We came today to Shelter Island -- me, my good friend Amie, and my 8 and 9 year old daughters for…read moreour 3-hour tour. Cue "Gilligan's Island" jingle -- "Three hour tour..." Per the song, "the weather started getting rough, our tiny kayaks were tossed." Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But it was really windy, and there was a lot of current and waves.
Rusty, the guy who led the tour, was very nice and knowledgeable -- he had lots of interesting facts and information, and was very personable. The 2nd guy, Matt, said he would take up the rear, but he generally let our 2 kayaks trail about 1/4 mile behind the group, and I'm not sure he would have noticed if we were taken out by Stars & Stripes tacking into us, or any of the other sailboats, fishing boats, Seal tour boats, etc. that were crowding the water on this busy Father's Day.
I'd rank this tour in the "not for everyone category." It was a LOT harder and a LOT more work than I expected, i.e., was paddling my arms off for 3-hours straight, and saying to myself (and sometimes outloud), "Why am I doing this?!" And my daughters were complaining -- "I'm tired, I'm freezing, I'm wet, I'm hungry, I'm cold, when are we going to be done?"
I have to admit, I'm not an elite "athlete," nor in tip-top shape. On the other hand, I'm not a total slouch either -- I've kayaked a couple dozen times before, and I hiked 30 miles over Memorial Day weekend 3 weeks ago. This really was a work-out. I was paddling hard against the wind and waves to get out to where the sea lions were. Not to throw my 9-year-old daughter under the bus, but no thanks to her, who decided not to paddle, but instead to only complain and be dead weight. To be fair, there were 22 people on the tour, and everyone else other than the 4 of us, seemed to manage ok.
It was a total of 4 miles, and it took us a good 2-1/2 hours to get out there against the wind, and fortunately, only about 1/2 hour to get back w/ the wind. I will say that the kids did get a kick out of seeing some dolphins jump, and seeing all the sea lions hanging out on the bait tank. Rusty said we did fine -- at least they didn't have to tow us back, like they've had to do before. Hey - I didn't know towing was an option! We would have tipped well for that! Overall, a good organization, and I love Point Loma, but not sure Shelter Island is the best place to kayak...