Tag: Loch Lomond Marina

Roof Rack Failure & Windsurfer

Sometimes it seems the hardest part about kayaking is getting the boat to the water. Getting the boat on the car and getting it off the car and to the water at the launch site can be a challenge. Today I had an added challenge. As I tugged on one of the straps to cinch the boat into the saddles on the car top carrier the cross bar came loose. On inspection I discovered that the support tower that secures the crossbar to the roof was broken. It would be easy enough to just pack it in, but a little voice in my head was saying, “Treve, if you really want to go paddling you have another vehicle you can use.” The racks for the truck were sitting in the driveway, so I accepted the challenge of seeing if I could get the kayak on the truck in time to make it to the launch site. Our intended launch time was 10:00. Google Maps was telling me that it was a 21-minute drive which meant I might just make it. Sure enough, I was able to get the kayak on the camper and on the road in a timely fashion. It was 10:03 when the six of us pushed off from the beach.

With the constant parade of storms coming our way we found a weather window with perfect conditions for paddling. Our course took us past San Quentin State Prison, then under the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and on to Loch Lomond Marina. Just for fun we tried squeezing our boats through a narrow gap in the pilings at the end of the breakwater at the Yacht Harbor.

Time for lunch, but in my haste to get on the road after the roof top debacle I did not have time to make a lunch. Andy’s Market has a fine selection of deli foods and a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup, and a loaf of Judy’s bread hit the spot. And don’t forget the chocolate that seems to be ubiquitous on our paddles.

On our return paddle we had calm water and building clouds. We paddled out around the Marin Islands and then back to our launch site, and of course ferry traffic since Windsurfer Beach is close to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal.

My story starts with car top racks, so it’s only appropriate to end with a photo of my boat on top of my camper after the paddle. We covered 8.5 miles over the course of our paddle. Here’s a map that shows our track.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Four Islands

There are 18 islands in San Francisco Bay. On December 15, we visited four of them, The Sisters and the Marin Islands, all off limits. Our adventure started at China Camp Village Beach. Four of us were on the water at 10 a.m. We paddled out to The Sisters where we “threaded the needle,” Grendel’s Needle, a narrow slot in the rock on the west side of the west Sister. With the ebb current, it was simply a matter of lining your boat up with the slot and letting the current woosh you through. From The Sisters it was an easy paddle with the current to reach the Marin Islands.

We adjusted our ferry angle to compensate for the current which would have caused us to overshoot our goal without correcting. Sometimes you have to paddle in what seems like the wrong direction to compensate for the current. The islands which constitute the Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge are named after the Coast Miwok man known as Chief Marin. We recently learned that not only are the islands protected, but much of the water to the north of the islands is also protected.

Once around the islands we headed for Loch Lomond Yacht harbor where we took advantage of the new kayak dock to disembark from our kayaks. After lunch we made our way back to China Camp, taking the most direct route. We logged 8.5 miles over the course of the day, landing back on the beach shortly before 2 p.m. It was another very pleasant day on the water.

More photos are available in an online gallery.

Seven Celebrate Seventy

A friend of mine retired recently and he asked me if kayaking was a suitable sport for seniors. I’ll answer that question with a report on a recent paddle. On February 10, seven of us launched our kayaks from Windsurfer Beach, a little beach not far from the Larkspur Landing Ferry Terminal. The youngster in our group was celebrating his 70th birthday. The beach was a bit rocky given the tide, and it’s a short carry down the bank from the road.

We were on the water at 10 a.m. on February 10. The current was ebbing for our time on the water, with maximum ebb a little less than one knot at 11:40 a.m. at Point San Quentin. That meant we would be paddling upstream in the morning. We had a calm, sunny, beautiful day. We paddled out around Point San Quentin and turned north under the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Then it was north to the Marin Islands. The islands are part of the Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1992, named after a Coast Miwok man known as Chief Marin. Access to the islands is restricted, so we rounded the bigger of the two islands and headed west for Loch Lomond Marina.

We landed on the boat ramp and immediately moved our boats off the ramp so that we wouldn’t interfere with any boaters. No cake today, but plenty of chocolate treats including those provided by the birthday boy, Steve. After lunch we were back on the water making a direct line to Point San Quentin. The current was with us going back.

Once around the point we paddled back to our launch site passing San Quentin State Prison, the oldest prison in California. We logged 8.3 miles on an unseasonably warm day. Of course, part of the drill is getting the boats off the beach and on top of our cars–a total body workout. Not bad for seven septuagenarians.

Check out more photos in my online gallery.

Five Depart, Three Return

August 8. The plan was to meet at China Camp, launch our kayaks, paddle out to the Marin Islands and over to the Loch Lomond Yacht Harbor for lunch, then to return after lunch.

Six of us met at China Camp, Michael, Joann, Cynthia, John, Christine and myself. I had posted an announcement that this would be a mellow paddle without the drama of wind and waves. The wind prediction at China Camp was 6 knots, based on Windy, an app I use for wind predictions. Meanwhile, the NOAA prediction for the San Francisco Bay at large was 10-15 with gusts to 25 in the afternoon. China Camp Beach is a bit protected from the wind, so it made sense that it might be windier on the Bay.

We were on the water at 10:10 and proceeded south. As we approached Point San Pedro, we were starting to feel the wind. It was a bit of a struggle rounding the point, but everybody seemed to be doing OK. Once we rounded the point conditions let up a bit, but it was clear that the Marin Islands were out of our reach given the wind. We opted to take a more direct line to Loch Lomond. Even so it was a workout. It was not the mellow paddle I had hoped for, but everybody seemed to be up to the task.

We pulled our boats up the boat ramp at Loch Lomond and found some picnic tables where we could practice social distancing while eating.

After lunch John and Cynthia decided to organize a shuttle back by hitching a ride with John’s wife, who had remained on the beach at China Camp with a good book. They were concerned about the conditions at Point San Pedro on the return paddle.

The remaining three of us put our boats back in the water and, with the wind behind us, it was a fast and easy paddle back to China Camp. Once we rounded the point, the last two miles proved to be mellow. Our track for the day covered close to eight miles. Due to a technical glitch, I only logged the paddle back from Loch Lomond to China Camp. It seems I must have hit pause on my GaiaGPS app as we launched.

Lost in the Fog

On Thursday January 10, I joined my BASK paddling buddies for the weekly Thursday Lunch Paddle. We congregated at the northeast end Loch Lomond Marina where there’s a small beach that provides a serviceable launch site when the tide isn’t too high.


Paddling in the fog. BASK Thursday Lunch Paddle on 1/10/19.

When I arrived at 9:15 everybody was in a huddle discussing the fog. Boats were still on car tops and it looked doubtful whether we would get on the water. Our original plan was to paddle across the bay from our launch site. Given we would be crossing shipping lanes and ferry traffic, and with the challenge of navigating in the fog, we opted to paddle along the coast keeping the land in sight. We paddled along the shore, paddling under the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and then past San Quentin State Prison to a little beach that is a frequent launch site for windsurfers. After lunch we retraced our route, but for the last mile or so we decided to follow a compass course that would take us directly back to the marina. There was a point in the last leg where we were out of site of any landmarks, surrounded by fog. It was an eerie feeling to be paddling in the fog without any visual reference point. It wasn’t too long though when out of the fog loomed the entrance to Loch Lomond Marina. We were back on the beach by 3 pm having paddled 9.5 miles. You can view the track of our paddle here.

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