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"There white caps in the ditch...that can't be good"
Donald Dodd on the way to meet up with the Skimmer
The Panther Point trip turned out to be quite the adventure! Friday morning nine PACK adventures met at the Skimmer to go on the Panther Point Trip, five were already at Panther Point via their own power boats. The weather report now forecast the front passing through, but it was now going to be a very intense front with reports of up to 70 mph wind in places.
Capt. Moore felt uneasy about loading up the Skimmer and running smack into the front which was going to hit in a hour or so. It was decided that a late drop off Friday afternoon was not possible due to Capt Moore was emceeing the SeaFair 2009, so the trip would be delayed till first light saturday morning and the group would go directly across the bay to a place called Fence Lake, the fee would be less which would compensate for having to stay in a hotel Friday night.
Everyone went their own way and in one hour, the front blew through, it was very violent, driving wind and rain for a sold hour or two. I watched from a hotel veranda as chairs toppled, the wind drove the rain sideways and the temperature dropped 25 degrees. A call was received from the members who went out to Panther Point , that the bay turned extremely rough with 4 foot waves, nearly capsizing the boats, washing gas tanks and fishing gear off one of the boats and one boats breaking its mooring and having to be chased down by kayak. When the group returned to the Island (they were fishing when the front hit), they discovered that Panther Point had submerged below the 3 foot tidal surge and the tents that were pitched were destroyed by the wave driven shells. They had no choice but to wait till winds calmed and went back to Seadrift. The full story hopefully will be revealed at the next PACK meeting.
The rest of the group at Rockport gathered at the Drifters Cabins (very nice) to bbq some steaks that night and discussed the nearly disasterous decision to go to Panther Point before the front hit. All week long the front was forecast but the winds were going to be in the 25 mph range. We imagined what we would have done with all our gear on a submerged Panther Point in the middle of 40+mph winds! Not good, we dodged a bullet. The memebers who made it out to Panther Point noted the Island is much smaller and would have not accomodated the large group originally signed up.
Saturday morning 7 members loaded up early for the trip to Fence Lake, hoping that the front didn't back up and bring rain. The camp site was nice, a narrow shell bar, that may be the location of future outings. The island is surrounded by shallow flats easily waded, with some back lakes and channels, not quite as many as Panther Point area though. The weather remained overcast, windy and cold both Saturday and Sunday. The fishing was tough and so wasn't the paddling.
Fritz was the lone person to land a fish and three reds went for his topwater. I caught one large trout on a gulp shrimp but it ran into the flooded marsh and got away. A few others caught some dink trout.
Camping was great and dinner was enjoyable both nights, we never gave up and came back to port just after noon on Sunday. Even though the weather was rough and fishing slow everyone enjoyed exploring a new area and the quiet bay.
Frank Canneto
Thanks for the report. I was interested in how things went for y'all. Sounds like many of the trips I have been on! They are all good, the weather is just more challenging as some.
For the 5 us that were out there before the rest of the group, I can say we all thought the front would hold until Friday evening, but it came in early when we were all out fishing. I chose to stay nearby. Bob R and myself fished Panther Lake. Several small trout were landed and 1 big red blow up on top water by Bob R. I was heading back at 11:30 to get a bite to eat when I was greeted by "Mr. Blue Northner" and was about 100 yds from the campsite. I saw my boat break away and start drifting toward the shoreline towards 2nd March cut direction. I paddled hard and chased it down and got next to the boat and jumped out of my kayak into it. I then pulled my yak into the boat. Next, I started the boat and proceeded into a nearby marsh cut and waited the storm out there. I was about a 1/8 mile from the campsite. I could see Bob R in the distance and he took cover behind a wooden structure behind the floating house cabin near the shore. Bruce B, Brad, and John were fishing down at the 2nd marsh and took cover in the marsh. Upon arrival back to the campsite we were all amazed that the tents had received direct blows from the waves that came over the island and deposited oyster shells up onto the tents and shredded them. My tent was the only one that survived (tent cot) because it was set up on my boat and tied down to my anchor cleats on the front deck. It was decided we would pack up and head out since the others no longer had tents. Temperature drop was about 15-20 degrees. I estimate wind gusts at no more than 40 to 50mph. As I waited the storm out, I could only imagine the original PACK team in the Extreme Kayak series tournament who fought off the 70mph cold front that hit them down in Rockport a few years ago. At best, this storm was slightly manageable, but definitely no storm is safe. As I sat there, I wished that I hadn't had come, because I debated long and hard before deciding to. I think it would be a good idea that all future PACK outings within a +/- 24 hr period of a major storm be cancelled.....you just never know what can happen out there in a storm! I'm glad the skimmer held back from launching and most importantly that there were no accidents. Oh yeah, one more reason everyone should have a VHF to monitor channel 69 for fellow PACK members wellness and have access to the emergency channel 16 in case of needing to hail the coast guard.
Tight Lines,
SightCast