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Jemima Dips Her Tail Feathers

Today I wrapped up all my tasks at work by 4:00, and it was a beautiful day so I scooted out early. As I drove home through Capitola Village I realized that it wouldn't take much persuasion to convince my wife what a perfect evening it would be to put the boat in the water and paddle around Soquel Creek.

Sure enough she was game, and we got Jemima in the water around 5:30. I could write a lot more about the experience, but for the moment suffice it to say that we had a delightful evening! Before it got dark my wife scrambled ashore to snap a couple pictures from the bank of the creek, none turned out too well and this was the best. Neither Emma nor Buddy were very pleased that she had abandoned ship (and you can see it in both of their faces) so I was only able to make one pass before swinging back around to let her board again.

We rowed back and forth under Stockton Bridge and the train trestle, down to the restaurants on the Esplanade to wave at the the folks enjoying their romantic dinners looking out at the pier and the cove and the Capitola Venicians (cute little painted beach bungalow vacation rentals) before paddling as far as we could up Soquel Creek past the Shadowbrook restaurant and the houses along Riverview into the darkness, until the stream got too shallow and we turned around again and paddled back down to the mouth of the creek. It was a great time! And only one day off of the 9 year anniversary of the first Puddle Duck race on February 28th, 2004.

NEXT time out the sail is going up!