The Fun of a Full Day Paddle

Had a great Full Day Paddle out of the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge the other day! My folks weren't into an open water crossing, so we started off by really exploring the salt marsh in depth...got down a couple little creeks that I don't usually get to explore on the shorter trips. We had a nice stop for lunch (courtesy of the Cape Charles Coffee House) on nearby

Kim & Alan explore the marsh

Raccoon Island where we watched sharks making baby sharks off the western tip of the island. Swung by a wild clam bed I know of for a little "catch and release" clam digging and had the pleasure of watching a Black Skimmer glide along a tidal pool on the mud flat as we cooled ourselves in the creek. Lots of American Oystercatchers, Terns, and Osprey, as well as a handful of Bald Eagles. Even caught a glimpse of a Tricolored Heron in flight and a few Diamondback Terrapins sunning themselves on the banks. Love this job!
-Margaret 6/12/14

The Kid in All of Us

There’s just something about pirates. Whether it’s Hollywood’s Pirates of the Caribbean or The Goonies, pirates bring out the kid in all of us. After all, who wouldn’t want to go on a treasure hunt for gold, jump off of the plank, or show off all the fancy sailing lingo like yawl, spinnaker, transom, grommet, or halyard. If you don’t know what those words mean, don’t worry-neither do I. Ask our friends onboard the Lynx and they will surely give you a great answer that may or may not go over your head.

On Monday, the employees of SouthEast Expeditions had the privilege of sailing from Norfolk to the Cape Charles Harbor on the Lynx, a 122-foot Baltimore Clipper. The ride across the beautiful Chesapeake Bay gave us the opportunity to see the Eastern Shore in a whole new light; what appeared to be a smudge on the horizon became more and more like our home as we sailed towards the Harbor. The Bay seemed infinite and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel rose on our right like a towering roller coaster staring down at its anxious riders. Onboard, we learned how the original Lynx was instrumental in defending American freedom by blockading U.S. ports and evading the British naval fleet.

The Lynx is currently docked at the Cape Charles harbor in preparation for the third annual Tall Ships Festival. Stop by this Thursday-Sunday and tour the Lynx, Kalmar Nyckel, Serenity, and the Apostle. There will also be music, food, art vendors, a pirate costume contest, parade, and cannon and pistol demonstrations. For this weekend, it’s completely acceptable to be a little kid again because well…pirates and big ships.

-Dallas
 

Coming for the Tall Ships? Stay for the Kayaking!

One of the most appealing parts of living on the Eastern Shore is the slow paced, relaxed nature of the place. But don’t let that fool you into thinking there’s nothing to do here! Coming up on the 14^th and 15^th of June, the Tall Ships are coming to Cape Charles. Dress like a pirate, book a sunset sail, tour the decks, or show up for the cannon demonstration! The Tall Ships are a great reason to come to Cape Charles. And I know all too well that once you get here, you’ll find plenty of reasons to stay.

Here are two of my favorites:

Our 2 hour tours through the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge—this trip is great for the young and old, as well as new and experience paddlers. Join one of our knowledgeable guides as you weave through the salt marsh and learn something new about this wonderful place. From sky-high osprey to eye-level periwinkle snails, to blue crab beneath your boat, this trip is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Our Kayak Winery tour is the first (and the best) in the world! You will truly experience the heart of the Eastern Shore as you paddle from a waterman’s wharf to a beautiful vineyard—one that’s been a part of a working farm for nearly 400 years. After a lovely paddle along Church Creek, take a short but scenic stroll into Chatham Vineyards tasting room where you can sip award-winning wine while you investigate the very room it was made in.

I have been working with SouthEast for a little over a year now, and I can honestly say I have yet to have a kayaking experience I didn’t enjoy. It’s a remarkable place to live, and we love sharing it with you! 

~Kris
 

A New Guide's Perspective

So my name is Tyler. I've been with Southeast Expeditions for about a month and it has been a blast. The guides I've gotten to interact with and get to know are some pretty awesome people. Things can get pretty hectic at times, but I've started to learn to live a day at a time and I think that is a very appropriate way to live here on the Eastern Shore. This is such a beautiful place and I'm very lucky to get to live and paddle here. On Sunday I shadowed a trip led by Marshall (he owns the Cape Charles Coffee House. Stop by and say hi if you get a chance) and we experienced something totally odd for the area. We led a trip in the fog. While we didn't get to see very much in terms of wildlife, we were blessed with the ambient noise of the foghorn, a new sound for our guests. It was cool to get to paddle through the salt marsh with limited visibility. It gave you the feel of truly being out in nature. If you are ever in the Cape Charles area, we would love to take you out with us and who knows.....maybe you'll get to experience something cool in nature too!
-Tyler

Want to know everything we saw on the water the other day? Here you go!

