Sea Kayak - South Puget Sound: Olympia to Steilacoom

After setting up the shuttle cars at Sunnyside Beach Park ($5 parking) we headed back to Boston Harbor Marina for an 11am launch. The forecasted strong west wind was on point and we headed out Dana Passage with both wind and current at our backs.  Some good surfing in Dana Passage got us warmed up, and by the time we got to Johnson Point our average pace was almost 5 kt.

More great surfing  was encountered on the crossing to Devils Head where we stopped for lunch after only 1-1/2 hours on the water. After lunch, we headed up Drayton Passage for more great surfing (fastest GPS recordings of the trip - 9.2kt on a wave) and into Balch Passage for another break at Eagle Island.

From Eagle Island we headed out Balch Passage and across  to Sunnyside Beach Park. The wind had shifted more to the south and the ferry headed from Steilacoom to Anderson about this time, so we paddled toward the north end of Ketron Island initially to stay out of the ferry's way and to give us more good downwind paddling back to the take out. Lots of cross-wind paddling in mostly 2' waves with lots of white caps and good surfing at the end. 

Once we reached the take out, we did a bunch of rolling and bracing practice in the wind/waves - nobody really wanted the trip to end. All participants did great on this jewel of a paddle. The  rain squalls seemed to miss us all day and we mostly had sunny conditions with a little light rain at the end.