After our paddling trip in Resurrection Bay we wanted to get out again. Next weekend seemed soon enough, since we had plans to whitewater paddle in the mid-week, and so Shelly made some calls and got us some kayaks in Homer. Getting kayaks wasn't easy -- most of the shops required that we a guide check us out, verify we are experienced, etc. Well, we're not *that* experienced -- we took the beginners course, and with our whitewater paddling skills and years of sailing it seemed we knew enough. So we called Randy, the president of Knick Canoers and Kayakers who was one of the instructors in our class, and he said he'd vouch for us. Yeah!
We drove out to Homer on Friday night, and boy were the roads packed! RVs everywhere, it seemed everyone was converging on Homer for the weekend. Lots of fishermen, and we had a hard time finding any place to park and sleep. All the campgrounds along the way were packed, and we didn't really want to pay money for parking somewhere anyways. Fortunately we found a gravel pit, surrounded by some meadows, and we parked there, established the bedding in the truck, and went to sleep. It was really quite nice there -- "gravel pit" doesn't sound that way, I know.
In the morning we drove to town, had some breakfast, got our kayaking gear together, the food, some safety gear (a sleeping bag, first aid kit), and went to Mako Water Taxi -- they were renting us the kayaks, and would take us across the inlet to Kachemak Bay State Park. The kayak I picked out was the Sealution by Wilderness Designs. Compared to all the other kayaks they had this was one tippy, but compared to most other boats I paddled it was still very very stable :) Both captains asked me how much experience I had paddling, because this was a pretty tippy boat. They later apologized for asking me that, but I was happy -- they were safety-conscious, and that's always good. As long as they were renting us the boats...
The water taxi was a pretty small boat! Our kayaks were almost as long as the boat :) We tossed our stuff on there, a few more people came aboard, and we went. The captain left us at Kayaker's Beach, at the mouth of Tutka Bay. And he would pick us up around 6pm.
The day was gorgeous -- sun, very little wind. Our plan was to paddle up Tutka Bay while the tide was still coming in, checkout the intertidal pools as the tide went down, catch a ride with it back to the mouth of the Bay, and then putter around the Herring Islands. And that's mostly what we did.
I brought the water-resistant camera case and put my Olympus Epic in it. The pictures turned out funky -- not really in focus, but not really fuzzy either. To me they look like oil paintings.
Highlights of the day. Finding a half-submerged cave that we could paddle into. All the jelly fish. Huge starfish, reminiscent of spent men. A bold eagle swooping down, grabbing a bird, and taking off with it. Bold eagles over our lunching spot on the beach. Two porpoises. Some sea otters that were curious and followed us. No bears to take our lunch. Paddling into the rainbow. Taking a nap in a cave, when it started to rain. The high tides -- this day it was a 16 foot swing between low and high.
