Tuesday, Apr. 23, 2013, Jenner, CA.

Connecting with harbor seals

First off today was another Dentist appointment. Time for a cleaning with a new hygienist. Lucky for me, my new hygienist was taught by my bestest old hygienist, which now teaches. That being the case, they are a lot alike and I had a real cleaning.

First, to the dentist.

Now, I have this thing about dentists and doctors. I like them to really know who I am, so I’m not just an anybody type patient who comes in the door, pays the bill and leaves. No sir, I make sure they know who I am, so they know who walks in the door. :O) I’m happy to say my new dentist and her staff were really good and we got along just fine. :O)

Now, off to kayak, after a short nap.

I was home just after two pm and after a short nap I was off to Jenner to kayak for another evening type yak. I got my boat in the water around four PM. The wind was down to just a very light breeze and the fog was rolling in. The fog was fairly thick, about medium dense. I’d say it was a misty type fog. The water was almost calm under it.

I put in the water in the fog and crossed the river to the island and headed up river a half mile or so. It was nice and peaceful in the misty drifting fog.

After awhile, I headed back down the river.

Below is a picture of what it looked like in the fog, looking down river toward the east end of Penny Island as I paddled along.

Going down the backside of Penny Island, I heard a bunch of geese honking and then they came into view, as you can see in the picture below.

Lots of seals in the water today.

I paddled down to the river’s mouth and sat just inside of it as the tide was coming in. There were quite a few seals in the water swimming around. Most of them were momma seals with their pups.

Below, you can see it’s foggy as you look toward the mouth of the river. This is were I sat in my boat for over an hour and watched the seals in the water.

Below is a pair of seals, a pup on the left and a mom on the right. Lots of these pairs where playing around in the water today.

A pup was looking for it’s momma.

There was one pup going around hollering for it’s momma. It came up to me several times. It didn’t look like it was in any real trouble or anything, but I never did see it find it’s momma.

Below you can see this lone pup looking for it’s momma.

Below is another seal that came pretty close to me today.

Below is another shot of this curious seal checking me out.

Seals were getting personal today.

Now, I’ve been going down to Jenner almost everyday for about five years now and the seals mostly keep their distance, except for a couple times one has come up and put it’s nose on my paddle resting over the side of the kayak, but that’s a real rarity. But today……………sitting around in the water, a couple of them were coming in real close. One came up to my paddle and stayed awhile, then went under my boat and scratched the bottom of it a bit. It would come up right under my paddle, just about one foot from my  right elbow, not an easy place to get a picture of it, but I tried. This doesn’t happen much. When they do this, I’ve learned not to move, as if I scare them, they dive real abruptly getting me all wet. Several other seals came real close today, but not as close as this one. Maybe they are starting to get used to me after five years?

Below you can see the seal just under my paddle and right next to me. It seemed relaxed and not afraid of me.

Headed in just before dark.

Around eight PM, I headed back to the visitor’s center launch area and took my boat out and went home.

Below, you can see my view of the visitor’s center at Jenner in the fog as I was headed back to the take out, just before dark.

An interesting day with the seals.

Had a nice day.