by Ad Crable, Bay Journal News Service
It happens every April and early May across the Chesapeake Bay region. Warm, sunny weather beckons to thousands of stir-crazy people who don shorts and T-shirts and drag their canoes and kayaks to the water.
The desire to get outdoors is even more pronounced now with home isolation from the coronavirus keeping people cooped up. Canoeing and kayaking are currently permitted in all the Bay drainage states even as some forms of recreational boating are not.
Because of that, officials and paddling groups are warning the public about being lulled by warming weather into a false sense of security as they take to the bay, favorite streams and lakes—where the water remains dangerously cold.
The sobering fact is that, too often, paddlers go unprepared…[to-view-more]