Sunny Kayak Days On San Juan Island

By -
Today started early with a few clouds hanging around the sky. But by the time I was to pick up my clients for the day, it had cleared. A nice breeze mixed with strong currents made for a fun day on the water. I was doing a half day trip today as a training trip for our new guide Taryn. It was her first time to tag along on a tour. Yesterday Taryn and Lyle, both new guides, went out for some rescue training. So I wanted to get her on a tour so she could start to get the flow of how things work.

The day was nice. We saw a couple of Bald Eagles and Harbor Seals. A few sea birds were hanging out as well. The Orca Whales have been gone for some time now and not sure if they were spotted anywhere near the islands today. There is a female Elephant Seal at SJCP beach. The rangers there are busy keeping people away from the animal. She sure picked a busy beach to hang out. Yesterday she was making friends with a tandem kayak on the beach. But we do our best to stay away and keep clients at bay.

All in all a wonderful day. The water was great, the clients were great company and Taryn is doing well.

Enjoy the photos.


Taryn and the clients hanging out as we drift back to the North.

The clients paddling and enjoying the light roll to the sea.

The Elephant Seal was getting of the water and take a new place on the beach.

Here you can see one of the Park Rangers working to set up ropes to keep people from getting to close to the animal. By the time the ropes were set up she had moved to the other side of the ropes and was laying in the middle of the walking path for kayakers to access the beach. No the best location ever, but she does not seem to mind. For an animal that is suppose to be shy and like privacy. This particular animal seems to not really care.

Anyway, that is my day. Have a good one yourself!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morning Kayak Lessons

By -
Image
A good start to the day when you wake up and see the sun and having to get on the water to teach kayak lessons.  Though it was cold outside, I could tell it was going to warm nicely once the sun had time to do its work.  After a cup of coffee it was time to meet Lauren (my student for the class) and load the gear and get on the water.  The water was perfect, flat calm and good for learning the basics.  Lauren has taken classes before and it pretty up to speed on self rescue.  So we were out to work on kayak handling skills.  Mainly driving home proper edging, body movement and blade placement. After the lesson it was off to grab a bite to eat and get back outside.  I of course headed out to check in the Red Tailed Hawks (RTHs).  I ran into Monika again,  http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/  , who once again got great images on the RTHs in flight. She got some images of the pair together.  I was able to locate the Rufous Morph further south. There was a visitor with me in town from London ...
Read more

Astral Greenjacket Review

By -
Image
I have finally spent a bit more time in the Astral Greenjacket and I have decided it is time to go ahead with my finally review of the product. My previous jacket was a Stohlquist Brik .  Which is a side entry style jacket.  I was really happy with performance and fit.  I did have a zipper problem which was a not really taken care of by Stohlquist.  I was teaching a class and was performing a "Cowboy/Back Deck" rescue and the zipper broke.  When I contacted service dept to get it fixed they wanted me to pay shipping and charge for the repair of a new jacket.  I passed on the factory repair and did the best I could do. I do not recommend that.  Next issue I had was there is simply no storage on the vest.  Not that big of a deal since I try to not load myself with stuff.  Overall it was a good fit and a clean front making it snag free while messing about the deck of my sea kayak. On to the Greenjacket !   My use of the Greenjacket is for sea kayak guiding and personal kayaking...
Read more

Friday Harbor Bike Rentals

By -
Image
It has been awhile since my last post. So I thought I would write a bit on the latest happenings. Spring has arrived on San Juan Island and I am back to work early this season. Kayak tours kicked off a bit sooner than normal this year. I assume the lack of good snow in the mountains and the early sunshine has something to do with it. So with Spring here we ( Discovery Sea Kayaks ) are open and running kayak tours. This is a great time to visit San Juan Island for a kayak tour. With less people on island there is a very charming small town feel. On the water the wildlife encounters can vary. Some days you might encounter killer whales other days watch as a pair of eagle fly over head. Last season we started renting bikes from our shop in downtown Friday Harbor. Our location is perfect for walking on the ferry and then renting a bike when you arrive in town. Being in the heart of town and close to the ferry makes it easy. I have all the bikes clean and ready to be rented. This se...
Read more