Sea Kayak - Puget Island from Westport

All arrived on time for this great weather day. We had four new Mountaineers from the Portland area doing their equivalency paddle - Tom, Steve, Teresa and Wendy. As soon as we launched we saw an osprey and an eagle. We paddled down the Westport Slough and found that the river channel dredging operation was staged in the area we were headed. The dredge pipe outflow was just to the west of the mouth of the slough and the dredge was quite a ways east along the south shore of Puget Island. The dredge pipe was submerged in the shipping channel. We paddled to the south edge of the channel and waited for a ship to pass before crossing to Coffee Pot Island where we took a short break to stretch and see the interpretive signs there.
We then continued along the south shore of Coffee Pot Island and then Puget Island and took another break at the beach just around the north end of Puget Island, looking across to Ryan Island. After a short break we continued down the east shore of Puget, behind Ryan Island. We paddled past the bridge and then continued along the east shore of Jackson Island. We stopped at a small beach at the south end of Jackson Island for lunch. After lunch, all four equivalency candidates successfully demonstrated paddle float self rescues and assisted rescues.
We then continued along the north shore, spying a large flock of white pelicans before rounding the east end of Puget Island. After rounding the east end of the island, we continued along the south shoreline for about 1.5 nm, then crossed the channel to the Oregon shoreline to follow back to Westport Slough.