Back at Kiddie Beach
Sunday February 12 |
|||
| By: Robert Tongen | |||
 |
|||
|
|||
| It was 37 degrees when I left home and 48 degrees when I arrived at Kiddie Beach in Channel Islands Harbor. The sun was out with only a slight breeze, but white water was occasionally pouring over the breakwater. We could see the safety relief valve on the pipe from the Manson Dredge was spewing water. It was a +1.5 ft low tide and it seemed like there was more sand on Kiddie Beach but not seals. Lance Pillsbury, Peter O'Sullivan, and I headed out to the pond to see where the dredge was working now. There were a few seals laying on the Manson floats just outside the swim ropes and two seals relaxing on the pipe carrying sand from the dredge. The dredge was back pumping more sand from the pond in the area where the sand bar usually builds up. We watched huge swells pile up and break on the beach to the north toward the Mandalay Bay Resort, but at the north end of the breakwater the swells were relatively mild. We paddled out west of the breakwater and around it. The water was surprisingly flat with some swell, fun paddling. We saw a car transport freighter anchored off the Port of Hueneme. When we turned the corner toward the harbor we were surprised at how much the wind had increased from the east. We decided to hide from the wind and check out the construction progress where they are to build a new hotel on the island in the harbor. But all we could see were some rocks that had been dumped there. About that time the wind lulled before switching to coming from the west. The south point of the island is where Phil has his live aboard boat docked. He joined us on our venture up the harbor. Lance and Phil continued to the source of the Edison Canal and checked the amount of trash building up there. Peter and I turned back prior to that. It was a nice relatively calm and sunny day to be on the water. It seemed like a long time since we had paddled. That is the way it was this Super Bowl Sunday, 2023. |
|||
 Print friendly version |
