labor Day Weekend!  The plan?  Visit Tom & Kay in Marblehead and head out for another paddling adventure.

As for a paddling plan, my very trusting wife and friends left it to me.  We start by departing from Stramski's Beach, the furthest point of the last trip we did back in July.  From there I have a rough idea of where to go based on a trip in my my AMC Sea Kayaking Coastal Massachusetts book.  There are still lots of trips in this book I've never done.  This particular one has trips of 3.2, 6.0, and 12.0 miles although the primary put in is a different location from our starting point. 

My goal is to do some exploring of new shorelines and not "kill" my partners in the process.

We start out at about 10:30am.  The skies are a crystal clear deep blue.

First objective:  head for the lighthouse on the other side of Salem Harbor.

His and Hers Kayaks, right?

We're having a pretty easy time on the way out.  You can see how smooth the water is.

We round Salem Neck into Beverly Harbor and start heading west (even though it feels like south).  Like Dorchester Bay, we see a National Grid gas tank in the distance.  Closer to us is a ziggurat-shaped channel marker.  These were several of these unique structures in this harbor.

About an hour and a half into the trip, we are a little overdue for a break.  We pull up on Sandy Point Beach in Beverly next to the Jubilee Yacht Club.  We've gone 2.8 miles to this point.

Kay and I pass by a lobster boat pulling up traps.  Yeah, we're getting hungry, too. 
Notice how much choppier the water has become.

This gaff-rigged sailing vessel cruised past us in Salem Harbor.
Look at the flags to get a sense of how the wind has picked up, too.
At least the tide is coming in, so we're not fighting that.

We finally return to our starting point after 2:44 and a grand total of 5.21 miles.  That last hour was a bit tiring as we had to fight some of the wind and waves around Salem Neck.  We cross back over to the Marblehead side of the harbor to try to get out of some of the wind and then relax pulling into the beach.  A lunchtime lobster roll is waiting for me somewhere.

It was the longest paddle so far for our coastal-town friends, and I did succeed in not "killing" anyone.  Kay characterized it as a "good workout", but it's fair to say we all needed some recovery time on Tuesday.