Trip #27: Sausalito

Today was a short beginner's trip in Sausalito on the tandem with a Japanese gal, Ako, a.k.a. Akiko. We did a simple tour of going inland first to see the harbor seals and the house boats. Then we turned around and went toward SF to see the view and to go under the restaurant there. The weather was beautiful; a little windy at first but not enough to cause any trouble.

Trip #26: Foster City Lagoon

I found this route from a site called www.mapmyhike.com
Looked pretty cool and easy so I decided it would be a good one to work out with.
The whole route is through a residential area along a pond or canal or lagoon...
Some of the houses were nice; many weren't.
In all it took about 2 hours 20 minutes.

Trip #25: Oakland 2-Hour Paddle

The weather could hardly be better; sunny, with only a slight breeze; not too hot; not too cold.
I put in at Jack London Square (again) and this time paddle away from San Francisco past an estuary to Fruitvale Avenue Bridge and back.
On the way out I had the current against me which made coming back much easier. For this reason I took a slight detour around Government Island with Coast Guard and Navy ships anchored there.
My left arm ached for the first half hour and after that it was fine. It is strange how each time the pain is for only the first half hour...

Trip #24: Short Sausalito Trip

In order to try out the kayak after the Point Reyes incident, I went on a short paddle today in Sausalito.
Putting together the kayak, I noticed some great wear and tear on some of the poles and the clamps that fit on them. It is also missing a few parts and the zipper is worse for the wear. That said, it still works.
The paddle I did was one that I had done a number of times before, but the weather was idea and it was really nice to get out again.

Trip #23: Peril in Drakes Estero

It has taken me 2 weeks to write this as it was by far the most adventurous kayaking trip to date and one that I would rather not repeat.
The parties were Anders and Nina in my double and I in my single.
We started at the top of Drakes Estero near the Oyster Farm.
Drakes Estero is part of the Point Reyes National Park.
Several months of the year this area is closed to kayakers as it is where many harbor seals give birth to their pups.
We started at the top of this salt pond and headed directly south toward the ocean. As might be expected we passed over quite a number of oyster farming structures. We also saw a number of harbor seals.
Because we were on such calm water, neither boat was using the spray skirt and I was not even wearing my life jacket (although I did have it behind my seat in the kayak).
After about an hour and a half of kayaking we reached the ocean.
Here is where our judgement went very wrong.
Seeing the waves we all agreed it would be fun to ride them.
Not thinking that we did not have our spray skirts and, more importantly, since we timed it to be about an hour past high tide, there was a strong under current going out.
After a few big waves I realized that this was not good. I turned around and started heading back to the pond.
Boom, I am hit by a wave and a lot of water rushes in. Boom, a 2nd wave fills my kayak half way. Boom, a 3rd turns me over, making me lose my eye glasses and hat, although in the panic I did not realize either loss till quite a while later.
The under current is pulling heavy me out while the waves are pushing my kayak in. When pulling on my life jacket, I let go of the kayak and it was pulled quickly away from me. With the life jacket on I could not swim fast enough to get back to the kayak. After a minute or so of trying I realized that the kayak was lost and that I should focus on saving myself. I whistled to A&N and yelled "Forget the kayak!" Bad choice of words. They thought I said "Get the kayak." So they spent the next 5 minutes or so trying to get my kayak. In the meantime I was able to find some footing and tried to get to a sand bank. I quickly found that the rushing current had made the last 10 meters or so too deep to touch and the current was too strong to swim across. So I am getting colder and colder and being pulled out to sea. I thought "well, hopefully, A&N will call 911 if they cannot reach me. Then, I'll have a chance." It is a good thing it didn't come to that since none of our phones were now working. After about 10 minutes or so in the water they came by and they had rescued my kayak, even though it was still completely under water. I was lucky the 2-person kayak could take me as well.
Due to the build we could not empty it so we tried dragging it in. But, the current seemed to be so strong that we were losing ground even with 2 people kayaking (and one holding my single kayak). As we were getting pushed out further and further and I am concerned about catching the flu, I made the decision to abandon my kayak.
With 3 of us paddling we finally made it to the sand bank after a good 15-20 minutes of paddling. There Anders gave me his sweatshirt. We then paddled back to the starting point which took quite a while with the currents against us and all of us very tired.
Anders was nice enough to drive my jeep back since I did not have any glasses to see properly.
I spent the next 10 days recovering. And then, out of the blue, I got a snail mail from the Point Reyes park ranger. It seems they found the kayak and were nice enough to contact Folbot to see who the owner was. Only then did I realize that I should have contacted them. At least to let them know that yes, this happened but no, I am not dead.
It was a very big learning experience.

Trip #22: Worden Pond

Went on a short kayak on nearby Worden Pond. It is hard to call it a pond as it over a mile in diameter. At first I skated the reeds on the south side. Then, I went straight across to a island on the north side. The water was surprisingly choppy in the middle. A little more and I would have regretted not wearing a life vest. To get back I skirted the east side of the pond.

