Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, Jenner, CA.
The day started out being windy.
I looked at the weather report for Jenner today, and it said the wind was blowing and would blow even more, but I decided, what the hey, let’s go.
Most of the river was flat on the way down, but not at Jenner.
Driving down that way along the river, I could see that the river was nice and flat, until I got to the Jenner area, and then I could see the wind was up, nice white caps. I put the boat in at visitor’s center and crossed over to the island and it was windy, so decided to go into the little water channel on the east end where it doesn’t usually blow that hard. That’s the part where the house used to be on Penny Island.
Not much wind in the island channel.
As always, not much wind in the channel. I took it easy there for awhile and then proceeded though it to the other side of the island and crossed over to the south shore line and headed up river a ways. The wind was blowing and a it was a little on the cool side.
Made a decision to go for a hike on Penny Island.
About half way to were I was headed I decided to go back to the island and hike around on it for awhile as that would warm me up and there didn’t seem to be as much wind on the island, so I headed back down the river and put the boat to shore on the north side of the island.
I was right, the wind wasn’t as bad on the island so I walked around the edge for a couple hours. I could hear the ocean beating on the beaches not far away. You could tell it was real rough from all the noise.
Below, you can see my boat where I landed on the island for a hike around the shore line.
The wind was getting even stronger.
It seemed like the wind had picked up while I was on the island hiking around, as when I put the boat back in the water the white caps seemed to have gotten a bit larger.
Below, you can see some of those white caps, looking west toward the mouth of the river.
I decided, what the hey, it’s only wind, so I headed toward the west end of the island, being careful to not let water come over the side of the boat.
Big redwood stumps are good wind breakers.
I was able to get in behind the big redwood stump below and get out of the wind for a bit.
I pulled the boat up along side the stump and had a look out there, as can be seen in the picture below. White caps and wavy action.
It was windy enough to go out there and have some fun in it.
I continued past the stump and was just playing in the wind, it must have been thirty or so miles an hour by now. I paddled a couple hundred yards past the stump and was just playing in the waves, but after awhile decided it was a bit strong and headed back in toward the visitor’s center that was up and across of the river from where I was at.
Below, you can see the visitor’s center across from where I was at.
Racing on the waves, headed back in.
The waves were fairly large as I headed back, which moved me quite fast along my route. I wasn’t being real careful, as I was having some fun and the boat was really traveling along at a fairly good speed. I didn’t need to paddle, just used the paddle for a rudder to keep it straight along my path. I took a couple of waves over the side, just a little. Got about a cup of water in the boat and just a little wet, but not bad. It only took me about five minutes to get to the visitor’s center, where I carefully landed and got my boat out of the water.
Tired, who me?
At home, I put on a cup of coffee, turned the heating stove on and sat in my chair and fell asleep for a couple hours. I had a bigger work out than I thought. :O)
Great day on the river.