Planning a paddle on a low tide can be a challenge. Many of the put-ins around the Bay are mud at low tide. For today’s paddle our leader, Alan, scoped out a paddle starting at the Loch Lomond boat ramp and paddling to Windsurfer Beach. Both locations are accessible on a low tide. Fourteen of us congregated on the grass next to the boat ramp, ready for a paddle on a glorious day. The plan was to follow the channel out towards the southeast corner of the Marin Islands. From there, once in deep enough water, we headed south under the Richmond-San Rafael bridge and then west to Windsurfer Beach.
Our assembly raised the eyebrows of the harbormaster. While he’s quite sympathetic to kayakers, he did express concern about such a large group of us launching from the boat ramp. He asked us to consider launching from the beach at the north end of the harbor in the future. We’re always careful to minimize our time on the boat ramp, but even so we’ll use the beach for future paddles.
We were on the water at 10:30 with a low tide of -0.55 feet at 11:18. Staying close to the edge of the boating channel we managed to stay out of the mud.
Clear skies and calm waters made for a glorious day. Arriving at Windsurfer we picked our way between rocks to find a few sandy and gravelly spots to land our boats.
After lunch we were back on the water for the return trip. The majority of the group opted to return by paddling around the Marin Islands.
Over the course of the day we logged 9.1 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.
