Last Trip of the Year?

Mike G · 12-08-2011, 08:54 AM

I am headed down to Eastern Neck Island on the Chesapeake bay in Kent Co. Md.,this might be the last trip of the year. I am going to take my sea kayak out and test my shoulder out, it`s been six weeks since I had rotator cuff surgery and it feels pretty good. The camper has a small amount of snow on it, so that should not be a problem, I just have to see how bad they salted the roads up.

skeeterbait8 · 12-08-2011, 08:58 AM

We've already had our last trip of the year. Just winterized yesterday. So sad.

Hope your shoulder does well. Enjoy your trip!

Mike G · 12-08-2011, 09:04 AM

Thanks! My camper is winterized also, and I just unloaded everything out, but I will be going down solo so I can pack light. My wife likes to kayak, but she is a warm weather girl, so I get to have some fun on the bay.

D-mo · 12-08-2011, 03:29 PM

Whats the weather like there at this time of year ... we were at First Landing State park in July of this year and had beautiful weather ...hot b ut beautifull. We bummed around Virginia beach for about a week ...first landing is a very nice park if you get the nice campsites ... are they open year round?

anywhoo .. be interested to hear about the weather .. as i may pull the camper myself and take a run to Floriday this winter ... and need to know where the "first stay spots" can be along the I81 route ... and the I75

cheers on your last trip .. enjoy .

d-mo

backpacker3 · 12-08-2011, 07:20 PM

Hope you have a good time but don't over do it with the kayaking. Here I sit, watching it snow on the camper, counting the days til Spring.

Mike G · 12-08-2011, 07:24 PM

First Landing is a real nice CG, we stay there sometimes when we attend the Oceana Air show, I am not sure if they are open year round. We are between 40 - 50 for day time temps and down in the 30`s at night. We can also get some wild temperature swings this time of year.

Mike G · 12-08-2011, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by backpacker3

Hope you have a good time but don't over do it with the kayaking. Here I sit, watching it snow on the camper, counting the days til Spring.

The bay should be fairly calm and I am just going out to see how the shoulder holds up, I would like to do the whole trip around the island which is like 10 miles, but if it bothers me I will just take it easy. I do this paddle about 4 times a year, there`s plenty of Bald Eagles to see and tons of other migratory waterfowl. The other good thing about paddling in the winter is the solitude, no boat traffic and a campground to myself. I almost forgot to mention there`s a nice waterfront bar/restaurant right up the road.

Tinsu · 12-08-2011, 10:01 PM

Mike
Don't forget to post a few pics.
John

D-mo · 12-09-2011, 05:53 PM

yep..... need pics for sure ..

Mike G · 12-11-2011, 09:17 PM

I really think this was the last trip of the year. I am going to pull the battery and cover the camper up for the winter.This was a nice trip, there were only three other people staying at the CG and one of them is an employee. The weather forecast called for sunny skies and mild wind, they were wrong about the wind! The kayak trip was around Eastern Neck Island which is about a 10 mile trip, I have done this paddle many times before and know what conditions to expect with different types of weather.
When I got to the put-in I knew it was going to be a hard day, the air temps were about 38deg. and the water temps were around 49-50deg., this was not the problem. The wind was steady out of the NW at 20-25 mph, and this is not a good direction for this side of the bay. The trip consist of about 5 miles of fairly protected paddling and the other half is in the open bay. When I turned the corner to enter the bay, I knew that it was going to be a long paddle. There were a few times that I thought, I might have made a mistake, but it ended up to be a great challenge and my shoulder repair held up.
The island is loaded with Bald Eagles and I saw six on this trip, and lots of water fowl. The nice calm water pic`s were taken the day before the nice breeze arived.

This was the best that I could do with taking pics from the kayak, this was in a protected cove, so the waves and wind were not to bad, its still not that clear.

backpacker3 · 12-12-2011, 07:05 AM

Glad to hear you had a good time. Nice pics.

Tinsu · 12-12-2011, 10:11 AM

Mike,
I use the same Yakima setup for my kayak. The only difference is I tie it down onto my front tow hooks. It looks like your front rope is tied to something on the passenger wheel well. What do you tie onto?

Did you use the heater at night? CoolCat or furnace?

How did your shoulder hold up for the paddle?

Where and how do you store your battery for the winter? Do anyone use a trickle charger for the battery's winter storage? If so, what do you recommend?

Great pics, and thanks for sharing.
John

Mike G · 12-12-2011, 11:23 AM

[QUOTE=Tinsu;150032]Mike,
I use the same Yakima setup for my kayak. The only difference is I tie it down onto my front tow hooks. It looks like your front rope is tied to something on the passenger wheel well. What do you tie onto?
I also use the tow hook, its just the angle of the picture that makes it look off.

Did you use the heater at night? CoolCat or furnace?
I used a small electric heater and the heated mattress, which is really nice.
How did your shoulder hold up for the paddle?
The shoulder did fine, I had to paddle a lot harder than I wanted to because of the conditions, but it did fine.

Where and how do you store your battery for the winter? Do anyone use a trickle charger for the battery's winter storage? If so, what do you recommend?
I am going to place it in my basement and just maintain it with a charger. The type of charger is a good question and one that I was going to ask next. I use a Battery Tender on my Camaro, but I am not sure if that would be good for the camper battery. I would also like to fast charge the battery with a generator when camping and I think the best way is to plug the charger into the generator and then hook it up to the battery. If no one answers up, I will start a new thread on this.

thehamguy1 · 12-19-2011, 03:00 PM

Great pictures, thanks Mike! I've used a Battery Tender on my same motorcycle battery for the last seven winters. Prior to getting it I would typically get no more than three seasons out of a battery. So I'm sold on the Battery Tender. Accept no substitutes, is my suggestion.

But the BTender isn't a bulk charger, and the camper battery is a different sort of creature than the MC battery. So my suggestion is to still keep the camper battery on the BTender but be sure it's fully charged first. All the BTender would have to do is run a float charge cycle from time to time. That's what I'm doing this first winter, I'll learn whether it was a smart move in the spring. Meanwhile I can use the camper battery as backup power for my ham radio station.

Mike G · 12-20-2011, 05:49 AM

Thanks for the info.!
I am going to buy a bulk charger, but I am not sure which one to get. I stopped by Sears the other day and they have a few, but I`m not sure which one would be the best for my camper battery.

D-mo · 12-20-2011, 10:23 AM

i guess i use a bulk charger to keep both my batteries charged up over the winter months. Basically i keep the charger very near the front end of the trailer .. and when i go to blow the snow ... or whatever i will hook it up once a month or so. It runs both a 10 amp and 2amp charge, so i dont keep it hooked up all the time .. just enough to bring the batteries up to scuff during the winter months. This has worked for me in the past ... very well and have had no issues with my deep cycles for years. I really think the whole idea of this is just to disconnect the batts and refresh them once in a while. In reality .. i think anyways .. they really should not loose any charge, if they are not connected .. but it doesnt do them any harm to give them a bit of a "bump of voltage" once in a while to make them happy.

d-mo

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