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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
Great Stories, Tom
Posted By: Gregory In Response To: trip on 01/10/99 (tom)
Date: Friday, 7 January 2000, at 4:30 p.m.
Tom,
Thanks for providing this series of fun-to-read and informative accounts. After reading through them I find myself itching to leave work for my favorite paddling haunts. Tomorrow will come soon enough, though.
Thanks,
Greg
This is installment three of four one day paddles that will be posted. The
> first one was posted on 01/05/00 and the second on 01/06/00.> Hi all, I live in the San Juan Islands of WA and a group of 3 or 4 of us
> do most of our paddling in the winter. I keep a log of my paddles and last
> year I started to write up the paddles in a more complete way. Needles to
> say I only did so with 4 of the trips so the rest are just distance
> memories and shorthand entries into a trip log.> The first outing was 12/31/98, than 1/3/99, 1/10/99 and finally 1/24/99.
> Here they are. Hope they are enjoyable to one degree or another. tom
> trip report 1/10/99
> As is our custom another late start - a little later than usual. Only
> three on the paddle today: Leon-Capella, Shawna-Romany Explorer,
> Tom-Gulfstream. This trip had a bit of everything except wind. We had
> wildlife, rain, tide rips, currents, sunset, and even a bit of night
> paddling.> What we wanted to do was to put in at Doe Bay about 10:30am and paddle
> around Laurence Point and then out to Clark Island. The idea was to catch
> the last of the flood up to Laurence Point. Go around the point sometime
> between 11 and 11:30am, during slack, than cross over to Clark Island
> before the ebb got to strong and than catch the ebb back to Doe Bay. The
> prediction was for max ebb around 3:45pm with a speed somewhere in the
> ballpark of 2.2 to 2.5 knots. The loss of water during the ebb was
> approximately 6.5 feet. For those of you not use to paddling in current a
> good way to visualize how fast it will move your kayak is to change the
> effect into something you will understand. Most of us know and can
> visualize what the length of a football field is. Imagine you are sitting
> in your kayak on the goal line. If water was to wash over the field and
> flow towards the other end at one knot you would find that it would take
> you 3 min. to cross under the other goal post. So on this day, if we were
> to just sit in our kayaks and float with the current we would cover a
> football field (100yds.) in approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds. One
> still has to figure out where in the tide change you are paddling, any
> obstructions, wind speed......... to try and get a picture of how fast you
> will set or what you will be paddling against or across. In addition to
> this current the forecast was for southerlies of 10 increasing to 20 by
> the afternoon. One should not take lightly a 15 to 20 knot wind against a
> 2.5 knot current so we were dressed correctly and watchful of the wind
> patterns.> Well, it all fell apart because we did not get to Doe Bay and on the water
> till 1:15pm. This put us on the water at about one hour after slack. Even
> though the ebb had started we decided to go on up to Laurence Point as we
> knew that a counter current would be running along shore from Doe Bay to
> the Point. This counter current would probably continue after the point if
> we stayed close to shore. It was too late to get to Clark and back but we
> headed out anyway and decided to just go till we wanted to turn back. The
> water was calm and there was a low heavy cloud cover. It was not really
> cold but with so much dampness in the air it seemed like it. As we headed
> out we had a great view of Cypress Island across Rosario Straight. Cypress
> is very hilly and has numerous high areas. The picture was absolutely what
> winter paddling in the Pacific Northwest is known for. Air heavy with
> moisture, the higher areas of the taller islands lost in the clouds, and
> calm waters (not always the clam waters) because of light winds.> The wind that had been forecast for the afternoon had not arrived, in fact
> the winds were less than 10kn, and with the counter currents we were able
> to catch made for a pleasant paddle to the point. Along the way we saw
> eagles, a pair of Black Oyster Catchers, Marbled murrelets, and a common
> murre. At Laurence Point (2pm) we had a bit of a current to deal with to
> get around the point as we wanted to stay along the shoreline. Many
> kayakers stay away from this point because of its reputation for tide rips
> and fast currents. We don’t want to say that these conditions do not
> happen at times but be aware that there are many times when the point is
> easily approachable. This was such a day. Small tide change and little
> wind. We were prepared for a rough water situation if the winds had picked
> up but were pleasantly surprised at how nice and calm the conditions were.
