Tag: Marconi Cove

Thursday Paddle: Marconi to Tomales Beach

Tomales Bay is one of my favorite places to paddle, so, when one of my paddling buddies announced a paddle on Tomales Bay, I jumped at the opportunity. One of the hurdles to this location is getting across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge during rush hour. Google Maps was predicting a driving time of 1:15 when we left. We were on the road at 8:05 and we arrived at Marconi Beach at 9:50. A slow trip, but needless to say we weren’t the last party to arrive, and we were on the water at 10:40.

There were 10 of us, quite a turnout for a Thursday paddle. The prediction was partly cloudy with light winds and a low tide of -0.12 feet at 10:56. Our plan was to paddle across the bay to the Point Reyes peninsula and to use the ebb current to give us a boost to Tomales Beach. The beach at Marconi is mostly gravel with a few rocks. Those with composite boats need to take care in launching.

The calm water made for some interesting photo opportunities with the reflections on the water.

We landed on Tomales Beach at noon, choosing to land on the eastern end of the beach to avoid the shallow water and mud to the west. After lunch we were back on the water. By now we were getting a slight flooding current, which again gave us an assist in paddling back to our launch site. We were back on the beach shortly after 2:00.

You can see the track of our paddle above. Over the course of the day, we logged just a hair over 8 miles. More photos are available in an online gallery.

Tomales Bay: Marconi to Inverness

Having loaded the boats on the car the day before, we were ready for an early start to make the drive to our launch site. It’s a 50-mile drive to Marconi Cove. We were on the road at 8:05, arriving at 9:30. Traffic across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was normal for the morning rush hour. We seemed to have time to spare for a 10:30 launch, so in addition to the usual safety talk and radio check we took a few minutes to do some stretches. We launched on flat calm water under grey skies.

On the water I discovered that my skeg was jammed. I’m paddling a Dagger Stratos 14.5S. Attempts to free it were unsuccessful, so I was putting extra energy into boat control, trying to keep the boat on course. Good practice.

We paddled across the bay and followed the shore to Inverness. Our original plan was to have lunch near the wreck of the Reyes. I actually have a photo of this wreck taken when it was still an interesting photo subject. That photo is available in my art store. Now the wreck is looking rather dilapidated. You can see it over the back deck of the kayaks in one of the following photos.

It was too early for lunch when we reached the wreck, so we opted to paddle back across the bay to Millerton Point in Tomales Bay State Park. During a quick stop while scouting lunch locations Joann and Steve swapped boats, with Joann paddling the Romany. Once we landed for lunch, I was able to free the skeg. Some gravel had become jammed in the skeg well and the pull tab I had put on the skeg to assist in this process was missing.

Jellyfish were quite plentiful on the paddle, and I was tempted to stick my camera underwater (iPhone in a dive case) and snap randomly hoping I would capture them. To my surprise, I actually captured something. More photos are available in an online gallery. We were back at our launch site at 1:50 having logged 8 miles. On the drive home we stopped at the Tamale vendor at the Platform Bridge. Tamales for dinner. Yum!

Paddle & Party

April 1. Our adventure today includes a paddle on Tomales Bay followed by a party at Heidrun Meadery to celebrate David’s birthday. Seven of us were on the beach at Marconi Cove ready to get on the water at 10:00. We launched on a low tide and paddled across the bay to the Point Reyes Peninsula and then north paddling in flat calm without a breath of air. Temperatures were predicted for mid-70s so I opted to leave my dry suit behind. The calm water gave us a view of thousands of jellyfish just below the surface.

I stuck my waterproof Olympus TG-5 under the surface of the water and snapped a bunch of photos hoping my might capture some of the moon jellies. Low and behold, I actually captured a few images that were worth saving.

Once across the bay we paddled north along the peninsula landing at Tomales Beach for an early lunch. Then it was back to our launch site. Our paddle was just shy of eight miles. You can view the track of our paddle below or click here to see more details. We were in no hurry, but anxious to go taste some wine.

We packed up or kayaking gear and drove the short distance to the Heidrun Meadery for a wine tasting with wines made from honey. These are sparking wines made with the Champagne method. Who knew there could be so many flavors of mead, with the flavors based on the source of the honey. Buckwheat, sage and wildflowers were among the flavors we tasted. Once we were lubricated with bubbly we broke out the cake.

Since we were all sufficiently vaccinated we opted to enjoy the camaraderie sans masks. The last time I was without a mask in this large a group was March 14, 2020, when we had a party to celebrate my birthday. Plenty more photos to share. Go here to see them.

Dead Fish Polo

Kayaker flinging the Dead Fish

The object of this game is to pick up the “dead fish” without using your hands and toss it. Who wants to touch a dead fish?

The other kayakers then scramble for the “fish” and repeat the process. In this case the “dead fish” is a pair of socks tied together with a tennis ball in each toe. Sounds like an easy game. Right? Let me tell you, picking up the “dead fish” with your paddle is a challenge. It’s a great game for practicing boat control. Forward stroke, back stroke, draw stroke, sweep strokes, bracing, leaned turns. It all comes into play in this game. And then trying flinging the thing without capsizing a tippy boat.

This was a week ago. While most of the Bay Area was sweltering in a heat wave. I headed for Tomales Bay to join a few of my BASK paddling buddies. We launched from Marconi Cove Put in, just east of Marshall and paddled across the bay to Marshall Beach, taking our time to explore the coast. Calm weather and quite warm. I don’t recall when the last time I paddled with just a t-shirt and swim suit; not my usual “dress for immersion” gear. Too hot for dry suits or wet suits.

After lunch we got back in our boats and had a friendly game of Dead Fish Polo.

  • Launching at Marconi Cove
  • Lunch on Marshall Beach
  • Dead Fish Polo

Over the course of the day we paddled 6.4 miles. Here’s a map showing the track of our paddle. Click on the map for more details about the track.