| The following pictures are of some of my favorite paddles when I lived in Connecticut for 8 years. If you are ever in the area, check out www.connyak.org for paddling events - This is the most active sea kayaking club I have ever been involved with. |
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| Essex Harbor - Ct. River Museum. Where the River comes to life. Located on the waterfront in historic Essex, the Connecticut River Museum is the perfect place to explore the heritage and experience the wonders of New England’s Great River. |
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| Essex Harbor - For many years a part of Saybrook, it was long called Potopaug, the Indian name for this point of land between two wide coves. The town of Essex as a whole, a much larger area, also includes the villages of Centerbrook, where the town's first meetinghouse was built, and of Ivoryton, once world-famous for ivory goods from piano keyboards to toothpicks. When the town split off from Saybrook in 1852, it named itself for the English county of Essex. |
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| Essex Harbor |
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| Essex - Ct. River |
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| 12/2009 - Gillette castle up close. |
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| Chester on Ct. River - Old Gillette Castle rail bridge |
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| Chester - Gillette Castle as seen from Ct. River. Atop the most southerly hill in a chain known as the Seven Sisters, William Hooker Gillette, noted actor, director, and playwright, built this one hundred and eighty-four acre estate, the Seventh Sister. The focal point of his effort was a twenty four room mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle. |
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| Old Lyme - Lord Cove |
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| Old lyme - near Lord Cove off Ct. River |
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| Great Island at mouth of Ct. River. The Great Island area provides paddling in the secluded back channels, side rivers, and coves that parallel the lower Connecticut River near the mouth on the east side. You wind through 10-foot-tall marsh reeds and generally avoid the voluminous summer boating traffic. Whereas deeper-draft boats have to pay attention to the charts, kayaks can wander all over the place in the shallow waters here. Another advantage of the lower Connecticut is that three-quarters of the 1-mile–wide mouth averages a few feet in depth, which serves to keep motorboats to a minimum or forces them into the west channel, which exits through two stone breakwaters beyond Saybrook Point Lighthouse. The water just off the breakwaters is also very shallow— even small boats sometimes get grounded. Great Island offers good summer sea kayaking amid marsh grass, seaside goldenrod, glasswort, sea lavender, and water hemp. As at many other Long Island Sound spots, however, the most serene time to paddle is before Memorial Day and after Labor Day. |
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| Great Island tidal marsh |
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| Located on Long Island Sound in the town of East Lyme, 710-acre Rocky Neck is a popular recreation spot. The public now enjoys use of the park because of a few farsighted conservationists who secured the land in 1931, using their personal funds until the State Legislature authorized its purchase. This shot is while paddling in Sound off Rocky Neck State Park |
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| Island in sound off Rocky Neck |
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| The Thimble Islands are an archipelago of small islands in Long Island Sound, in and near the harbor of Stony Creek, Connecticut in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut. Known to the Mattabesec Indians as "the beautiful sea rocks", they consist of a jumble of granite rocks, ledges, and outcroppings resulting from glaciation, numbering between 100 and 365 depending on where the line is drawn between an island and a mere rock. The islands serve as a rest stop for migrating seals. Outer Island is one of the furthest south Thimble Islands near Stoney Creek |
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| Our summer home in Thimble Islands |
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| Cool Thimble Island cottage |
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| Thimble Island connecting bridge between two islands |
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| Nigel Foster at Connyak event 2004 - Nigel Foster is one of the world’s most skilled sea kayakers. He doesn’t boast of his prowess. He is a soft spoken, almost shy individual, but the grace and elegance he displays when paddling demonstrates an unparalleled depth of knowledge about his kayaks, his skills and the ocean. |
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| Looks pretty easy, huh - I challenge you to do this as skillful as he did in a long, narrow boat as this. |
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| Mystic Seaport - An all time favorite paddle. The Museum of America and the Sea -- is the nation's leading maritime museum |
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| Having a blast in the surf of Narrangansett Beach in Rhode Island |
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| Into the wave - elbow deep! What a blast!! |
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| It is addicting to play in waves and surf - Just an amazing adrenaline rush! |
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| The Salmon River - East Hampton - This is a fun little white water paddle - You can put in off Rt. 2 on either the Blackledge or the Jeremy Rivers - Both merge into the salmon and the paddle is one of the most scenic I have done going through a marvelous forest. The Washed out dam towards the end is shown above and is the highlight of this paddle. It should be scouted prior to running and is best to run river right. The take out is just a short distance beyond this at the Comstock covered bridge. |
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| Nicholas as a youngster already interested in kayaking - Here, we are at Haddam Meadows along the Connecticut River in Haddam. |
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| Daddy, this is real easy! How do you roll?? 2002 on Ct. River in Haddam |
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| Look at his form! He is destined to be an all-star paddler! |
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| Nick taking a break on a sand bar off Haddam Meadows - Note the masted ship in the background. It is a replica of the 'Nina' In 1986, the Columbus Foundation was formed in the British Virgin Islands to raise money to build the three ships that Christopher Columbus used in his search for the New World. There were no authentic pictures of the Pinta, Niña or the Santa Maria, and all of the so-called models, replicas, or reproductions that had been built in the past merely represented what some artist, architect, archaeologist or model ship builder thought what they ought to have looked like. The next two years were spent in research. The Niña, like the Pinta, was a caravel, which was a common trading vessel in use during the Age of Discovery. |
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