ESNWR kayak ramp

Just thought I'd list every single critter my group saw or heard while paddling in the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge the other day...bald eagle, osprey, black vulture, willet, lesser yellowlegs, laughing gull, herring gull, clapper rail (heard but not seen!), great blue heron, little green heron, snowy egret, great egret, double-crested cormorant, common loon, American crow, American oystercatcher and tree swallows...that's all as far as birds go. Of course, we also saw plenty of periwinkle snails, mud snails, oysters, clams, ribbed mussels, fiddler crabs, ghost crabs and minnows. I love this time of year on the water! -Margaret 4/21/13

Hooray for the first paddle of the season!

When Dave asked me over shrimp, hush puppies, and something cold at The Shanty the other day if I could switch my schedule around at my off-season job to guide a trip for eleven Habitat for Humanity volunteers on the short notice of just two days, the answer was.....of course! I monitor oysters and help with oyster reef restoration on the seaside and barrier islands of Virginia for The Nature Conservancy in the winter. In April, I only work a few days a week, so you'd better believe I want to take a group out on an off day.

The kids were fantastic. Sixteen to eighteen year old high schoolers and their two chaperons from the Adirondacks who were volunteering their spring break to build a Habitat for Humanity house in Bloxom. (Last year, they went to Birmingham, AL to build and gave themselves the name Team Tornado.) There's nothing like knowing ahead of time that your group consists of, at least relatively speaking, responsible and able teenagers. Many had paddled before, and those who hadn't were gung ho and ready to learn. They actually paid attention during my creekside paddle clinic!

paddling the seaside marsh

It's not like I forget over the winter how much I love to kayak, but there's nothing like the feeling of sliding that boat in for the first outing of the season. Our launch time out of Red Bank (a seaside creek in Northampton County, VA not New Jersey) was just an hour after low tide, so were right at oyster level, giving me the perfect opportunity to talk about the work I've been doing at the Conservancy over the past few months. I plucked a clump of oysters out of the mud and was delighted when, once again, the kids came in close to listen and learn about what oysters do and why we really need them to keep doing it. They were excited by the shear numbers of fiddler crabs on the banks and even acted mildly amused when I ate a piece of sea lettuce out of the creek. As we floated on the rising tide back to the boat landing we found ourselves following a common loon as he dove and resurfaced, and we were all pretty impressed at just how far he could go without popping back up.

Back on land, while my co-guide and I were strapping the boats on the trailer (which the kids insisted on loading themselves), I remarked that if every group was as good as Team Tornado had been, we would have one heck of a season. Something tells me we will, no matter what!

-Margaret, 4/8/13

But there's still water out there!

Sometimes...often...as I'm finishing up a guided tour I realize I'm nowhere near ready to get out of my kayak. Just because the paying part of the paddling is over doesn't mean there's not still water in the creek. Fortunately, I'm almost always in a position to do something about that need to stay out just a little longer.

I was loading the boats onto my Subaru after a Chatham Vineyards Paddle the other day when the bug bit me. (Not an actual bug, you see. An actual bug would NEVER bite you on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.) The breeze was so nice, and the air was so clear in the late afternoon light that I felt like I could see every single waving blade of cordgrass on the shoreline. And, oh my gosh, I just love kayaking on the Shore in October so much. So, I did what any good self-propelled boater would do in such a situation. I rode back up to the winery, asked Julie to pour me a glass of Church Creek Vintner's Blend, and took myself for a little excursion.

breezy times on Church Creek

The family who owns Chatham Vineyards has put every bit of land they own along Church Creek under conservation easement, thus securing it as the middle of nowhere forever. It is thanks, in great part, to stewards like the Wehners that we have so many pristine paddling locations on this narrow strip of land.

My little round two was very pleasing, but it wasn't very long. The tide was pretty low, so I couldn't sneak into the sheltered parts of the creek to hunker/paddle where the wind (which had really picked up!) couldn't get me. Around one bend, I found a slightly deeper "pond" where I put my paddle in my lap and drifted for a bit. The water is especially clear at this time of year, and I was perfectly delighted to float along watching snail tracks in the mud beneath me until I ever so slowly eventually ran aground. Turning myself around, I looked up and saw that a juvenile bald eagle had been watching me meander through the marsh while I had been watching the snails meander through the mud. Like I'd busted him spying, he immediately swooped off his branch and away, showing off his already impressive wingspan.

It seemed unlikely that I would get to top that in the last hour or less before sunset, so I started back towards Chatham. My phone buzzed in my pfd, and a friend told me she and her clan were on their way to Cape Charles and wondered whether I was in town. I told her that I was, in fact, nowhere near town but that I didn't consider that to be a hindrance. The quiet of the post-tour solo paddle is a wonderful thing, but sipping something icy cold with loved ones on the harbor afterwards is pretty good, too. So, I loaded one more kayak onto the Forester and headed on down the road...

-Margaret 10/22/12