Sea kayaking San Juan Islands, Washington

I have been lax about posting to my blog.  Facebook is so much easier but many friends do not use Facebook so I will try to catch up on some of our trips on the blog.  Last summer one of our big trips was to paddle a section of Green River in Ut.   Summer of 2019 Bobbe agrees to go on a sea kayaking trip to San Juan Islands.   This was an outfitted trip lead by Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe in Portland.   We have found that by using an outfitter much of Bobbe's worries are reduced.  We took our double sea kayak that Joshua and Jenna have been using.  We left our Old Town canoe with them.  Here are a few photos of the trip. 

 On first day we had an 8 mile crossing from Orcas Island to our base camp on Jones Island.   Everyone was required to wear dry suits or wet suits do to the cold water.   My dry suit is "yummy yellow"   It is called that do to the fact that sharks are attracted to yellow verses other colors.  I chose yellow because I am less concerned about being seen by sharks than being seen by Coast Guard. 

 One calm evening we did a sunset paddle.  Like so many sunsets it was very beautiful. I took too many photos to share but I do like this one of Bobbe. 

 One of the days we paddled to Yellow Island, a Nature Conservatory preserve.It was interesting to see how it is being managed to maintain different habitats on a small island. 

 Our group was eleven people and 3 guides.  Most of us had done some paddling in the past but not sure if any had paddled in San Juan Islands  before.  Before the trip I got Bobbe going about how big the waves would be.  In reality it was nearly flat with only a short time the water became chaotic due to boat traffic and reflecting waves from a headland.  Even then the waves were not more that 2 feet high. 

 I have lots of photos of Bobbe's back but thank you to Matt, one of our guides, for this photo of us in our kayak.  We had the only double kayak in the group.  The double is less maneuverable than a single, but much more stable. 

 Jones Island is a Washington State park site and  well know for its wildlife and I do not mean the parties.  The deer were quite friendly and the raccoons were known as ninja raccoons.  We chased one out of camp on our first day.  He did not want to leave. 

 The group site had a nice pavilion and picnic  tables.There wa  lots of room to set up group equipment.  We only had a brief drizzle on 2nd day other wise weather was great. 

   The only mishap on the trip was a collision with a rock on the passage back to Orcas Island.  It was mostly damage to gel coat.  I had planned to put a sacrificial fiberglass layer on the keel of the kayak before the trip but ran out of time. Now the repair is done and I have one 3 inch strip of fiberglass running the entire keel and a 2nd along the most vulnerable bow and stern sections.