Sea Kayak - Hope Island

Launching at 9:15am, we headed into the mouth of Hammersley Inlet stopping short of Cape Cod to explain how to cross an eddyline and do some practice edging and using a  low brace for stability. Proceeding to Cape Cod, everyone did a couple of turns crossing the eddyline and circling back into the eddy on the east side of the point. We then ferried across to the north shore of Hammersley for a quick break on the beach to the east of Cape Horn.

After break, we rode the ebb current out to Hungerford Point and then crossed to the shore of Squaxin Island. After paddling south to Potlatch Point, we crossed to Hope Island and along the east shore to the beach at the end of the boardwalk for lunch.

Lunch finished just before low tide and we paddled across to the reef projecting from Squaxin Island to spend half an hour or so admiring the sea life along the reef. The iridescent sea weed is a particular attraction of this reef. We then headed south to Belspeox Point and crossed over to Hunter Point on the mainland with the tide now pushing us a bit north in Squaxin Passage.

We paddled north up the shoreline, past a large quantity of seals lounging on the log boom at Carlyon Beach. Past the docks we spent some time doing rescue practice between Carlyon Beach and Steamboat Island. All the students successfully performed the rescues and we then headed to the north end of Steamboat Island. Stopping short of the north tip of the island, I explained what was going on with the currents, and then we ventured out into the rollicking tide, with plenty of swirlies and active water for a bit of spice to finish of the paddle.  We rode the current, crossing north of the mouth of Totten inlet and made it back to the launch just before 3pm.

Total distance: 8.1nm
Average moving speed: 2.4kt.