My day in Ketchikan was very nice. We were a bit late arriving because we’d been late departing from Haines yesterday. But I disembarked, learned no single kayaks could be used, and followed the guide down the main drag to the little marina. I didn’t bother mimicking the stroke the guide demonstrated, and once somebody volunteered to be my partner, I hopped in the back cockpit of a Wilderness Systems Northstar. Early on I noticed the guy in front of me was trying to help steer by doing multiple strokes on one side. I counseled him on it; not only does the person in the back seat steer, but I had control of the rudder! The guide overheard and agreed with me 100%. We paddled across the channel as seaplanes landed over our heads - it was a fairly noisy paddle the whole time. After spotting some bald eagles (which I didn’t know are no longer endangered), we paddled around an island and into Whiskey Cove itself. It was at this point that I started wanting to chop off my partner’s head with my paddle.

The current was not strong, but if one stopped paddling, one would drift a little bit. I had already endured the guy freaking out anytime we got near another kayak (even though the guide said early on not to worry about it), so what he said next almost made me want to see if he could do a wet exit. The guide was paddling lazily, so he drifted a bit, and we bumped him lightly. The guy actually turned around and said “Nice steering” to me, sarcastically, implying that I couldn’t do the job. I was so annoyed that I didn’t say anything for a few moments, and then I finally said “do consider that it wasn’t my fault.” Which he ignored, of course.

So after looking at an abandoned research boat and some starfish, we headed back to port. The whole way I had to steer not only to follow our route, but to avoid hitting anybody else, which meant I was doing more steering than sightseeing. At the final channel crossing, we were to aim for a tower on the opposite shore. I got us across the main shipping lanes (which I guess would actually be called the runway there) with the bow dead-on for the tower, and then I let us go a bit in the direction we’d end up going anyway. Also, once we were mostly across, the guide told us to aim for the rocks (that is, get as close to the shoreline as possible). So we pulled up at about a 45° angle to the tower, and quite a few yards away (but toward where we’d eventually have to go). What does my lovely partner do? He points to the tower and says I should “steer us over there.” I said something about being okay where we were, and I left it at that. We were almost back and then I could leave him behind. Which I did.

Once back on the streets of Ketchikan, I was accosted by a passenger who’d seen my RSVP name tag and apparently thought I was able to give some bonus prize to him. (I later found out this had to do with the RSViP frequent traveler program.) I shook him off and went to do the last of my Alaska shopping. I’d heard Ketchikan described as the Disneyland of Alaska, but I think Skagway fits that better. I rather liked Ketchikan, actually, even if I only saw it briefly. Before going back on board I bought a bit of rum which J helped me smuggle in with no problems.

After a late lunch, I interpreted for the “dating game” and the final round of bingo. The last prize was over $8400, and it all went to one very lucky guy! In the evening, M and I interpreted for the very funny Paul J. Williams. He’s a professional comedian and I liked him much better than Leslie Jordan. After his performance was the much-ballyhooed leather party. I hadn’t brought any leather so with my blue jeans and silver pumps I wore my ABW shirt. When asked where my leather was, I pointed out that ABW is the largest gay leather organization (might have made that up…) and so my shirt counted. After that I had the previously-described encounter with misogyny, and then I went to bed. (If I’ve used the word misogyny a lot this week, there’s a reason for that. Paul Williams was great though - he encouraged gay men to be friends with lesbians, and to support us and breast cancer the way we supported them and AIDS so many years ago.)

I have not gotten out to go kayaking nearly enough this season…I have just been preoccupied with other things. It’s a subconscious choice, I guess; I know I should go kayaking, and I know I want to go out, but I end up going other places and doing other things. But I am hoping to go paddling in Alaska. There are excursions in all of the ports we will be visiting, and I will be interpreting when we are in Haines (on the White Pass Railway trip), so I can go paddling in Juneau or Ketchikan.

