CIH Mid-Week/Day Paddle
Thursday October 19 |
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| By: Robert Tongen | |||
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| George Ball, Keith Elliott, and I departed from the CIH EZ Launch dock during the noon hour at high tide. This was the first paddle for Keith in a couple of months. He admitted that his routine for preparing for paddling was rusty, but he still had his paddling skills. It was overcast for nearly the entire paddle with a nice breeze coming out of the west. We paddled toward the channel, noticing the seals have made their way further in the harbor this week. They were populating the docks north of the EZ Launch, the sculling docks, and a lot of docks from there to the channel. When we got close enough, Keith noticed the swells rolling into the harbor through the channel, crashing on the rocks. As we got closer we saw the parking lot wall at Kiddie Beach was sometimes being slammed by the waves. It was fun to see the young seals hopping across the water as they came in through the channel. As we turned into the channel we were met by two to four foot swells rolling down the channel. Water was crashing over the breakwater and the south wall of the channel. The water was full of trash and driftwood. When we reached the end of the channel, we decided discretion would best be served by returning to the harbor. Coming back into the harbor, we listened to boat traffic deciding if it was safe to come through the channel back into the harbor, and which side was safest. Interesting conditions and a surprise from the NOAA forecast that read; Mixed swell...W 2 ft at 20 seconds and S 2 ft at 16 seconds. Wind waves 1 ft or less. There were less than a couple dozen seals on Kiddie Beach and maybe the same on Hobie beach. We finished the day with a nice paddle through the harbor. That is the way it was on this International ShakeOut Day, in October 2023. |
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