Sunet Paddle on the Assateague Channel

The evening of Wednesday October 6th we

departed the MSC after an early dinner to enjoy a paddle at sunset. The intended route was the Assateague Channel (route seen here in red) leaving Chincoteague (at the place the ponies swim to shore at the annual pony auction) and paddling northward past the Assateague lighthouse to a point near the northern part of Chincoteague.

Everyone bundled up as the skies looked threatening and a few drops of rain began to fall...and we were adorned with headlamps and a flashlight that hung on our back so that we would be visible to each other from nearly any direction. Linda and Larry had enough excitement and decided not to join the rest of us.

A view from the dock a few moments before pushing off. With so many clouds I certainly wasn't expecting much of a sunset...

In fact, I was worried with the darkening clouds that we would be caught in torrential rains!

But the skies to the east were a little brighter....at least the water was calm and wasn't too windy...and our distance was only about 2 miles...

Finally, it was mine and Bobbie's turn to get pushed off into the darkness....time to follow the other lights into the unknown...

Then I REALLY started to get excited when the beacon from the Assateague lighthouse illuminated the evening sky! It was rather difficult to photograph in darkness in a moving kayak! But...this was the least blurry..

After passing the lighthouse and under the bridge I looked over my shoulder and was amazed at the colors that were developing in the sky and how many of the clouds had scattered!

I in fact became mesmerized and really didn't want to keep paddling into the darkness, I only wanted to watch the reds and oranges that kept getting more vibrant by the minute!

You can see the headlamps of the others as they closed in on us.



Finally most everyone had passed us and when there was only Maggie behind us shepherding us forward did I turn my attention away from the colorful sky to the darkness of the night.



Paddling in complete darkness was an experience that I found to be quite peaceful! With nothing to stimulate the eyes (yet) the ears took over and the only sound was the drip drip drip of the water droplets returning to the water as the paddle was lifted out of the water. It was one of the most peaceful moments I have ever experienced. The peace didn't last too long, a heron started making noises after we apparently startled it, and soon after Maggie started shrieking (I didn't think anyone fell out there was no splashing) after a few moments she collected herself and informed us that a fish about 6inches long had catapulted itself into her kayak and was flopping around in her lap! I'm certainly glad it happened to her, I'm afraid that if it had decided to join me I would have wiggled around so much with surprise that I would have went for a swim! Not a good idea in pitch blackness! After we were finished laughing, we just sort of floated a bit with the current and gazed upwards at the heavens and the multitude of stars that were now twinkling. Mark gave us a wonderful astronomy lesson mixed in with mythology. How peaceful it was! I think this was by far my favorite thing about this vacation and definitely my favorite paddle so far!