Trip #21: Ninigret Pond

Had a great paddle this morning. Started out reasonably early so it was cool and the colors pleasant. I started off from the town dock on appropriately named Town Dock Road. From there I went due south through what is called Fort Neck Pond. There are number of very large and attractive houses in this area. I then went east along Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. I saw a number of wild birds including Egrets, Herons, and Osprey. The latter are quite beautiful. I went east about an hour to the point where Ninigret pond comes near highway 1. I then turned back and went along the shoreline back to Fort Neck Pond for the return. I definitely want to return in the evening sometime.

Trip #20: Potter's Pond

Made a 2nd trip here. This time with my sister Liz and her twins Polly and Ez.
This time rather than heading north toward Route 1 as I did before, we head south toward the shore.
Although it was several hours past low tide, it was still very shallow, only a few feet deep in places.
We almost made it to the so-called Wedding Cake House, that we know and love, but they had to return their rentals so we turned back.
Right at that time the sky opened up, giving us a little more urgency in our return.

Trip #19: Off Gardiner's Matunuck Beach

Today I did a very short kayak from the very beach we have been swimming at for over 30 years.
The ocean was a bit choppy but the waves were very manageable.
I first went west toward Moonstone Beach and then back towards Carpenter's Beach.
In all I probably didn't kayak much more than 30 minutes but the weather seemed to be turning foul again and so I had little choice.

Trip #18: Potter Pond

This was my second twilight trip but unfortunately it was called up a little short.
Potters Pond is actually quite close to our house in Matunuck.
To get to a publicly accessible spot, though, I had to drive up highway 1 one exit and enter on the other side of the lake.
The sky was filled with the sky-scraping cumulonimbus clouds...I guess if the clouds are part of the sky they cannot be sky-scraping... Whatever.
Went across a large pond or lake. This was filled with water-skiers which were somewhat annoying and created large waves.
Finally, I got through to the neat part by the highway. This area is like a mangrove swamp with beautiful green and quiet still waters.
After that it was downhill. The large clouds were a sign of a storm coming in so I had to cut the trip short and pack it up.

Trip #17: Point Judith

Since I purchased my first kayak I have wanted to go kayaking in the evening. Now I finally have!
It was quite beautiful.
There are a number of nice houses along the pond but most were pretty horrid.
I did get to see a tree full of cranes but was only able to photograph 2 of them.

Trip #16: Channel Islands - Santa Rosa Island

Anders, Nina and I planned 3 days of kayaking on Santa Rosa Island. It turns out we were rather naive.
The outer Channel Islands have very strong currents and are more often than not hit by strong winds.
The first 2 days we were there we had gale warnings and could not go kayaking at all. (Instead, we went on several very good hikes on the island.)
Finally, we got to go on the morning of the day we left the island. Since the weather was downcast, we decided not to bring our cameras. This turned out to be a big mistake. In just 45 minutes each way we were able to go around to Carrington Point where the day before we had seen a huge camp of sea lions and harbor seals. On the way out we were guided by a cute harbor seal. Once we arrived near the point we were surrounded by up to 10 sea lions who were very curious and came up close. It was quite fun and we stayed for 20-25 minutes playing with them. This was definitely one of the coolest kayaking trips to date.
The photo was taken the day before.

Trip #15: Sausalito

Went on a fun trip with the Japanese Language group today.
My friend Annie and her boyfriend used my double and I used my single kayak.
One of the other guys on the trip (there were some 20-30 in all) also had a Folbot.
I think it is the first time I have seen someone else with one.
The weather was perfect: sunny with a light breeze.

Trip #14: Jack London Square, Oakland to Aquatic Park, SF

The weather was almost perfect today with sunny skies, moderate waves and not that much wind...at least at the start.

Today Anders, Nina and I completed the course we planned: Jack London Square in Oakland to Aquatic Park in SF.  To do this we left my jeep at aquatic park and took their car to Oakland.

Getting out of Oakland Inner Harbor took about as much time as it did the first time when I was alone: about 1 hour.  From there we headed directly toward Yerba Buena Island.  The water was a little choppy at this stretch which may have been to a submerged wall on the Oakland side.  

It was a real pleasure seeing the beautiful house and light house on Yerba Buena Island.  I think this part of the island is off limits to non-coast guard personnel.  

From there we went under the Bay Bridge.  And that is where the easy part of the ride stopped.

From there we were bombarded with big waves and the wind picked up significantly; possibly 15-20 mph.  At this point we followed the instructions of the manager of the kayak shop in Oakland which was probably a mistake.  We tried to go diagonally toward SF, skirting around the ferry terminals.  Due to the strong current this took us way out into the Bay, almost to the point of Alcatraz.  This gave us a lot more rowing to do.  With pretty large size waves and strong winds this tired us out pretty quickly.  