In Juneau there is only one kayaking trip: Glacier View Sea Kayaking for $94, which is 1½ to 2 hours of actual paddling. In Ketchikan there are three: Clover Passage by Kayak for $89 (70 minutes paddling), Tattoosh Islands Sea Kayaking for $141 (90 minutes paddling), and Whiskey Cove Kayaking for $80 (trip is only 2½ hours total). I have no idea which of these trips would be best…they are all in doubles, which I don’t particularly enjoy, and enjoy even less with an inexperienced paddler. Also, I would probably not be able to bring my own gear - even just my PFD would take up a lot of packing space!

I definitely want to go kayaking, but I just don’t know which trip. And of course I’m also worried about reserving ahead of time, because what if there’s an emergency and I have to interpret instead of going on an excursion? Would I get my money back? So I’m not sure if I should decide now and book now, or just put it off till I’m on board and see the purser directly.

Today I attended the annual meeting of the Chesapeake Paddlers Association, which I joined earlier this year. There were several people I knew already there when I arrived, but I haven’t been out to the Thursday night paddle in a couple of months so I was a little nervous about jumping right in and being friendly. As more people arrived, the percentage that I’d met before shrank, and I ended up leaning against the wall rather than sitting in the middle of things because I was feeling shy.

A dozen pizzas had been bought - Papa John’s, my favorite - but unfortunately only one of them was vegetarian. There were no plain cheese pizzas, just 11 meaty pizzas and one pizza that was green pepper and onion (fine by me). There were four vegetarians there, so we had the veggie pizza on our table. We each took at least one piece, and as I was finishing my piece I looked at the box and saw there was one piece left. I figured that would be mine, and I turned away for a moment. When I turned back it was gone, and nobody else at the table seemed to know where it had gone, so I suspect a non-vegetarian took it…argh! Fortunately there were some tasty little desserts, but I still didn’t feel like I had gotten enough to eat.

The first part of the meeting was very interesting to me. I participated in some discussion about the website and other technical things, and I volunteered to take on the task of maintaining an interactive database for area launch sites. I’m not sure if I’m going to be involved in creating the database, but hopefully they’ll do it with MySQL or something handy like that. I’ve got a zillion other projects that I’m working on, so I didn’t really need to something else on, but I’ve gotten so much enjoyment out of my first season with CPA and the Pirates of Georgetown that I really want to give something back.

The rest of the meeting was less interesting. During the first half the coordinator had been moving quickly from topic to topic, but in the second half he let discussions drag on a bit longer than he had been earlier. They talked for a long time about registrations for classes, about swim support, and so on. I had been standing, but I moved to the back of the room and sat in a kiddie chair (that’s what was available). I played games on my phone for a while as I listened to the discussion, but got bored with that quickly and signed onto instant messager from my phone. I had a somewhat limited conversation with my mother (on that tiny screen, using T9 prediction, it’s hard to really chat) and before I knew it the meeting was over. (I did listen, but they weren’t talking about anything I knew anything about, so I didn’t have any more to contribute.) I helped clean up a bit, looked at some pictures, then ducked out quietly.

I’m looking forward to the launch site database project!

I got the Gulfstream loaded on top of the car today and we drove to Reston’s Lake Anne. They have a put-in at the north end of the lake, and at the south end is Lake Anne Plaza. The stores there have joined to provide a free wi-fi network, so my girlfriend was going to make use of that while I paddled around. I noticed a sign at the put-in indicating it was for Reston Association boaters only, but nobody was around so I put in there anyway. It was a very leisurely paddle south, with the water still as glass. Every house backing on the lake, including the row of townhouses, had a boat of some kind in the water. I saw a lot more canoes than kayaks, but many looked like they hadn’t been used in a long time.

