Monday November 4, 2013 Jenner CA.
First thing today was to get the parts for the van ordered
I was off this morning to the local parts house and got my parts ordered for the van. They’ll be here tomorrow, so that’s taken care of for now.
Off to Jenner to Kayak and the river’s mouth is still closed
From there I drove down to Jenner to kayak. As I approached Jenner, I could see the mouth must still be closed as the estuary water level was quite high. I put my boat in the water. The water level gage at the visitor center read 6.8 feet of water, which meant the mouth was closed for sure.
It was a bit on the windy side at about ten to fifteen miles an hour, but sometimes it will blow a bit and then slow down a bit, at least that was my hope. And the wind wasn’t that cold, so I was ok with that.
I crossed over to Penny Island and pulled into the channel on the east end where the wind doesn’t blow much and took a break there for a bit.
Just up river from me there were a bunch of coots flouting and feeding and some cormorants on a log and four seals on the logs too.
The four seals are ones that mostly stay in the river. Right now, they are the only seals I saw in the river, with the mouth being closed. These guys usually stay up at Seal Heaven, but with the water level high, the redwood logs they usually stay on are under water, so they come down to this spot.
I paddled on up the river on the south side and stopped by the seals. One of them went into the water, but here is a picture of the other three.
I continued on up the river, past otter’s log and eagles landing on up the south shore where the wind was less. I stopped in this reed patch for a break and watched the river for awhile, before going back down the river.
As I approached the east end of Penny Island the wind was picking up to about twenty to twenty five miles an hour, so I took the less windy side of the island, down the north side to the west end of the island that is now flooded with the river’s mouth being closed.
I pulled into the flooded west end of the island to get out of the wind and check the area out.
This is the view I had as I entered the flooded west end of Penny Island.
Some Mallard ducks where taking refuge in there and feeding away.
By this time the wind was really blowing and was gusting to 35 miles an hour I would guess.
I pulled out to the western end of the island and took a look toward the river’s mouth area.
Yes, windy with lots of white caps.
There were a bunch of seagulls and some brown pelicans out on the rough water, likely taking refuge from the rough ocean. They are in the below picture, but a bit hard to see.
Yo Ho, out in the wind we go
I put my camera away and paddled out where the birds were. I put the camera away because the wind was blowing so hard, I had to keep my paddle from blowing out of my hands and I had to pay attention at all times to the waves, so I just didn’t have time to deal with the camera too and stay afloat. I sometimes enjoy just paddling out in the rough stuff. I paddled on out where the birds were and thought about getting some pics, but wised up and didn’t try it.
To be able to deal with this kind of wind and the waves, I’ve learned to spend some time paddling in this kind of stuff to learn how to deal with it and to get used to it. Because of doing this in the past, I can paddle in it and have a great time.
After having too much fun, I turned and headed down wind to the visitor center take out, which I made it to, in short time, with wind like this.
I took the boat out and headed on home where I took it easy for the rest of the day.
Had a nice day paddling Jenner.