Today was Drakes Estero and again the tidal conditions were not especially great. We were told "there is always water at the oyster farm" by a ranger so we went to the oyster farm to launch. There was water, it was just a ways out with mud between us and it. We tried valiantly to launch in several places but I went in mud up to my knee at one point and almost lost my bootie so we sat and waited for mas agua.
After an hour things weren't looking good at the 'beach' but the point at the oyster farm was looking doable. We asked permission and were given it so we carried the boats over and put in finally. The paddle out of the main bay was one of channel finding, looking for deep enough water on the mud and finding the channel through the weeds. Once we hit the first oyster platforms we began spotting disturbances on the surface which we thought at first was shark but turned out to be rays as we got closer. There were rays everywhere cruising on the flats and playing on the surface. I had several rays go right under my bow startling me each time.
We paddled
towards the mouth to a large group of pelicans and finally ran out of water.
We could see other kayakers stranded a bit south and west of us looking to get
up further as we were stuck from going further out. We decided to take off
up Creamery Bay, the western finger of the Estero and explored it until it
basically came to and end. More rays throughout the area.
The wind was starting to pick up so we began paddling back to the farm. On the way we had more ray encounters and finally ran into a Leopard Shark that was about 1/3 the size of our kayaks, it was one of the most beautiful sharks I'd ever seen.
After kayaking we headed to Limintour Beach for a long walk along the estuary there and finally up the spit to the end where seals were lying on the beach. We ran into a tule elk on the way there and saw several deer also along the estero. Here we are on the beach:
