Larkspur. Nice paddling.

Vivian and I went up to SF to see the Giants lose to Phillie.  She didn't want to go home, so we took a hotel.  She knew I wanted to Kayak, so we went over to Larkspur to the North Bay Outback Kayak shop and rented two Yaks.   I put her in the Tarpon 140 and myself in the Tarpon 160.

 We paddled up the Corte Madera creek/Larkspur Estuary.   It's a nice protected water way with a lot of houses along the shore line.   I was surprised that Vivi took right to the 140.  All in all, we must have paddled 9 miles round trip.  To the credit of the Tarpon's speed, we weren't overly stressed at going this distance.  We passed numerous boats along the way.   Vivi saw a baby Sea Lion.  I saw quite a bit of bait jumping just West of Hwy 101.

  I thought the Tarpon 140 might be too long for Vivi but she liked it.   When we switched, she wouldn't give the 160 back. It had that much more speed.    We did paddle back against the wind, so the higher free board on the 160 caught more air.   The nose on the 140 seems lower. 

  Afterwords,  we tried a Puerto Rican restaurant in San Rafael.  It is called Sol-food.   We had Jerked chicken with fried bananas with rice. Interesting.  Different.

  On the way home, I was pretty tired, so we went to Jack London square for a few hours.  I discovered that CityKayak has a new shop on Jack London square.   It had a number of people inside asking questions and pawing through the goods. Their shop is oriented towards the sit inside expedition yaks. The activity in this shop was a stark contrast to the rows of empty commercial buildings on the square..   I was shocked to see that 2 of the 4 Almar marinas by Jack London were empty. Pretty weird seeing empty slips.

  Anyway, it was a nice weekend.  I need more sun protection if I'm going to do more of this.

Craig

Seems like you 2 had a good time OTW.  Thank you for sharing the experience paddling along the Corte Madera Creek.

 We're getting attracted to the exercise and simplicity of Kayaking.  On this trip, I had my small VHF and was listening to 16.   Some poor guy in a mega yacht was in real trouble.  It sounded like his marine head was flooding his boat.  All the holding tank and the sea was filling the main salon.   I'm glad I wasn't there for that one.

  The Coasties did an admirable job not to laugh when the panicked skipper came on the air.



  

I grew up in Marin, and around six weeks ago I bought an '09 Tarpon 140 from Outback Adventures. It was nice to know that they sponsor this sight when I gave them my money.

It was so tough to choose between a 140 and 160. I know the 160 is faster. In the end affordability forced me to get the 140. I love the boat tho. I tell myself it's more versatile for lakes and streams. But I like the salt water, and keep wondering how much safer 16' is than 14' on the ocean.

Any opinions?

next time you do that paddle, bring your rod...at certain times there can be loads of stripers in there (has to be bait in the creek for the stripeys to be there)