Although I am a partner at South Coast, it was only recently that I had the pleasure of my first-ever moonlight paddle. Having small children means not many late nights for me anymore. These full moon paddles have been extremely popular with kayak fans even on cold winter nights, so I was excited about my maiden voyage in the dark. Of course, my excitement didn't have anything to do with the fact that I had been cooped up in the house with two pre-school children for four days straight with not much relief except a good stiff drink once or twice.
No, my excitement was more because I was meeting a group of nine women, some of them strangers to me, and we planned to howl at the moon in a celebration of August birthdays.
It was dark as we all pushed off upstream into the dark waters of Old Fort Bayou. A couple of the paddlers had little kayak experience, but no one tipped over and all were quickly comfortable (more or less) in the sturdy sea kayaks.
As we talked back and forth in the back of the group, laughter and snatches of song (a few from the 50's) floated over the water to us. The moon was brilliant and so were all these funny, big-hearted women of all ages - from 28 to 81.
I won't tell any of the conversation, but it was full of funny and poignant stories, particularly after we got off onto a sandbar for some celebratory champagne. And if you thought you heard a chorus of loud howling about 10:00 one night not long ago, I'm sure it was just the wind blowing through the pines.
Come join South Coast Paddling for your own special event soon.
