It Was a Rare Day in November

November 30, warm…almost 40 and sunny with light winds. As I walked out of school for lunch, the sun hurt my eyes, no wind…man, thoughts raced through my head...I should paddle today! At lunch I loaded the boat on the truck so we could get on the water quickly…there is less than an hour of sunlight left after work. Hopefully the sun would not be obscured by clouds, as it had seemingly been all month. It wasn’t. I still had sun on the way home. Quickly changing into a drysuit and water shoes, we launched at the small dock near the boat launch in Sunset Park.

Just did the typical route, passing the shipyard, around the MO Bridge, DNR building, Coast Guard dock, the Selvik Tugs, through the marina north of the Michigan Street Bridge , crossed the shipping channel and back a long the shipyard.

The Spirit of Chicago

The passenger-car-ferry Robert Noble

Along the way, were the Barge Innovation, the Spirit of Chicago, and the Robert Noble-a car ferry from Washington Island. All were in for repairs at the ship yard.

The Tug John Purves

The Tug John Purves and Fireboat Fred A Busse docked at the Door County Maritime Musem

Christmas Tree on the old Railroad Bridge approach

Looking at Christmas lights from a kayak was a cool way to spend the evening.

It was dark by the time I arrived back at the launch. I felt the need to hustle a bit as a tug was coming into town shining a BRIGHT spotlight my way from a quarter mile away. The light was flicking around all over, like they weren’t sure where they were.

I had a light on, but didn’t know where they were going and suspected they might head into the shipyard…which they did after I had arrived back at the launch…I just didn’t want to be in their way, so I hurried the last several hundred feet past the 1000' Burns Harbor (boom repairs) and into the shelter of Sunset Park

Burns Harbor-boomed out

Nothing exciting, just an evening paddle to renew my soul.

Maybe I’ll get lucky in December too.