Deep Fried Turkey and Chicken Day

I had the opportunity to help cook a turkey and two chickens with a deep fryer today. What a deal. Lowering the bird into hot oil when it starts splashing around is a bit scary, but the end product is worth it. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. Yum.

Kayaking Antietam Creek

Saturday, I paddled my kayak from Wagman Road Bridge to Devil's Backbone State Park. The biggest drop was right at the start with the old mill tailings at Wagman's, but there are two other remarkable holes in that section of Antietam, both are 2-3 foot drops. The first is a good 3+ foot drop followed by a series of turns and drops as you fall through the crumbled old mill area. We had a number of canoes swamped and crack on of the old Grunman Canoes that go wedged between rocks. Well time to buy a new one anyway.  Despite, no one got hurt. Only lost one pair of glasses, a memorable day.

Canoe Trip Weekend

Leaving tonight for a two day canoe trip with the scouts. 

Choices for tomorrow are Potomac River between Bonds Landing and Perrie or Antietam Creek from Funkstown to Devil's Backbone Park.

Choices for Sunday are Antietam Creek for first three bridges (old mill rubble) or Lower Sidling Hill Creek to Perrie. 

Camping will be at a plain gravel camp off of MD 68, Little Orleans Road.

Great Chesapeake Bay Swim on June 14

The first wave leaves the Sandy Point State Park beach at 11:30 am, June 14 to swim the 4.4 miles between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge spans to Hemmingway's Restaurant on Kent Island. Come rain or shine, I'll be among them this year. Second wave leaves at, who cares, they'll pass me in the first mile. Second wave are all the 1:30 finishers, while I expect to take about 3:00. Can you imagine swimming 4.4 miles in 1.5 hours. That's about 20 minutes/mile. I'm good for 40 minute miles, maybe a little better. 

After leaving the beach, the first big waypoint is a 60 degree turn to the left at the 1 mile point. the next mile is through the shipping channel. The Coast Guard stops shipping traffic while the swimmers all cross this point. The next two miles are broken up by a smaller shipping span at the 3 mile point. The swimmers come out from between the bridges at the 4 mile point and swim next to the causeway for the last .4 mile. I've swam next to the causeway as the last leg of the 1 mile challenge swim the past three years. For most of that last .4 the water depth is shallow enough to drag your finger tips in the sand.

End of the Rain (for now)

The sun finally broke out after what seemed like a week of clouds, drizzle, and rain. The Potomac is flooding, no fishing, no canoeing, no fun. Unless of course you like to mow the grass. Boy is it growing.

Home Built Boat Saga

I restarted the boat building last night. The lap and glue system wasn't working for the shape of boat I had picked. I reshaped the frames to have 3 straight sides each. Next step is to assemble them on the building frame and then use some old cardboard to create patterns for each of the three planks. Following that, I can cut the plywood and assemble using stitch and glue method. Well it's a theory anyway.