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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

kayaking off Long beach & OC coast update jan 10th 09

Kayaking around Newport beach marina has this advantage. Launching is very easy as i can park my truck and off load my yak within 50 ft of the water. Beach is mucky and the PCH bridge underpass blocks out sun which makes for a chilly launch and landing but NB harbor is the biggest & best of the 3 marinas to yak around, and Corona Del Mar has a neat clean tidal beach as a destination stop point. Like i said when coming back from a NB outing i need to have warm clothing to get into quickly as i have gotten very chilled coming out of the water at 4-5 pm on a cool day.
NB launch point takes an hr to get to but it is a good all-round kayak zone. Next destination is to launch, stop at NB fun zone and walk around. Another destination is to go around west jetty thru the wedge and stop at NB pier.

Long beach yakking is easy as the harbor is one big smooth lake. I do worry about speed boat racers and need to keep a watch constantly as the racers really go thru the water rather with reckless abandon. I need to get reflective tape and maybe a strobe light to place on my yak as i realy need to make myself highly visible in the harbor. May encounter drunk racers who may recklessly plow right thru me.

The LB Harbor is good for yaking as there are destinations to go to and the Launch point setup is established. It is 3 nautical miles to get to shoreline village marina, about an hrs paddling.
Next destination is the queen mary and the outer harbor areas and even attempt to yak out to the breakwater and beyond. Also want to go outside the breakwater westward along the curve keeping close to the jetty. It will be out in true open sea conditions with bigger waves and a true test of my sea kayak skills. Longest stint in true open seas is 1-1.5 hrs off the corona del mar shore out of the protected NB marina.

Update: since i posted this account on facebook i have expanded my local yak tours such as going well beyond the protected NB inner harbor Marina and really out to the open sea but that is for another post.

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