A Three Hour Tour

Now sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

It was an ordinary Monday - get up, drag self out of warm, cozy, dreamy slumber next to tiny kitten, drag self onto public transit and into the office, drag self from desk chair to meetings and back again to slog through projects that drag on for weeks and weeks - a regular day.

I'd planned to work late to get caught up on things, wearing my headphones to enjoy hits from the 70s, 80s, and even some from the 90s and beyond. As I was about to wrap up one more item on my list, I noticed my cell phone had a voicemail.

I called and listened to the message, from David: "Hi honey... flipped the boat... wet bag... is gone... heading back..." That's all I could make out.

He called only moments earlier but I missed it because I was bopping along to Dream Police. I dialed him right back and thankfully he answered. He'd been out kayaking (alone!) and managed to paddle from Jack London around the west end of the island, past the old Navy base and was now relaxing on Crown Memorial beach after flipping the boat a couple of times in the choppy bay.

To those of you unfamiliar with the area, that's a couple hours of straight paddling (at least). And at this time it was 4:50 p.m., and the shop we rent from closes at 6 p.m. And I could tell he was shredded from climbing back into the boat. It's not easy, especially by yourself.


about 7.5-8 miles overall
(Google map)

Good thing I have a station wagon! I was off like a prom dress. Had to stop at Pagano's on the way to pick up a collection of bungee cords, but I made it to Crown Memorial by 5:45. We strapped that sucker down and took off.

Crazy that they'd make a car with a swell rack on top, where one might want to strap down a small boat of some sort, and there are no easy ways to anchor the front & back of the boat underneath the car. But whatever.

Pulled up at the shop at 6:05 and the guy came out singing, "a three hour tour!" He couldn't have been nicer. He helped us get the boat down & had us on our way in just a few minutes.

The best part (for me) was leaving Jeff a note that said, "Gotta run, David's sinking in the Bay. See you tomorrow!"

Hawks & Kayaks

Heard the very distinctive cry of a baby cooper's hawk the other morning & dashed outside with my new 300mm lens. Pretty sure it's a cooper's hawk. The lighting wasn't too good on a foggy morning at 6am. I'm hoping he'll be back soon.

His/her parents swooped in a few minutes later, silently gliding above me, up into the tree. Amazing. Felt very lucky to have all this literally in our back yard.

In other news, kayaking is not a low impact sport. We spent all day yesterday in a kayaking class. I've done some paddling in my day, several whitewater rafting trips, but kayaking is a whole other world.

Sitting in the boat on the calm water by the dock was easy - getting the hang of paddling & how tippy it felt - but then we paddled out into the channel. Waves! Teeny tiny waves at first, then a boat would go by and it felt like open surf.

The hardest part was rescue training where we had to dump over on purpose. I told our instructor I'd do whatever it took to never tip over. He probably didn't believe me, but I was serious. I was not happy about purposefully tipping over.

Sitting in his boat beside me, David said in that high-pitched Jerry Seinfeld voice, "But I don't wanna be a pirate," and I lost it. So I sucked it up and leaned over. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to quickly get out of the small "keyhole cockpit," aptly named - it felt about as small as an actual keyhole.

Thankfully, your body takes over. It knows it's going underwater and it desires to be above water, having not yet grown gills. Then I had to refrain from wiping my eyes too aggressively & pushing salty bay water into my eyes. And who knows what else. I tried not to think about that. My rings were super sparkly clean last night.

Anyway, all went well. We dumped. We maneuvered our way back into the boat - one way on our own, the other way assisted by our partner. We are now certified & able to rent/enjoy kayaks. After we buy a shitload of gear, that is.

I started wondering if certain sports are invented just for the revenue opportunities from all the gear. All the different types of water sport clothing, the wetsuits, footies, hats, glasses, pfd's, sunscreens, safety stuff, and then all the gear you might need if you buy your own boat. Crazy.

It was a great workout. Everything is sore - a true, whole body workout. We fell asleep around 7pm - a "nap," we thought - and woke up at 6:30 this morning.