Honga Soliloquy The Trip to where time has stood still.....
Honga River and Hoopers Islands.


Awakening at midnight... leaving at 2am... arriving at 4:30am...
Just me... a billion stars... some very loud bull minows in a ditch... and a bunch of mosquitoes.
It's been a few years since I had been this far down on the Eastern Chesapeake Bay... and as much to see so many stars on a perfectly clear morning

I had fished quite a bit this August, and this was going to be my fourth new place for the year.   I had been consumed with just catching fish the last year and half.  And this year the adventurous spirit had come back to go to new places.

This would end up being my longest paddle day... a little over 20 miles... and my longest roadtrip of over 250miles in a day.

The picture below....
 is not from Hooper's Island...
It is from Beverly Triton Beach Park Launch...
It is just a picture of my "rig"... and there is another amazing story from the day the picture was taken and those "Sausage Clouds" that turned into funnel clouds (tornados that don't touch ground or water).
 







The morning was beautiful.... dead calm... a bit too calm as temperatures rose in to the 80's... a little breeze would have been nice.

Never in my life, 30 years at the beach, and the last six years on the Chesapeake Bay, had I ever seen so many crabs in the water.  It was a "crab explosion."

The day continued... and was beautiful... catching rockfish and speckled trout.




Off about 3miles away was Hooper's Light... and the Western Bay of the Chesapeake... maybe 7miles in the distance.
Full zoom on the camera while standing on Lower Hooper's Island having a lunch at 11am.



Just a few locals hanging out on a spit while on my break...



The weather reports had said nothing... and the weather on the VHF radio chirped nadda... but something was in the air...


A few hours later...after the above picture the western skys became dark and ominous... and darker and darker and darker...
The last two miles back to launch the winds kicked up to 20knots (I checked the local buoy reports)... it was crazy. I only paddled to keep the kayak staight with the tail wind and waves.  Often hitting plus 5miles an hour just keeping it straight.  

After five hours on the road, 250 miles road trip, and 20 miles paddling.  I made it home.   And then right there in the driveway... my power steering pump completely died... and the car was un driveable.   Of course I fixed it myself.. two weeks getting the correct pump, and a real bugger to get out and in.

What a great adventure... I'll be back...


Not my picture below... but the sort of locals you would see on a trip like this.....