In the end it took us 3.5 hours to cover 9-10 miles.

Still, we were never in danger and the ribs we had back in Oakland were great!

Trip #13: Muir Beach

Yesterday Anders, Nina, and I scheduled to practice getting in and out of waves.  Unintentionally, the waves created more than the usual challenge for us. Going in was fine, at least for A&N.  Nina got in first and then Anders jump in with me wading in to keep it stable.  They lost the oars for a sec but otherwise trouble-free.  I, on the other hand, had a rather tough time.   Stupidly, I tried to follow them quickly and did not take time to read the waves.  Sure enough I got tumbled massively and filled the entire kayak with water.  Only now did I find out that these kayak don't empty of water very easily.  I had to drag it up the shore a bit, open the zipper and turn it over to drain the water.  I did succeed in getting in the second time.

In the water the waves were quite high and I realized that I needed the spray skirt for the first time in awhile.  Luckily, we had brought and set up the skirt for A&N's kayak.  Another lesson I learned was that when a kayak fills with water, it puts a major cramp on your style/speed. 

Since we were a little tired and since we knew landing in these waves would be even more difficult we kept our time on the water short. I landed first with little problem.  A&N, however, had their troubles this time.  They landed fine but unfortunately the wave they landed on was quickly followed by another.  Nina was hit quite hard with the kayak, knocking her down and Anders got scraped up a bit.  

Needless to say we were very wet and cold afterward.  Even though I had put our wallets and phones in 3 bags, the water still got in...

The final lesson of the trip came today.  Since we were so cold and miserable, we did not properly dry the kayaks before we packed them.  This doubled the work and mess in cleaning them. A day of learning.

Trip #12: Rodeo Beach to Muir Beach and back

To tell ya the truth, I wasn't sure till today if I should be pronouncing it "Ro-day-o" as in the drive in LA or "Ro-dee-o" as in the red-neck past time.  I now know that it is pronounced the latter way for this beach.  Why?  Because while it was very calm in all the other spots that I passed, Rodeo Beach had rather large waves and a gaggle of surfers.

Which was all and good since one of the reasons why I took this route was to get back into practice getting in and out of the water when there are waves to consider.  Getting in was difficult enough.  It took me about 10 minutes to time it right and get out while the waves were manageable.  Getting out was also reasonably successful with me (intentionally) falling out in water I could stand in.

The trip itself was quite striking.  Much of the coast in this area is lined with tall red rock cliffs.  A few of my photos have hikers in them to give their size some perspective.

It took about 50 minutes to cover the 3+ miles each way to Muir Beach.

Trip #11: Lake Merced

I went kayaking with Anders and Nina again today.  The original plan was to kayak from Oakland to SF but we were short of one life jacket and no place was open on Easter Sunday to sell us one. So, we went to Lake Merced instead.  

There is not much of an area to kayak as they don't allow you to kayak in the country club side of the lake.  Still, it was quite easy and comfortable paddling.  We had a nice crowd of people around us when we built the kayak, reminding me very much of my experiences in Singapore.  

Trip #10: Aquatic Park to Pier 39

My friend Albert (met at CBS but hung out together in Tokyo) was in town and since he'd never kayaked we decided to go out for a row.  The original plan was to circumnavigate Alcatraz, but the wind was blowing quite fiercely so we quickly abandoned that plan.  Instead, we head toward Pier 39.  The waves were the choppiest I have kayaked on in the SF area.  What a way to learn how to kayak.  To add to this the current was going very very strongly against us as we tried to go back to the harbor.  All in all a tiring but adventurous trip.

Trip #9: Jack London Square to SF Bay

This was mainly a scouting trip to see how easy it is to put in a kayak at Jack London Square (very easy) and to get from there to the Bay for an eventual crossing.

The weather was just perfect and the tide was just right.  I did it around high tide so the current was not too strong and there was little to avoid.  It is a somewhat narrow waterway considering that cargo ships travel it, but I had no trouble.  By the time I got to the Bay I was really tempted to try crossing it.  The show-stopper was that I had forgotten my life jacket.  Not a good idea.

Just as happened last time  I found my arms aching after a half hour.  Then I took the time to focus on my stroke, namely trying to use my waist more.  This did the trick.  When I finally finished after 2 hours of paddling, my arms felt fine.

Trip #8: Bolinas Lagoon

As my first trip in a while, I keep it simple and short. I also didn't want to leave Tora in the car too long or someone may steal him.
The weather was perfect and it was right after high tide so the water was a high as can be but very calm.
I tried paddling to the entrance by the ocean but I ran into some really really shallow areas where my but was dragging on the bottom. I thought I might be able to get around it but to no avail. After a while I head back to the car and my boy.
Although it was only for 30 minutes, I really felt it in my arms. I am totally out of shape.