The Chesapeake Bay

To complete my Virginia kayaking trifecta, I needed to get in some salt water, one because the ice would be at a minimum there, but mostly because the trip would not be complete without getting into the Chesapeake Bay at least once (the Atlantic Ocean remains a goal). Most of the access points were closed for the snow but I found one on Lynnhaven Bay that worked fine, and the caretaker did not question my sanity for wanting to kayak on a day like today. I paid my fee and he pointed me to a steep, snowy dune to the right of the parking lot.

There was ice here but it was wafer thin and sounded like breaking eggshells as I plowed through it. Out in the channel, the incoming tide made navigation uncertain. The tide seemed to want to steer me into the shoals that piled up next to the channel. I found out later that the current is strongest where Chesapeake Bay flows into Lynnhaven--right where I was. I can attest to that. After I fought my way past the bridge that marks the beginning of Chesapeake Bay, I let myself drift and the current shot me back under the bridge faster than I have ever traveled in my boat.

I can now say this about winter kayaking: one should do more of it. The cold, I have found, isn't even a factor. You warm up as soon as you start paddling, and once you've achieved that sense of balanced that an experienced kayaker has, Bob's yer uncle. The only impediment, if you can even call it that, is the skepticism of those whom you tell about your winter kayaking. I've spent a lifetime of people looking at me funny, so that didn't bother me much.