Maryly Snow has long wanted to paddle her kayak under the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a BASK trip to do this popular paddle scheduled for the 18th of July, but many of the people going on that trip were fairly experienced kayakers. They planned to go around Point Bonita and play in the caves north of the entrance to the bay. Maryly wasn’t sure she wanted to paddle that far, wasn’t sure she wanted to risk going out around the point, and she certainly didn’t want to play in the caves. She talked to the initiator of the trip about turning back at Point Bonita and was told she couldn’t plan on doing that unless she had someone to turn back with her. She thought of inviting me, but there were two problems with this. First, I would want to go around the corner and play in the caves! And second, I was going to my family reunion and would be out of town on the 18th. Since I would be driving through San Francisco with my kayak on my way to the reunion, Maryly and I planned to do the Golden Gate trip together on Friday.
On Friday morning the weather did not look good. There was a 20 knot wind offshore and rising swell. When I arrived at Horseshoe Cove on the Marin side of The Gate, the fog was blowing in at a good clip and obscuring the Golden Gate Bridge. Maryly suggested that we try to make it under the bridge at least. The tide was low and still going out, making this a good time to kayak under the bridge. The flood tide in the afternoon would suck us back in later if we got tired. We decided to go for it.
The wind didn’t seem too bad as we started under The Bridge. The fog cleared and gave Maryly a good view as she finally paddled under the bridge. The weather was mild enough we just kept going to see how far we could get. We headed for Diablo point staying close to shore. Maryly was disappointed when she found out what point that was. She saw Diablo, thought it was Bonita, said to herself “That doesn’t look too far, I can do that”. Unfortunately it’s only half way to Point Bonita. Reflected waves off Diablo Point made the water there rough as we paddled around it. When we could see it in the distance, I pointed to Bonita and said: “That doesn’t look too far, you can do that”!
We generally stayed close to shore, which makes the trip longer but lessens the chances of getting hit by a boat. One fishing boat was very close to shore and they turned and went right past us. As they got close, one of the fishermen took off his sun glasses and said “Mike, is that you”? It turned out to be Lyle Ryan! Lyle is a former co-worker who is an avid fisherman and who has talked about kayaking with me. He has offered to haul my kayak and me out to the Faralon Islands one day so I can paddle around the islands while he fishes. It was an amazing coincidence to run into him on the San Francisco Bay, but these coincidences are starting to pile up.
Maryly’s stamina held up and we made it to the mild beach behind Bonita and landed for a rest. We planned to climb up to the trail to walk out to the lighthouse, but found it closed! We couldn’t even get out on the point to study he waves from above because the trail goes through a cave carved in the rock which is gated and locked. From the start of the trail we did see the outside ocean water. Maryly made noises like she wanted to go there, but when we got back in our boats and started around the point she didn’t like the look of the waves. The water is shallow near the point and waves rise up and break in the middle of nowhere. We turned back.
We cut across the water to shorten the return trip. I kept seeing dolphins and pointing them out. Like sharing shooting stars, you both have to be looking in the same direction to see something like this, so Maryly missed seeing the dolphins and only saw glimpses. She asked me if I was sure they were dolphins and not great white sharks sizing us up.
As we approached Diablo Point again the water around the point looked scary. We had the tide flooding with us and ripping around the end of the point. The swell at sea was coming directly in to the mouth of the bay and reflecting off the point making confusing chop. The waves were making a lot of noise, breaking and spilling in this area. We tried to travel far from the point to avoid this, but the wind and waves conspired to push us through the middle of it. By myself I probably would have worried a little but tried to surf the waves. With some more experienced kayakers I probably would have had a blast. With Maryly I empathized how scared she was and so I didn’t enjoy it the way I could have. We managed to make it, however, to the calmer water on the other side without any mishaps.
The water going in under The Bridge was much milder and we had time to look up and enjoy the view as we went under. This time Maryly got to enjoy reaching her goal of paddling under this bridge in her kayak. I expected a strong eddy current in front of the entrance to Horseshoe Cove, so I lead us across to let the eddy pull us back west. But half way out we ran into a tremendously strong wind. This wind was somehow focused by the topology and only blew in a small area. Ahead we could see the flag in front of the Coast Guard office was hanging down in dead calm air. So we turned northwest and plowed our way across this windy spot and got no help from the currents, which were negligible by comparison. Once inside the harbor, the wind disappeared and we made a calm and easy landing.