Tag: Eckley Pier

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.

Gone Paddling x 4

Here are four more paddling adventure which deserve to be documented. I consider this blog to be a diary of my adventures. If I don’t record the adventures, I may forget they ever happened. And for the past few years, as the new year turns over, I have turned my blog entries into a coffee table book.

So here are four paddles: 10/27 Richmond to Albany, 11/03 Eckley Pier, 11/10 Gallenas Creek, and 11/28 Windsurfer.

Richmond to Albany

On October 27 there were just two of us with two wooden Pygmy Boats. We launched from Ferry Point in Richmond, paddled out past the end of the breakwater and then past Brooks Island. We poked into the basin northeast of Caesar Chavez Park thinking we might find a spot to land, but we didn’t see much so we paddled to Albany Beach where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we returned to our launch site by way of the Richmond waterfront, stopping to admire the Red Oak Victory. We logged 11 miles.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Eckley Pier

November 3. Seven of us gathered at Eckley Pier for a paddle to Martinez. The pilings of several abandoned piers provide an obstacle course to practice boat control. I had my GoPro camera running to capture the action. It remains to be seen when that footage will be available. From Eckley Pier we paddled out towards the shipping channel to take advantage of the flooding current.

Once we reached the Martinez Marina, we hauled our boats up the boat ramp and off to the side to keep the ramp free for boaters. We logged 8.8 miles over the course of the day.

Gallenas Creek

November 10. Up the creek, Gallenas Creek. We launched from China Camp and took advantage of the high tide to paddle up the creek. When we could no longer make forward progress, we returned to the McInnis Canoe and Kayak Dock where we hauled out our boats and had lunch. Our course covered 10 miles.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Windsurfer Beach

November 29. Loch Lomond to Windsurfer Beach. This paddle takes us under the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and past San Quentin State Prison. At lunch on Windsurfer Beach, we watched the ferries and a dredge. We paddled around the Marin Islands on the return leg, a total of 8.2 miles.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Martinez to Eckley

On September 29 I joined nine other BASK members for a paddle from Martinez to Eckley Pier. We launched from the boat ramp at the Martinez Marina at 10:30 a.m. Once we were out of the Marina, we turned west where we hit a bit of bumpy water. We had the current with us and the wind against us resulting in some wind waves splashing over our decks. Then it was on to the obstacle course of old pilings which are always fun to paddle through, creating an opportunity to practice boat control. Slack water was about noon, so we had little current to contend with as we meandered through the pilings.

We arrived at Eckley Pier at noon, broke out our lunches and watched the train go by as we ate. Then it was back on the water and back through the maze of pilings. Now we had the wind at our back and the current starting to flood so it was a little more challenging to paddle the maze. Some opted to paddle in the open water. With the current pushing us back up the river it was a quick paddle back to Martinez. We were back at the boat ramp at 2 p.m., having logged 9.2 miles.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Here’s the track of our paddle.