Kayak Sky

If you blow up the above pic, you can see an otter floating along just above my bow.

On Thursday, I went Kayaking from the southe end of Seward to Caines Head, which is a State Park that has an old WWII bunker / fort / gun enplacement. The day started out cool and very cloudy. We had to wait 1 1/2 hours to leave, because we were waiting on two women who were running late. People in general here, don't seem to be in a hurry - It's REAL annoying. Anyway, just as were getting ready to put in, the sun starts peaking through, and it continued to clear up. The ride out, the water was smooth as glass, really amazing. On the way back, the wind had picked up, and there were a lot of waves. Nothing too high, but after several hours of paddeling and hiking, I was tired. At this point, there were was just me and the guide, and we decided (or he decided) to make a bee line back, and not stay within a couple hundred yards of the coast, like we had on the way out. I tried not to think about it, but a few times when I got a bit sideways from the waves, I realised that it was a REALLY long way to shore, and that if I dumped now (in very cold water, e.g. hypothermia) that it was going to be a good long time that I would have any chance of getting out of the water, and that I was so exhausted that there was no way I'd be able to swim that far. So that was kinda cool, in a scary way. This is why there are no pics of the return journey. I was too busy paddling for my life!