Daysi Tragesser

S drops me off at the harbor on her way to somewhere else.  It takes me just a few moments to put-in as anyone that has canoed with me can tell.  Everything is in its place and ready to go when I start, and everything is left in its place and ready to go when I finish.

It is a very calm day, warm and sunny - it is a day to make special use of.   When I reach the mouth of the harbor, I see that I can still pass under the rusty bridge into Gulf Pond, but it is too calm to go there and instead I turn seaward.  I spot a long-tailed duck, the first that I have ever seen although I know it from noticing its wonderful plumage while browsing through bird guides.  It does not oblige me with a good pose.

Long Tailed Duck

 A long tailed duck can dive to 200 ft and spend 3 to 4 minutes at a time underwater.

I turn SW and follow the seashore.  Recently, I followed an online discussion about risk.  One person wrote that we have become a risk averse society.  I did not agree with that, but thought about it long enough to decide that we are actually a risk ignorant society.  I paddle past beach front homes that are unscathed, and then for some quirk of nature, I paddle past fifteen or twenty houses that have the first floors busted in, windows gone or sometimes the floor, joists and walls removed leaving a cantilevered second floor dangling over the sand.  This pattern repeats itself for as long as I am on the salt water.  And we were only touched by the edge of the hurricane.


It is not the first hurricane, by any means, to reach Connecticut.  Nor will it be the last.

Something that sounds like a loon call draws me out towards a tiny sand bar at the tip of a groin (groins are underwater wing dams for the purpose of collecting and holding beachfront).  I don't see anything that matches that call, but instead I find two American oystercatchers.

American Oystercatcher

When I get to Milford Point, I find out why the houses on this exposed beach survived with minimal damage.  I had only seen them from the marsh on the other side of the point.  There is a sand/gravel bar on the sea side that is nearly a 1/4 mile across.  While well submerged, it would've broken some of the water's impact during the storm surge.  I paddle in less than 2 feet of water for a few hundred yards to get into the river.  There is a stiff current against me.


I continue to fight that current into the Wheeler marsh until I can slip into one of the dozens of channels that work their way through the spartina.  The cloudless day lights the fall colored grass to a beautiful bronze.  I wind through the channels aware that there is an expiration date when one is in a tidal marsh during a falling tide.  At some point, it is time to seek the larger deeper channels lest one find the way forward blocked... and find the way back blocked as well.  I spot a couple dozen black ducks, about 15 greater yellow legs, and 2 great blue herons during the passage.

When I exit the upstream end of the marsh, it is open big river with a growing wind at my back that not quite cancels the opposing current.  I take out a couple miles up at the feral cat park.

Birdsmouth Mast - weighed a hefty 45lbs this morning - 7 hours later plus lots of elbow grease, it's now 34lbs!  That's 11lbs worth of shavings which were created by hand by your truly...

Today the planing was more successful, accompanied by several trips to the Japanese Waterstones. The plane worked effortlessly taking of shavings some of which were 3 foot long!  (Is this a record?!!)

The bulk of the work was getting the taper down to the required dimensions - once that was accomplished, rounding the octagonal shape to 16 sides and then round went very quickly.  Which serves as a useful lesson to other builders contemplating using a compound taper - it's a lot of extra work.

I did have some issues with different staves having its grain in opposite directions each side of the scarf joint, which meant I had to reverse the planing direction.  I found that the #6 Foreplane worked well when pulled, Japanese style, which allowed me use different muscles rather than just pushing all the time.

Using my spar calipers, I made sure that the diameter was uniform at each station.  Also, I kept the octagonal shape, which made for more consistent planing.  I was even tempted to leave the mast finished in octagonal form - I really like that shape...throwback to my early days with split cane fly fishing rods....

I decided not to reduce the diameter down to the final dimension at the top quarter of the mast, as I was nervous that the extra planing would remove too much of the birdsmouth joint.  However since the mast was coming out so relatively light, I didn't feel that this would be a handicap.

Bottom of mast showing internal plug made also birdsmouth style

I made sure to mark and keep the track (aft) side of the mast straight when gluing up and in the finish, I left this side straight to take the sail track.  It's probably too wide at 35mm, but I'll refine this when I get the track in hand.  I have no idea where to source this - can it be shipped in a coil or is it bought in one long length??

I recall reading on some forum where it was suggested to keep planing until you are finished or bored...I think i took the latter route, but nevertheless, I now have a nice 23' spar hanging diagonally from the ceiling of my 20' x 20' workshop. Phew!!

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It's raining lightly with high tide still to come, but not far off.  The wind is light as I start the portage, shouldering my canoe and looking out at the waters as I walk and seeing small waves without any white on the peaks.  I decide to paddle down to Gulf Pond, having not been there in a very long time.


The wind is out of the south and light as it is, the eight miles of open water gives it time and energy to build a small onshore wave.  Near shore, near the safety of shore that I paddle in during winter, the wave is a messy chop no more than a foot high, but constantly irregular in shape and size.  As I near Pond Point, the shore becomes a seawall.  It is a neighborhood known as Point Beach, but this is a name given to it by people who look out from land.  From the water, in a small canoe, it is just a seawall and the registered name fits poorly.  The onshore waves come in at an angle and echo back off of the wall at an equal and opposite angle.  Waves add, peaks double and wave troughs descend twice as normal, and there is everything in between, and there is no weather side to watch because the waves come from all directions.  Clapotis - the omnidirectional jumble. 


I round Pond Point into Calf Pen Bay and the waters mellow into simple foot high waves out of the south.  I follow the shore around the bay in its relative kindness, the rain still light and steady, but I rethink the trip to Gulf Pond.  There will be more chop around the next point and it is slow steady work paddling in such stuff.



I turn back at the south end of the bay, stopping for a moment in the mouth of Calf Pen Creek.  The tide is still flooding and the clearance under the bridge is barely enough, so I exit the creek not wanting to be stuck up there waiting for the water to drop (I could portage out, but I'd probably have to cross private property to do so). 

I spot a loon in the bay as I head south. 
I find three male long tailed ducks off of Pond Point.

The clapotis is still having its fun when I get to the seawall, but beyond that the sea has calmed some as the wind is either dropping or shifting direction.  It tempts me to stay out.  I resist.