Sunday dawned warm sunny and still. The perfect day for a paddle. Headed off about 9:15 and took Route 9 down to the coast and across the mouth of the Connecticut River and up the other side of the river mouth.
The put in was by the Hamburg Cove Yacht club, just a rough ramp of sorts. I was feeling so great when I unloaded the kayak and packed up all my stuff, when suddenly I realized that there was no paddle ! Argghh! I looked on line ( thanks goodness for my internet connection on my phone), and found there was an outfitters at Old Saybrook, only about 15 minutes away. Of course they didn't open until 12:00, which gave me about an hour and a half to kill.
I drove to Old Saybrook and waited... patiently...
Now the good news was that Bruce had offered to buy me a paddle for this coming Christmas, so there was no time like the present. I really didn't think it would be such a big deal , to get a new paddle, but I picked a Werner carbon fibre paddle, and couldn't believe it. It was soooo light, as to be featherweight.
I eventually bought the high angle paddle, with the ergonomic shaped shaft.


The manager said I could try it and return it (undamaged) if it didn't suit. My previous paddle was a low angle paddle, so I was not sure how it would go.

I returned to the Cove and put in. By this time the wind had sprung up , but it was still great to be on the water.




Looking Back Towards The Launch



Headed a short way down River;it opened up quite wide, and I turned around and headed back up into the cove and up the Eight Mile River.

It went winding on for some distance, and I passed under a sizable three arch bridge. All around the foliage was in great color, with many maples and their bright red leaves contrasting with the yellow and greens all around.
Views Along the River




The river began to close in and a couple of very large fallen trees made for hard going, but I did manage to go on for a while until the river became too narrow .



Saw some bird life: great heron, mute swan, cormorants.




The new paddle turned out to be phenomenal. It was so light it was much easier to use as a steering tool, I could to work one handed when I was taking photos. It gave me much more power and being shorter, made getting through overhanging trees and tight spaces much easier.










It was a wonderful day paddling.