As I approached the turn to the plaza, I saw a little water taxi-style boat pull out from that inlet. There were quite a few children on board, but they were too busy looking around to notice me so I didn’t bother to wave. As I turned right and slowed down, I noticed a craft fair of some kind was in the plaza. I tried to see what was on offer, but I was about 15-20 feet below the walkway and I couldn’t see much. I called my parents on my cell phone while I waited for my girlfriend to show up, and chatted with them while drifting around the inlet. I put her on hold when the tour boat came back, and I paddled out of their way. As they were unloading, I saw my girlfriend walking away from me so I hollered her name a couple of times until she heard me. I said goodbye to my mother and hello to my girlfriend, who walked down on the dock to greet me. After the kids were unloaded from the boat - there was a guy dressed up as a pirate, too, making me think it might be a birthday party - I asked one of the staff members if I could take out on the dock and have lunch. He said that was fine; they were done with the tour boat for a while so I could leave my boat there. I placed myself so I wouldn’t be getting out and landing in goose droppings, and then hauled the boat up onto the wooden dock. I left the boat and my gear on the dock, and we checked out what restaurants were available. We ended up having egg salad sandwiches at the Lake Anne Coffee Shop, and I got to pet an eight-week-old gray Sharpei puppy, but after a while he started biting me so I left him alone. (His owner didn’t even reprimand him, which puzzled me.)

We checked out the used bookstore before I went back on the water, and I bought a little paperback called The Making of the Trek Conventions for a dollar. My girlfriend held onto it for me and we walked back to the boat. Getting in was a little difficult because the dock was higher than I’m used to and I couldn’t reach the kayak very well to get in, but I managed it without getting myself soaked. I headed back out to the main part of the lake, getting close enough to the fountain this time that I could feel a little bit of spray. I tried to check out what was under a wooden bridge, but it turned out there wasn’t really any water on the other side so I just backed out and turned around. I was paddling on the opposite side of the lake now, so I got to see more houses; one family had at least three kayaks including a creek boat and a decent sea kayak. I found where all the ducks and geese were hiding, and I saw two interesting birds. One looked like a combination of a duck and a goose, with duck coloration on top and white goosey feathers on the bottom. What was strange was that it had a funny bump on its head, and a white wattle! The other bird was a regular Canada goose, but its wings were badly damaged to the point that they looked like straw. I paddled back to the put-in and managed to get out without getting my feet wet, which I was trying to avoid because there was a bright green substance swirling all around. (I guess it was algae, but it looked funny.) We loaded the boat back up on top of the car and headed for home.

I liked paddling on Lake Anne, but it was very small. If I lived there, I would get my exercise by making at least three full circuits of the lake.

I had a rather nice paddle out of Georgetown last night with the Pirates. We were a fairly small group this week, less than ten people, and we tended to spread out during the trip. It was a pretty typical itinerary: after crossing the river, we went along the outside of Roosevelt Island and headed down toward the bridges. We encountered some pleasant waves en route, larger than usual due to the heavy rains we had a few days ago. (That also caused a lot of trash to flow out of the Anacostia and Rock Creek and into the Potomac.) When we reached the entrance to the Columbia Island Marina, we turned right and paddled past the boats there. I saw one with the charming name Cirrhosis of the River - how do people come up with that kind of thing? The paddle along the Boundary Channel was very peaceful and I chatted with another paddler for part of the way. The water was so high that we didn’t have to portage at all - there’s usually one low spot near the top of the channel that we have to get out and walk over, but the whole trip was quite easy. We headed back along the inside of Roosevelt Island and returned to Jack’s, and after all the boats were loaded back onto cars a few of us went to Aditi for dinner.

Although the trip was enjoyable, it was a little bit of a struggle for me. Woody had brought one of his old boats for me to try, a Gulfstream that was sitting in his backyard for a couple of years. I liked the boat well enough, but it was definitely too big for me through the hips. If I end up buying it from him (which I’m mulling over), I’ll definitely have to get some foam and outfit the boat to fit me a little better. It’s a really great boat, though - just too big for me right now.

I’ve never seen the ABC Family show “Switched,” but it sounds cool. There’s going to be a very interesting episode coming up, featuring Jerome Starr and Samii Emdur. Starr is from Riverside, California, and Emdur is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Starr is deaf, and Emdur is a whitewater kayaker. They switched schools, hobbies, and families for a few days for the show.

What I found interesting were Starr’s (interpreted) comments about kayaking: “I was rowing, it was very smooth” indicates that the interpreter doesn’t know much about kayaking. One doesn’t row a kayak, one paddles a kayak, and the sign for PADDLING-A-KAYAK mimics the motion. The interpreter just didn’t know any better. For that matter, the reporter doesn’t know any better, either: “safety procedures” are not just “how to right the kayak if it overturns” - learning to roll is a skill that takes a long time to learn properly, and it’s unlikely that Starr picked it up immediately.

The article doesn’t mention when the episode will air, but I’m looking forward to checking my local listings so I can catch it.

I have posted my pictures from Paddle with Pride. I took 27 of them with the disposable camera I bought, and I added a sub-album with selected pictures from the official album. I also got a response from Chad, the organizer for Paddle with Pride. I’d asked him to please take a look at the journal entry I wrote about the trip, and he said he’d like to include my thoughts in the report he puts together about the logistics, financial details, and participant perspectives. He also asked if I would include some of my pictures in the official album (it’s at ImageStation, so I created an account there), and I’ve uploaded them for inclusion.

Paddle with Pride became a reality as I walked down West 13th and spotted the large rainbow flag over the doors of The Center. The main lobby was fairly crowded because we arrived shortly before an “alternative memorial service” was to begin. While the rest of the country mourned Ronald Reagan, the people gathered at The Center were there to remember those who died during the first years of the AIDS crisis, when Reagan utterly ignored the disease. We finally got directions upstairs for the Paddle with Pride final registration.

C and I were each given a little card with checkboxes indicating what stations we needed to visit. Even though we had both submitted all the provided forms in advance, we had to visit Station 1 because the wording had changed on The Center’s liability waiver. We signed off on that and moved on to Station 2, pledges. My little card indicated that I had raised $1005 to date, and I handed over two more checks totaling $120. I asked if I could get a pledge report that included addresses, a note was made that I had requested one, and that was it! I turned around to where C was being interviewed for his pledges, which only added up to $250. I pointed out that we were paddling as a team, so they added my amount to his for a total of $1375. He provided his credit card number to make up the difference (we needed $2000 between us to participate) and we were sent downstairs for Station 3, the safety talk.

Rather than discussing actual paddling safety skills, we mostly learned about all of the precautions that had been taken if anything should go wrong. There would be a 150-foot hospital ship available in case of medical emergencies, and they had identified points along the route where airlifts were possible - but the hospital ship was so well-equipped that drastic measures shouldn’t be necessary. There would also be multiple support boats with Coast Guard representatives, and for that reason it was imperative that kayakers wear their PFDs. Rafters, who would have a professional oarsman aboard, were to have their PFDs at hand but didn’t have to wear them. The safety talk made a few more points, and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t boring. When it was over, C and I hurried back upstairs so we wouldn’t be behind everybody else from the safety talk when we got to Station 4. There, we received our “participation bibs” - my paddler number was lucky 013 - which turned out to be from Runner’s World. I let them put a blue wristband on me, and accepted my manila envelope containing various papers and my white paddler’s t-shirt. (The event logo was orange, which looked okay on my shirt but not very attractive on the light blue crew shirts.) I peeked into the envelope and was dismayed to find that it contained a copy of The Advocate - a magazine I love, but the very same issue I’d bought a few hours before! We went home and managed to fall asleep by about 10:00.

