New Brighton To Harbor and Sons of the Beach

Today's paddle was planned to be a cruise from New Brighton to the Yacht Harbor where I took a coffee break at Kind Grind and got an unexpected pleasant surprise. The Sons of the Beach Ukulele Band plays on the sand at the harbor every Saturday at 10AM. I sipped my coffee and hung out with this very fun and affable group for about 15 minutes before walking back to the boat launch ramp for the return to NB. I even joined in for a lustily sung version of Dion's "Run Around Sue." Most of you readers are probably way to young to remember Dion and the Belmonts, but...I do! (I even remembered most of the words. Amazing.) OK, so much for the swing down memory lane.

The plan for today was a long cruise with a break. I figured it would be about a nine or ten mile round trip from New Brighton to the harbor and I wanted to take a break there to rest. It worked out well except that the tracking app didn't seem to pick up the outbound leg to the harbor. I caught this error at the harbor and reset it, so I did get the return trip to New Brighton. I took the same route both ways so the total mileage of 9.6 miles seems about right although the mph at 4.7 seems a bit fast. But I did have a small tail wind on the return and I was moving along pretty well.

NB Harbor RT And Ukulele Band

I paddled up to the Sewer Peak channel with Dan on his 14' racing SUP. He didn't have time to do the long route so he paddled up channel and back to NB following the kelp line. I pushed on past Rockview and the grom contest at 26th through the dead glassy water off Blacks and into the harbor entrance. I pulled the Bark out of the water at the boat ramp and walked it over to the Kind Grind. The return trip was pretty much the same, but in reverse.

Overall the water was smooth. There was a little swell running and some backwash to contend with on the return paddle as the tide was rising, but other than that it was perfect water...again.