Rowley River in April

Went kayaking on the Rowley River yesterday, which was surprisingly deserted of people and birds. We only saw one other boat in the 5 hours or so we were out ... some kind of effete rowboat. And we saw very few birds besides the ubiquitous gulls and cormorants. What we did see was more chop than I've ever kayaked in, out on Plum Island Sound and in the river itself. A very stiff wind was blowing from the west and the only respite we got from it was ducking into folds of the salt marshes. We tried going north along the Plum Island coastline but the chop there was the worst, being a shallow lee shore, and we crossed back over the sound and then slogged back up the river against the gale and the tide. Lots of fun but lots of work. We were paddling pretty hard for almost all of those 5 hours.