Maryly and I were looking for someplace fun to paddle in the East Bay. We called Kathleen and Nicholas Pinette and arranged to meet at the park near Point Molate. When we got there, the park was closed with no explanation on the chain link fence. Since we were early Maryly and I drove up the road past the point looking for a spot I had seen once before. We found an area that was covered with trash, but had a few dirt areas to park in and a dirt ramp down to the beach. We drove back to found Nicholas and Kathy buzzing about looking for us and lead them back to the spot we found.
We launched and headed north under the Chevron pier and towards Point San Pablo. Nicholas and Kathy were in a double sit-on-top kayak, a relative of the Tsunami X-2 kayak. Nicholas found a loose buoy that he wanted to keep and turned back to hide it in the driftwood at the shore. Maryly and I didn't notice they were gone until we were under the pier, so we stopped there and drifted back and forth waiting. A guard came out from the base of the pier to tell us that we were not allowed to be under there. She told us that normally she doesn't bother telling kayakers to stay away, but hanging out under the pier had exceeded the limits on the "keep away" signs. Generally she was reasonably friendly about it and we left the scene of the crime with no hard feelings.
The goal of our trip was to paddle back between The Brother Islands during the ebb tide. The max ebb was still an hour or two away so we took our time and paddled into the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor for lunch. I drove to this harbor once years ago and was denied permission to launch there. Nicholas says that it is under new management and they are rumored to be friendlier to kayakers. We paddled into the harbor secure in our California Constitutional right to navigate all waters and looked at the houseboats. One of them was for sale and Maryly talked to the owner about it. She got out of her kayak to look inside. The houseboat was expensive and even if you paid it off there was still a $600.00 monthly berthing fee to park it there!
We stopped for lunch on the spit across the mouth of the marina. This is a funky neighborhood with old boats and lots of other abandoned equipment rusting into the water. Sitting in plain sight on the edge of this spit was a 5 gallon can oozing some thick chemical through developing rust holes. I dipped a stick into it to get a good sample for smelling. Nicholas agreed that it was epoxy. This stuff has a long shelf life and is very expensive! We were tempted to come back and try to recover some of it. With the addition of the part B hardener, this could repair or build a large number of kayaks!
We resisted bringing the toxic waste home with us and launched to go back between The Brother Islands. The wind was coming from the south so it was against us. It was not a strong ebb current, only going at two knots which could barely pull us into the wind. Between the islands there was a little bit of a tidal rip with small waves running against the current. The waves gave us a surprisingly strong push upstream. Maryly accused me of reading the TideLog incorrectly and getting the flood tide confused with the ebb!
When we left the rip current and headed south again a big motor boat roared by and threw up a large wake. Usually I am unable to catch rides on wakes but I rarely resist trying. As the wake approached I turned and managed to catch a fantastic ride on this one! I think the wake rose up steeply as it collided with the current coming out between the islands, making it easier to surf. Then we all paddled back against the wind and through some mild choppy water to make it safely to the beach.