Monday, May 30, 2011

Windy Day on the Bay

The weather folks called for big wind today (Saturday, May 28, 2011), and they were correct. No matter; this was my chance to paddle, so out I went from the marina in Morro Bay, and headed into a steady hard wind from the north. I got a break when I reached Coleman Beach, and stayed close to the sea wall to stay out of the wind as I made my way toward the harbor entrance out past Morro Rock. The swell was minimal inside, but much bigger outside, as is usual. I tried to get a decent picture of a wave blasting up on the end of the north jetty, but failed to get a good one. I played around for a while between the jetties, then beached for a stretch and a snack. The paddle back was fast and easy. Though the tide was going out, the wind was still very strong, and required no real effort to travel south in the bay.
After I got out, I stopped at Pedals and Paddles on Morro Bay Blvd., where I visited with owner Andreas Modl and took a test spin on one of his Public brand city style bikes, which was quite impressive.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Back Bay May 14, 2011

Today our paddling group included Lorelei, Ron, Linda, and my son Bennett. We launched from the Baywood Pier at 10 AM on a receding tide, and paddled out to meet Linda, who had launched from the Cuesta inlet. We took a north-westerly route over to the sand spit and walked up to the highest point in that section, where we enjoyed views of the ocean and Morro Bay. We stayed on the dunes for as long as it took to consume all of the snacks we brought (sun chips, pecans, chocolate covered pomegranate seeds and 23 crumbs of kettle corn). The day was sunny and almost warm.
We paddled south along the sand spit for awhile, then headed back toward Baywood, by way of Cuesta. Spotted wild life included a couple of seals, a small group of white pelicans, a family of snowy egrets, and more than the usual number of cormorants.
We were treated to a fine mud bath upon our arrival back in Baywood, as the tide had receded enough to keep us from sandy shores. Bennett volunteered himself to upper-calf deep mud in order to pull the others up on the sandier beach, thus avoiding a leg coating of Baywood slime.  Thanks to Linda for the picture; giving me the opportunity to appear in this blog.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Awesome Birthday

How nice to have spent April 2, 2011 paddling with friends Linda, Jim and Mike. We paddled the back bay, hiked the dunes and were treated to a shape-transforming flock of Snowy Plovers that would alight from the beach and fly around the cove near King dune. The sound was like that of a rain stick percussion instrument.