> As for currents only you know your abilities. Anyway, we had current at
> the point but no rips.> For those of you that have paddled this area you know how beautiful the
> high rock faces are once you get on the north side of the point. We had a
> soft rain falling by this time and the steep wet rock cliffs on our left
> as we paddled along the coast made for paddling as good as anywhere one
> could go. As we had decided not to cross to Clark Island because of the
> time we stayed along the shore of Orcas looking for a place to park the
> boats for lunch. The high rock walls and no beaches go for some distance
> along this section of Orcas so you cannot be choosy about a take out. As
> we cruised along close to the cliffs Shawna initiated her new Romany
> Explorer with its first new deep gel-coat scratch. Not too long after this
> we found a small, rough place to take out for lunch.> As we were getting out of the boats and moving them up onto some rocks we
> noticed a mid sized gumboot chiton. Chitons are not unusual to the San
> Juans, although I would wager that most kayakers to this area have never
> found one because they blend in so well, but finding a gumboot (the
> largest of the chitons) is always a pleasure.> I am going to add a bit on chitons for those of you that are interested in
> natural history. I am adding this as an afterthought on 01/06/00. Chitons
> Phylum Mollusca Class Amphineura Gumboot or Giant Pacific Chiton
> Cryptochiton stelleri> The other chitons in our area are: mossy, hairy, lined, and black. These
> chitons are all much smaller (from 2 to 4 inches in total length) than the
> gumboot and are very different looking (you can see the 8 sections of
> their shell). Lets see a few things in common for chitons would be; they
> lack tentacles, most do not have eyes and their shell is divided into 8
> sections. The shells are held together by a leathery outcrop of the mantle
> (girdle). There is no shell on the bottom but there is a snail like foot
> that moves the chiton over rocks at night to feed on seaweeds or on film
> of diatoms and bacteria covering the rocks and seaweeds. They use a radula
> to scrape off the tasty morsels they want. Now a few particulars on the
> gumboot and we might as well start with its name, Cryptochiton stelleri.
> Even though this chiton is the largest in the world (up to 20 cm or more -
> 8 inches plus) it is difficult to find. The 8 shells that protect it are
> covered by its girdle. This girdle is thick and leathery looking and is
> gray-to-orange or reddish brown in color. The color it shows us is
> difficult to see so we often overlook it. With this difficulty in seeing
> it and not being able to observe the 8 segmented shells when we do find it
> because they are covered by the girdle its name Cryptochiton fits it
> perfectly. I think, but am not sure, that stelleri is in recognithion to
> the naturalist George Steller. Arctonoe vittata, a scaleworm, often lives
> in the mantle cavity of this largest of all chitons. To see a gumboot go
> to www.sealifesupply.com/ml222.htm. Please note the l222 in the address is
> a lower case L not a 1> We had a nice look at him and saw that he was in a poor way do to injuries
> probably caused by a sea star. We lunched from about 2:45 to 3:45 in our
> cramped, wet, beautiful little rocky area and finally decided to leave
> when the chocolate and hot tea were gone.> To head back to Doe Bay we left our lunch spot and paddled in a easterly
> direction so we could move away from the Orcas coast and out into the ebb
> that would be flowing in a southerly direction till it gets to Lawrence
> Point where it continues south and a bit southwest for a time. About a
> quarter mile off the Orcas shoreline was a nice little rip being cause by
> Lawrence Point and a shallow area just Northeast of the point. As the
> current was running at max ebb but with little wind we thought getting
> into the rip would give us a fun, quick ride around the point than we
> could stay in the current and catch a ride down the outside of North
> Peapod Rock. After North Peopod we wanted to turn back towards Orcas as
> the main body of the current moves away from Orcas and heads down Rosario
> Straight. All this worked according to plan except for one encounter we
> did not plan on. Just as we approached the rip we found ourselves in the
> midst of about 7 or 8 sea lions. We are not talking about the cute little
> ones with the same name as the state down south but the big, brawny,
> beautiful ones known as Stellar Sea Lions. Stellars can often be
> identified by there size. If you have never seen a Stellars you could
> think a California Sea Lion is large, but they are not compared to the
> Stellars. The Stellars live up to their name (lion) as they roar rather
> than bark like the Californian. As usual this encounter with the sea lions
> was a high point and we had a great ride through the rip with more than
> our usual conversation when in a rip. These animals are so amazing.> Lets see this is getting to be much to long. Here are a few highlights
> from the last part of the paddle. Those of you that have maps of the area
> get them out. As we were swept along the outside of North Peapod we had a
> great view of a eagle perched beside the navigation light that is on the
> eastern end of the island. It is a green light that flashes every 4
> seconds and we wondered if this affected his vision or mental state as his
> head was only about 12 inches from the light! We got into a small group of
> seals and as we turned towards Orcas we got a beautiful, subdued, sunset
> over Blakely and Lopez Islands. The last 20 min. or so of the paddle back
> to Doe bay was in the dark and we got back around 5:30.
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