A Day on the Water Ends on the Tow Truck

Well, last week on one of the few sunny days we have had BJ and I decided to put the kayaks in the water and take a short trip.  We were at Carr Point FamCamp for NS Newport and there was a boat launch less then a mile away.   We were on the shores of Narragansett Bay and there was a large island with some homes on it about a mile off shore.  Between that island and shore was a small uninhabited island (Dyer Island) that BJ thought was a bird sanctuary.

Dyer Island Beaches

We launched the kayaks and got underway.  Water was calm and pretty clear, vis was about 15 feet into the water.  As we approached Dyer Island we could see the sea birds congregating on the rocky beach, it was low tide so a lot of beach! 
We never did land on the island but did circumnavigate it.   There was an unoccupied boat anchored about 60 ft off the north end of the island and the boat had a dive flag up.  Finally saw the bubbles but diver never surfaced while we were in that area.  Would like to know what he was diving for!

New born birds

There were some new born birds on the beach also.  They still had the gray furry looking cover rather then the feathers they will develop.   We decided not to go on to the larger island, Prudence Island, and paddled south of Dyer for a ways before heading back to the boat launch.



(Note: Not long ago I was looking at another Blog and I noted the pics were sideways and thought it odd.  Now I am having the same problem!  I have rotated them and saved them, renamed them and saved them and they are always in the correct alignment until I import them here and they are sideways as you can see.  Sorry about that.  I think it has to do with the native format of the camera I used. Will work on fixing the problem but for now you will need to twist your neck some to see the pics!)



It had been a nice hour and a half on the water, our first in several weeks.  It remained calm and sunny the whole time. 

So, when I go to get the Jeep to load the kayaks back on, it drives as if the brakes were stuck.  Took a lot of pedal to get it to move.  But, I got it down on the ramp and we loaded the kayaks.  It was obvious as I cleared the ramp there was a problem that was not going away.  It seemed the parking brake was hung-up but, the handle was down as it should be.  I recycled it several times to no avail!!  Finally we called Jeep for a tow since it was still under warranty.  The tow truck showed up quickly and took it to the local Jeep dealer.  They determined it was not the parking brake but the braking system we had installed for when it was being towed.  But, they did get it to release the brakes.  Several days later we found the problem, a malfunctioning piston that was improperly applying the brakes.  So alls well that ends well.

Jeep catching a ride!

Bottom line it was a nice day on the water and an interesting island to paddle around.