Re: [Paddlewise] Forty Days and Forty Nights

Gerald Foodman wrote:
> 
> >The other was a solo high water exploration along the east shoreline of
> >Long Island, Willapa Bay, WA, making the best of a 12 foot tide.
> 
> Is Willapa Bay a good winter kayaking destination?  What are typical air and
> water temps?

Air varies from 32 F to 50 F, most times.  It is a marine environment,
often swept by systems off the North Pacific, and so is wet and "warm" for
its latitude.  Storms usually last for only a day or so, with at least a
small window of relative calm so you can sneak home from a weekend camping
trip.  Have not been stranded yet, in seven seasons of regular camping
there.

Winter water temps range in the fifties, and may get as cold as the high
forties at times.  In summer, the Bay reaches 65 F for a while.  It's wet
suit country in the winter.

Big, open water, with humongous tide flats, generally covered enough to yak
over when the tide book says there is 3 feet of water depth.  Tidal range
is six or eight feet, most of the time, ten or twelve feet, maximum.  It is
a mixed semidiurnal tide, so one of the lows is not very low at all, and a
person can sometimes ignore the low tide and paddle all day, but that's
rare!

I usually paddle the high tide, but judicious planning will allow tidal
assist on the ebb to a crossing of a shallow spot.  Then I go ashore for
siesta, etc., and wait for the water to return to help me home.  Long
Island (the most attractive spot for camping, etc.) can be circumnavigated
that way.

Mostly a lonesome place;  home to oyster ranchers and the occasional duck
hunter or ocean-bound tug/crabber.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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