Sebago Canoe Club Season Opener

Saturday, April 27^th, was not only the season opener, the first “official paddle
of the season” for the Sebago Canoe Club in Brooklyn, it was also one of the first post Hurricane Sandy events.  A group of kayakers left the Sebago dock around 10:30 and paddled around Canarsie Pol.  Other paddlers and rowers paddled independently of the organized paddle.  My wife, Vicki, and I were two of those who paddled independently.

Vicki and I put in just after the Canarsie Pol paddlers had taken out.  It was our first paddle of the season, first paddle since Sandy, first paddle since sometime in the fall, and first time to paddle under the newly finished Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin and not under the old bridge which has been removed.  I paddled my Ocean Kayak Drifter, a sit-on-top I probably had not paddled in over a year.  Vicki paddled her Current Designs Sirocco. 

Looking at the Belt Parkway Bridge over Mill Basin

Using an old fashioned mercury thermometer, I checked the water temperature under the bridge.  It was 57°F.  The air temperature was in the mid 60’s.

Vicki and I paddled under the bridge, past buoy 13, and to where the channel to the salt marsh would have been if it had been high tide.  Not wanting to miss the kayak meeting or the food, we turned around there and paddled bcak.  Our total paddle was about only an hour long, but enough to reacquaint us with paddling in Jamaica, especially after Sandy, and to wet our appetite as well as paddles and bats for an upcoming paddling season.

Kayak Committee Mtg Convened by Kayaking Chair, Tony

After getting back to the Sebago dock we carried our boats up to the wash racks where we rinsed both salt water and debris from Sandy off.  Then we attended the Kayak Meeting, held in the club house at 3:00, and convened by Kayak Chair, Tony Pignatello.   After the Kayak Meeting we took a break and headed outside for the General Meeting, convened at 4:15 by Commodore Walter Lewandowski with several other chairs and officers making reports.  We enjoyed food, wine, and fellowship before, during, and after the meetings.

General Mtg Convened by Commodore Walter

I sometimes feel like Sebago is my home away from home, a place to be renewed by water and green space as well as to meet up with old friends and make new friends.  Yesterday’s season opener was no exception.