Tag: Carquinez Strait

Exploring Carquinez Strait: A Kayaking Experience

This week our usual Thursday paddle turned into a Saturday paddle. This afforded the opportunity for a few people who normally work on Thursday to join us. With a club membership of some 700 people (BASK: Bay Area Sea Kayakers), there’s no shortage of people looking for opportunities to paddle. Ten of us were on the water at 10:00 launching from the gravel beach at Eckley Pier on the Carquinez Strait. We were launching on a fairly high tide, high tide being 5.9 feet at 10:00. We would be riding the tail end of the flood current.

The plan was to stay close to shore to avoid any shipping traffic in the channel. Staying close to shore though, we found that an eddy was hindering our progress, so a few of us moved out of the eddy closer to the shipping channel where we found a more favorable current. We landed at the Martinez Marina at 11:20.

We broke out our lunches and as is our tradition several varieties of chocolate were shared. After lunch several of us decided to paddle into the marsh at the Radke Martinez Regional Shoreline. We paddled well up into the Alhambra Creek and under Embarcadero Street before turning around.

On the return leg I was looking forward to paddling through the pilings near Port Costa. They provide some interesting photo opportunities as well as an opportunity to practice boat control. As fate would have it though, my iPhone battery went dead so I was without a camera for the last half mile or so. I need to make a note to keep my Olympus TG-5 available, so I have a camera handy when my iPhone battery goes dead.

On our return to Eckley Pier, we noted that the tide had receded and what had been gravel on our launch was now broken bricks. This proved to be a bit treacherous for walking and carrying boats. We logged 10 miles over the course of the day.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Crossing Carquinez Strait

At the northeast corner of San Francisco Bay is Carquinez Strait. This is a narrow passage where the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers empty into the Bay. On Saturday November 27 our kayaking club, Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK), hosted a paddle here. Not having much familiarity with this area I thought it would be fun to explore this area with a few paddlers that know the area well.

After a comprehensive safety talk and radio check nine of us we were on the water at 11 am launching from the boat ramp at the Martinez Marina. We paddled west staying clear of the shipping channel and taking advantage of the ebb current for a quick ride. Shortly after launching one of our party discovered that he was quite uncomfortable in his boat. He turned back leaving the eight of us to continue on. When it was time to cross the straight we held up to let a ship pass. Then it was across the straight to Glen Cove Waterfront Park where we found a nice beach to land. We had lunch in a grove of trees on a bluff overlooking the beach.

After lunch we were back on the water hugging the north shore to avoid the deeper water where the current was still ebbing. We even managed to find a few eddies going counter to the main current. We paddled along the Benicia waterfront admiring the waterfront homes and decrepit docks. When it was time to cross the shipping channel we again held up for a tanker and an escort of tug boats.

Then it was back across the straight and back to the marina. We were back at the boat ramp at 4 pm, finding a traffic jam of boats waiting to use the ramp. We managed to land and get our boats off the ramp without interfering with the traffic much. We logged 11.7 miles on an excellent paddle with great company. You can view the track of our course below. Click on the map to view a more detailed view. I was disappointed to discover the lens on my camera had acquired a smudge of sunblock which ruined most of my photos. A lesson to carry a lens wipe and to check the lens frequently. In any event, I did manage to salvage a number of images and you can view them online.

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