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"Believe me, my young friend. There is nothing, absolutely nothing,
half so worth doing as simply messing around in boats." 

The Wind in the Willows

Kayaking: Part of a Hard Day's Work + Baseball by Kayak

6/15/2014

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Picture
Damien preparing the kayak for the bathymetry survey.
This will be a brief one... Friday was (likely) my last day of fieldwork at my job - I have 5 weeks left now, so things are starting to wrap up (or at least that's what I'm pretending). We are working (with a few other agencies/companies) on an oyster/eelgrass pilot restoration project off the coast of San Rafael (project website, recent article in the SF Gate). ESA (my company) is monitoring the physical processes like changes in topography, waves, and also water quality. On Friday we conducted a site-wide bathymetric survey that we will be comparing with a pre-project survey to see how the oyster beds may be affecting regional sediment processes.

We used a GPS/depth sounder system strapped on our sylishly-camo field kayak to do the survey. I haven't had a chance to calculate exactly how far we kayaked, but we paddled east and west and north and south across the site for about 4 hours. It was exhausting, but we finished just in time to return the equipment to the rental place. It was also just in time to head to San Francisco and meet up with Doug and his friends to watch the Giant's game from outside the stadium.
Picture
Doug and Ken outside the stadium
Picture
I parked at Pier 52 and paddled over to AT&T Park (~1 mile). Doug and Ken arrived shortly after. Doug surprised me with two strings of purple lights to decorate my boat (you can kind of see them in the photo below) - they match perfectly! Big Purple now glows radiantly.
Picture
We floated around and snacked on some sausage/cheese/crackers while waiting for the BBQ-canoe to arrive. I was pooped, so I only stuck around for ~1.5 hrs and missed the BBQ/capsizing/tequila-bottle-tossing/firework madness that ensued. Instead, I spent the next 36 hours in bed nursing my unusually sore back, blistered hands, sunburned face, migrained head, and bruised lip (I dropped the kayak on my face while lifting it onto the work van...). Apparently this is what it feels like to get old, but until further notice, I'll blame it on the un-quantified number of tough paddling we did during the workday. :) Such a wimp.

Date: Friday, June 13th, 2014
Duration: 2 hours
Distance: 2 miles (roundtrip)
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    Welcome!

    This is a blog about exploring the outdoors (mostly by kayak), traveling, trip planning, and coastal engineering. It currently focuses on kayaking in the Netherlands and Belgium, but previous posts cover Upstate New York, California, and much more. See the Complete List of Blog Posts for a history of the site. Looking for something specific? Search the site here.

    In addition to the blog, check out the Water Nerd section, where I write about coastal engineering and hydrology. 

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