The in-depth details of the paddle itself can be found in my trip report, but I’d like to mention a few more things about the event. During the first part of the trip, from Nyack to Englewood, we spotted crew members in their blue shirts along the route. They cheered for us from Piermont Pier, from a footbridge high above us in the Palisades, and as we arrived at Englewood. I liked seeing these supporters - they gave me an emotional boost to keep going. (This was not a leisurely trip - the coordinator told us we had to paddle the whole time in order to make our tidal window.) After leaving Englewood, I got my emotional recharges from a few families out on motorized pleasure craft, and I waved back at several children. Shortly after we started down Manhattan’s shore, I heard a shrill whistle and saw more blue crew shirts waving from along the West Side Highway. And then…nothing. For eight or nine miles, there was nobody, except Eric Stiller who was on the water himself to say hello. One of the listed “cheering stations” for friends and family was the 79th Street Boat Basin, but there was nobody there.

I had been hoping to catch up to the rafts and additional kayakers, but they left Englewood well before we got there so we never got to see them. When we arrived at Pier 63, we got a few cheers and whistles from the crew members who helped us out of the boat, but then we were on our own. The after-party was already in full swing, and nobody paid much attention to us. We had a hard time figuring out where our gear bags were being kept, so we walked back and forth barefoot over the hot metal surface of the barge. We were clearly looking for something, and we were still in our paddling clothes so it was obvious we were participants, but nobody offered to help. We finally located our bags and collected our meal tickets, then went to change into our dry clothes. We got our food anonymously, ate together at our own table, and then wondered what was next. The barge itself was crowded - I think many people were just there for the party - and we couldn’t figure out what was going on…so we left for home and took a nap.

That’s what really bothered me about the way the event was organized. The way things worked out, the rafters and kayakers from Englewood got all the attention, and those of us paddling from Nyack were largely ignored, even though we put in more than twice the effort. The way I figure it, the reason nobody was at the Boat Basin when we got there is because they had cheered for the Englewood paddlers and then run down to Pier 63. I suspect most of the Englewood paddlers were novices, so it probably wasn’t an easy trip for them (as it would have been for us), but that isn’t an excuse for leaving the Nyack paddlers without moral support during and after the event. I’m not sure how things could have been arranged differently, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth and I hope they do something about it next time.

I definitely had a good time on the trip, though, and I think I would do it again. When C forwarded me an e-mail about it back in March, he was mostly just pointing out the event - I don’t think he expected me to jump on it! The fundraising was difficult, and I’m not sure I could manage $1000 again, but I did it this time and I made it through the event. I almost don’t believe I did it! If I do participate again, I think I will do it in a single kayak. It would be an exhausting journey from Nyack for me, but I wouldn’t want to go from Englewood - that would be so easy it would feel like cheating! I’m glad I had this experience, though. I can do it!

For those of you who are interested in the nitty-gritty details of how the kayaking went on Saturday, you can check out my trip report on Woody’s KayakTrips.net website. That took me a while to write, and it only includes the specifics about paddling - I’ll be writing another report on my own site with more of my thoughts on the event itself.

Hi everybody! Just thought I’d check in and let you know we made it through Paddle with Pride with minimum damage. As a brief summary, we woke up at 4:00, the bus left at 5:45, and we launched from Nyack Beach State Park somewhere around 7:15 or 7:30. We got out and took a break at Englewood around 10:00 or 10:30 (I’m guessing here), and then set off again to cross the Hudson under the George Washington Bridge. We made it back to Pier 63 at about 12:20, more than an hour earlier than we expected! We collected our dry clothes and meal tickets from the gear storage place, and then had lunch on the barge. The scheduled after-party didn’t seem to be happening, so we made it back to the apartment by about 3:00. We napped for a while and now we’re waiting for dinner to get here, and then we might go for a movie.

I’m not particularly tired anymore, but I’m very sore and stiff. I’m definitely glad I took Monday off. I’m planning to spend it in bed with a laptop, the TV, and as many cats as I can collect. I’ll be writing up a trip report for Woody and generally relaxing.