Damn tide.
After lunch today, Maegan and I took kayaks out with the goal of reaching a distant island in the middle of the marsh. We traveled pretty far and made our way past the other side of the island, but it wasn’t possible for us to reach the island itself.
We started to head back but found it excruciatingly difficult as the “rivers” of the estuary we were navigating now had a strong current flowing against us the whole way. Paddling as hard as we could we were barely progressing, and if we stopped we would float backwards. A couple of times we intentionally beached ourselves on a mucky silt island in the middle of the pathway, just to stop and take a needed rest.
This stuff is like goopy quick sand; one step is soft and you sink in an inch or two, the next step you suddenly sink a foot or two and count yourself lucky that your water-shoe somehow stayed on. Anyway, these silt islands appearing along the way where they hadn’t been before was a sign that we needed to hurry because the tide was getting very low very fast.
Possibly up to a mile away from the house, we had to paddle incredibly hard, not only because of the current working against us but because the water levels were dropping fast. At first our oars kept hitting the ground and occasionally our kayaks would scrape the bottom too. Soon we began hitting patches where we just couldn’t navigate the boat any further and we had to jump out and walk in the marsh, pulling the kayaks behind us. With crabs everywhere, I just didn’t want to step on one and have it pinch me. The more time went by the more often we would have to walk the kayaks upstream, which to be honest was actually easier than padding against the current. At some points there was no water and we were literally dragging the kayaks over the exposed marsh bed.
We eventually made it back nearly two hours after we went out, completely exhausted from paddling miles upstream against the current and from trudging through soft muck on foot. Kayaking is still lots of fun but next time I go out it will be at high tide only, when there’s not only plenty of water depth but also when the current isn’t flowing in or out.
Later we all went out to eat at a seafood restaurant, followed by tons of nice family photos taken in the light of the sun setting over the marsh. At night some of us drove the children to the mainland to play miniature golf.
