A Foggy Paddle

These photos are from the paddle which finished our 1000 miles on Oct 28. It’s a trip we’ve made before, do you recognize it?
It was on water salt enough to support seaweed. We’d see enough if we made no crossings, so the fog didn’t deter us.
Our first several miles were south against tide and slight wind, neither creating any real problems. The coast line was muted, but some color peeked through.

We paddled to the tip of land, in part because it made determining our location on the chart that much easier.

Gazebo in the mist, at the southern tip

Then we paddled back to a bump on the shore line, and debated crossing.


Mark piloting intently, I love how the trees fade out even across the width of the beach

 On our entire southbound paddle, we’d heard only one boat go by. The crossing was a little over half a mile to a ledge. We couldn’t see the ledge, but it seemed like a great opportunity to practice navigation, so we set out at 240 degrees (first listening intently for any motors.)
A few minutes later the ledge became visible; right on target!

To the left a harbor seal peeks around a rock. To the right a gray seal plans to linger on the rock until the incoming tide tickles its nose.

At that point we headed south to Buoy 6.

We finished the crossing west to the far shore, about a quarter of a mile more. Visibility was such that from the buoy only the tips of the tree tops were visible.
Then we rode with the wind and current, guessing, correctly, that as we headed north visibility would improve (as the trees and land caught the fog.)
Here the major landmark for the paddle comes into view.

And much more clearly:

As we hoped the fog was less there. In addition the crossing is narrower and boats would be slowing to avoid the bridge piers.
All in all a great paddle. The fog was heavily localized that day, by the time we drove by Marsh Stream the sky had brightened to blue, and though it was well past peak, I was utterly amazed at the variety of colors displayed before me, tans, taupe, browns, greens and yellows.
So where we were? Bucksport (or Verona Island) to Oran Ledge, though since it’s the base of the Penobscot River, that’s a fair guess as well.
This is a nice shot of the two bridges in the fog.

Basics: Low 8:50AM, launch 9:30, finish 12:30 11.5 miles. Launch from boat ramp off route 1, Verona Island. Lots of parking, no facilities.