A Family Adventure


in the mountains, ocean, and air

adventures of two weekends

March 12, 2007
Emilie Phillips

I spent two weeks ago in Charlotte NC for work. Then I flew back north that friday into the north easter, which delayed my flight, ending my hope to go to the company holiday or celebrate my birthday. I was a bit bummed. And that north easter had dumped about 4 inches of snow followed by 4 inches of rain, so there wasn’t even anything reasonable to ski on. That saturday was supposed to get up to 40F, and what with all the run off, we thought it might be a good time to kayak down a local river that looks like it will be too shallow in the summer. Unfortunately, when we scouted out the river, we determined it was still frozen over in a few places. So that nixed that plan. Instead we went down to Charles River Canoe and Kayak and then REI and bought me a new wet suit that fits and a bunch more warm kayaking clothing. Sunday we headed out to Plum Island to kayak since we figured the ocean wouldn’t be frozen. My new clothing was great, I was much warmer than I had ever been in even sort of cold weather. Unfortunately, my gloves, one of the few items I had not upgraded, weren’t up to the cold water and wind, so the paddle back was a little less happy.

This weekend we decided to try again. We went to REI and got the 3mm neoprene gloves that last year had looked extreme. Sunday we went out to Rockport, which was a new place for me. The weather was a little bit warmer, and with the new gloves and the fleece + neoprene balaclava, I heated up enough to do a couple of rolls in the sun. We did a little over 8 miles paddling around some little islands out there with historic light houses. It was pretty. Flying to and from Charlotte, I had read over one of the kayaking books we had. So I spent some time trying to apply its lessons on using ranges to figure out which way the current/wind was pushing us. Also from reading it, I figured out that I maybe needed to weight my boat differently. That combined with trying a different tactic for edging, and maybe the fact that the wind wasn’t very strong ment that I was doing much better at controlling my boat without the rudder down. So that made me feel happy.

After we packed up, we drove inland a bit and stopped at a random Brazillian buffet. I checked my phone to make sure it was in vibrate mode before going into the restaurant, and in the process turned it on. And what do you know, while we were eating dinner, I got a call. When I checked my phone afterwards, it said it was a random number from Massachussets, which confused me. I turned out, it was calling from her brother’s cell phone because hers was out of battery and her car had died on the side of the road in New Market NH. So we detoured out of the way up there. was also coming to the rescue since I hadn’t answered her first plea for help while we were out paddling. The situation looked like we might have needed to transport her to and from New Market (~1hr from where I live) the next day so the car wouldn’t have to get towed far. Their thought was it was a battery or alternator problem since the battery light had been flickering and all the indicators went out before it died. However, when we checked the headlights before jumping it, they were perfectly fine, and the car started on its own. So we sent Zay and her brother back towards Cambridge where he lives with Dan in tow to pick them up when the car died next. They apparently made it to the greater Boston area before it died again — a much better spot than a no stoplight town in NH.

Also this past weekend we got the last bits of furniture needed for the apartement. So maybe I can have a housewarming/late birthday party this weekend.