[Paddlewise] Trip Report: Pelican Island Circumnavigation

Our sea kayaking group had a lovely paddle Sunday evening around Pelican
Island.  As ever in this sport, it had its "educational" moments too, so I'll
share the good and the almost-bad with you so you can be informed and amused.






Four of us set off from the shell beach on the Texas A&M University at
Galveston campus by 4:30.  The thunderstorm activity that was of great concern
to me stayed, thankfully, in the background and I am pleased to report the
window of blue sky overhead stayed with us for the entire paddle.  I did check
the radar charts by computer before we set boats in the water.  We were Lauren
and Rayma in sit-on-tops, Chris in a plastic closed-deck sea kayak; and myself
in the 'glass decked sea kayak.





Birds were everywhere as we paddled north from the causeway.  Most numerous
were laughing gulls, but many terns and skimmers, and a real chorus of
probably thousands of nesting birds in the marshlands along the way.
Formations of both white and brown pelicans soared above, and sometimes right
beside us.  A flock of at least 50-100 brown pelicans watched our passage from
the far side of the Intracoastal Waterway cut;  many white ones, and herons
and egrets were perched and nesting in the trees along there.  Flashes of
brilliant pink heralded the flight of roseate spoonbills.  Red-beaked white
ibises raised up to check us out as they grubbed for food along the shoreline.




With the storm activity of the day, and presumably the lateness also, small
motorboats were hardly to be seen.  I had worried about heavy traffic going
through that cut where we have to be on the Intracoastal.  For once, no
pleasure boat, or raceboat, or barge or working boat passed us in there.  We
made up for that, however, on the far side, where I noticed a heavily-laden
oil tanker coming up the Texas City channel, on our side of the Texas City
Dike.  Wasn't much longer 'til I noticed the large, crashing wake the tanker
set up.  "Don't worry, it will dissipate before it gets to us" turned out to
be entirely false information.  Eeek!  There I was in my usual, casual,
it'ssummertimeinGalveston, no sprayskirt mode.  When the waves were 50' from
me I knew darn sure they weren't going to dissipate, and I also knew if they
broke on me they'd break somewhere at neck or head height - and I was gonna go
for a swim!  Picked a non-breaking spot, said my prayers, and headed for it
paddling hard.  Whew - blasted right over the top of it - and over the chain
of waves behind it.  No peace yet - here came another set 90 degrees from the
first one.  Thankfully we all got a big "ee-ha" out of it, and no tippers.
Sure got our attention - something to watch out for if you're in the same
spot.  Those suckers were at least 5' tall.





A fair amount of wind waves and swell accompanied the rest of this leg, the
most exposed.  Turned into the Galveston channel by the park and noticed the
big dredge at work in the channel.  We took a break on the sand beach there,
then headed out for mid-channel to avoid what I expected to be a long pipeline
of dredge material.  Had two tug boats for company out there - a few nervous
moments until I made eye contact with the operators and knew they saw us.  Our
next reward was two pods of dolphins dancing and rolling within 100' of us.
We headed on down the channel into the setting sun.  Had boats loaded and were
setting course for home before it got dark.  It could have hardly been a more
fun sightseeing and thrilling trip (IMHO!) - wish you could have been there
too!





Natalie Wiest


Houston Canoe Club paddler & sometime trip facilitator


Galveston TX  USA





***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not
to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission
Submissions:     paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
Subscriptions:   paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************