Outta town

We decided to take the chance and go off for a kayaking weekend. Spent three days at a small county park on one of the San Juan Islands. Whatever bit of "rain shadow" action there could have been, considering the dismal long range forecast, was in play. It rained at night the first two days, stopping late morning and staying clearish until evening, long enough for drenched tents to dry out on top, and for soggy paddling gear to lose most of its sogginess. First whole day we got in a nice paddle and saw some orcas out beyond us. The organizers of the outing were disappointed; they have experienced being surrounded by three pods, close enought to touch from their kayaks. I wouldn't have minded if the orcas had been a little closer, but these are enormous wild animals, and although supposedly there have been no incidents of kayers being attacked by them, and I would like to think they are intelligent and don't want to confront humans, I don't want to be an irritant to them. They're large, and if for some reason one breached over a kayaker, it takes no imagination at all to picture the results. Twenty-foot, many-tonned sea mammal, little bitty kayak...
Next day we were out most of the afternoon, and I never got out of my boat. We paddled south, saw Dall's porpoises, harbor seals, eagles, other shore birds, but no more orcas. After we turned around, we encountered some interesting tidal rips and strange currents, all affected by tide, boat wakes, and wind. This translated into following seas, or stuff coming up from behind as you entered a tide rip. Nothing really threatening, but it made me paddle creatively, shall we say. Sometimes it was fun, kind of a surfing feel to it, and sometimes the kayak stern wallowed back and forth weirdly. The boat I was using has no rudder or skeg to keep it tracking, but is a bit heavy so it can sort of be held to account. My overall sensation was one of lowering my center of gravity to keep things stable.
We had two delicious communal evening feasts, Mexican-themed one night, Northwest fish dinner the second. There were two six year old boys, best school buds, and an almost three year old kid brother, all of whom did very well. There were also two young women colleagues of one of the moms, who were very good company. The last afternoon the two dads and my beloved spouse took off for a couple hours' long paddle, and the womenfolk ferried cars and extra boats around to the landing point. Somehow we all managed to meet up simultaneously, as well as get a late afternoon ferry back to the mainland after a brief wait. We got home to hear that Seattle had had miserable amounts of rain, and counted ourselves fortunate to have face the Memorial Day challenge.