I went to Pt. Reyes National Seashore on Monday anyway, and visited the lighthouse and watched the elephant seals from under my umbrella. But the rental place on Tomales Bay was closed up tight...I know cuz I found the place and stopped in to check, just in case! Tuesday the skies were still grey and drizzly, but the real rain had stopped. So I jumped in the car and drove from Petaluma to California Canoe and Kayak in Oakland, the only rental place I could find open. The drive took about an hour, including getting lost in a not so great part of town, and I got to CCK kinda late (around 1 p.m.). The folks there were extremely nice and got me outfitted quickly, in a plastic boat and aluminum shaft paddle (I left my paddle in the back of the car...Doh!).

CCK is located right in historic Jack London Square, which is bordered on both sides by port industry, and the busy Alameda docks (think San Pedro). They launched me from their dock and gave me two choices: turn right for a six-mile round-trip paddle past a couple of huge cargo ships and out into San Francisco Bay near the Bay Bridge, or turn left and do a 3-mile circumnavigation of Coast Guard Island.

This being my first time in these waters, not knowing the tide/currents, shipping/ferry lanes, being alone, and having unpredictable rain/wind/fog conditions threatening, I opted for the easy 3-mile trip. The water was glassy, with barely a ripple. There was no wind to speak of. The air temp was about 50 degrees, water temp about the same -- not that I put any part of myself in the water to check. I got that off a website. Unfortunately, this wasn't a particularly scenic paddle, and the Oakland Estuary had trash and some very suspect looking water that floated past me. I shuddered to think of capsizing, but conditions were good, so the chance of that was remote. I kept hoping the scenery would get a little prettier, but I should have known, Oakland is not known for its waterfront beauty. I kind of wished I'd gone the other way, but it was too late now. Any way you look at it, being on the water paddling was a heck of a lot better being stuck behind my desk at work, or even stuck inside the house watching TV. So I was content.

I was careful to stay well away from Coast Guard Island; I'd been warned that if you get too close men with big guns come running down to shout at you and give you an expensive ticket. There were two very large Coast Guard cutters docked alongside the west shore of the island, and I wished I could have paddled closer. They had some pretty impressive electronics and communications gear sprouting from their tops. As I passed the ships, it started to sprinkle. I put on my baseball cap and carried on. As Steve Holtzman pointed out to me, you get wet while practicing rolls and rescues, so what's the difference paddling in the rain? I had my wetsuit on, and was plenty warm, sweating a bit even.

I finished the circumnavigation and headed back. I'd been out only about an hour, but suddenly was ravenous. I hadn't had any lunch, and had forgotten to bring any snacks with me. So, with singleminded determination based on rapdily falling blood sugar, I paddled back to CCK's dock. I noticed that the visibilty out toward the bay had decreased dramatically, so I ended up being glad I hadn't gone that way. While I was poking around CCK's store looking at spray skirts and paddles, the real rain started falling again, and I was glad to be warm and dry and off the water. But glad for the chance to have been on it today.

Beth Powis