Portsmouth Paddle Co

Location: New Castle, New Hampshire
Date: August 22, 2015

View from very close to our point of departure

On the evening of August 22 I went on Portsmouth Paddle Co's guided sunset standup paddleboarding tour on the Piscataqua River (really more of a bay) in New Castle (basically Portsmouth), New Hamsphire. The tour departed and ended at Goat Island and looped around Leachs Island.

Our group during the first quarter of our journey

No one in our group had been standup paddleboarding before, so our guide gave us a brief introduction to it before letting us give it a shot. After trying it my first time, it was really about finding the right spot on the board to stand and learning to maintain your balance. Our tour was on calm inland waters, where the only major disturbances were from boats passing nearby us on our trip.

Approaching our stopover point on Leachs Island

Dusk just after departing Leachs Island

The entire length of the tour was about 2 miles, but 1.5 miles into the tour, we stopped at a small bluff on Leachs Island where we disembarked our paddleboards and watched the sun set over the horizon. On our return journey at dusk, we wore glow sticks (the guides said this was to prevent boats from running us over, but none posed a threat to us) as we made the half mile trip back to Goat Island.

View from our stopover point on Leachs Island (Source: Shane Emerson)

On our return journey (Source: Shane Emerson)

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