July 30th– I finished a drawing at 3PM, noticed that there was a nice southwest wind blowing, checked the Tide Book, and realized that conditions were right for a test of current vs. wind in Vineyard Sound…. so loaded up and headed for Lake Tashmoo (battling inevitable summer traffic to get there). I was underway by 5PM, paddled out through the jetties to the line from West Chop to Norton Point, turned left and watched the GPS. Surprisingly, there was very little speed increase, despite what was supposed to be a strong current ebbing dow the Sound towards Aquinnah; 5.5-6mph was all I could attain, keeping the heart rate around 100.
Tashmoo to Cedar Tree Neck
I kept moving further and further out into the Sound, but saw no speed increase at all until I’d passed Norton Point, when it finally kicked up to the 6.5 range…. I continued on down to Cedar Tree Neck, and speed remained steady at 6.5 the whole way, going straight into the wind (which was relatively light– exactly what I’ll hope for on August 9th). I turned around with 5.5 miles on the odometer, headed in towards Paul’s Point and immediately saw the speed drop to below 5mph with the current against me…. but once into the Lamberts Cove bight, the current disappeared and I had a nice relaxing paddle back along the shore (save for nearly hitting a huge submerged rock well off the beach, the presence of which I’d forgotten about).
A very helpful outing, which confirmed that I’ll have to stay well offshore in order to benefit from the ebb current– but also that I can tuck in close to shore and find a bit of a lee if the wind is really up on 8/9– albeit without any assist from the current. As with everything else– it’ll all come down to how hard the wind is blowing that day. 10.91 miles in 1:51, average speed 5.9mph.
Now thinking of possibly paddling Tashmoo to the Cliffs with the fair current early Saturday morning, as a final distance workout– it’ll be all “tapering” and resting after that!