About an hour’s drive south of our home is the famous town of Monterey, California. People go there for the scuba diving, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, great shops and restaurants, and to breathe in the history and mystique of one of John Steinbeck’s favorite haunts.

But today, we went there to go kayaking. Regular readers of this blog may remember a similar trip back in 2014 (you can review it HERE). Today was similar, but also different. For one thing, the weather was downright crisp for June, hovering at 60F or so with an incipient fog.

For this day-trip, Howie and Ralph stayed at home. We took the family flivver, a 2007 Volvo V50, and stuffed Bote into it for the outing. Bote is very friendly at this sort of thing, since our “kayak pack” consists of a bunch of fairly small pieces. The assortment looked like this when we dumped it out in the Marina parking lot: paddles, goodie bag, seats, floor, boat. The electric pump is still hiding in the car.

After 20 minutes of fiddling around (15 when we’ve done it recently), all the stuff comes together into our Sea Eagle Fasttrack 385 kayak (“Bote”) – – –

– – – which tilts the scales at about 35 pounds, and can easily be toted by the two of us down to the water’s edge. In this case it was the boat-launch dock at the Monterey Harbor, just southeast of the breakwater at what’s called the Coast Guard Pier. The two red stars show where we parked and where we launched.

We like this location for several reasons. The parking is easy and cheap at $10/day, and there’s no big sandy climb to get to the water. The launch is situated in between Cannery Row and the big boat marina/harbor, both of which offer great sight-seeing.

We buttered up with sunscreen, then ended up putting on our windbreakers against the chilly 10-knot wind, and off we went. Our first leg was out along the breakwater.

The breakwater is a year-round home to hundreds of seals and sea lions, plus an accompanying assortment of sea birds. I was having a terrifyingly good time with my new 800mm zoom lens, getting better wildlife shots than ever in my life, and petrified that I might drop the expensive toy overboard.

This guy was a full-grown monster, maybe eight feet long and over 600 pounds. He had some burr under his saddle, and was endlessly swimming back and forth, making loud boisterous barks. He didn’t seem mad or territorial – – we couldn’t figure out what he was being so noisy about.

Most of his friends were just happy to sun themselves, like Mr. 492A here. Hell of a tattoo buddy.

And a precariously-curled-up youngster – – was this the only rock the big bullies would let him have?

Watching the seals move around and live their lives occupied many minutes of our time. One of the most amusing aspects of pinniped life is their total disregard for “personal space” when they’re hauled out. They will literally walk all over each other in a search for a comfy resting spot among the rocks (if such a thing exists). The walker never pauses or excuses himself, and the walked-on utters barely an audible complaint, if any. Bearing in mind that these are 300-600 pound animals, the patience and tolerance are remarkable. Here’s a typical sight – – the wet (shiny) one is looking for a sunning spot, trucking directly over the dry (beige) one in his resting place.

The seabirds flitted back and forth, living among the giant mammals but seemingly oblivious. Big populations of gulls, cormorants, and pelicans roam the rocks, making roosts and nests as their nature dictates.

As we neared the outer end of the breakwater, the ocean pounced on us. Seas were coming in from the northeast, and the swells were about three feet. That’s not much in a boat, but it’s pretty impressive in a kayak with 6″ of freeboard. We had to paddle directly into the waves to avoid taking on water. This heading took us away from Cannery Row, until we got a little ways out from the “point break”. When the peaks settled back to two feet or less, we could steer more toward the shoreline.

Dang, right away the seas started get big again, plus we were paddling almost directly upwind. It was starting to be more work than play, so we reversed course to try to have some fun in calmer waters. That was a good decision, for no sooner did we turn southeast than we ran into some mother otters with their pups.

Now, otters are some of the cutest animals in the kingdom, without argument – – but their pups will pluck, take, and break your heart-strings. Little furry, whiskered, pug-nose creatures, trustingly splayed out on Mom’s belly while she anchors to some bull kelp fronds. Magical stuff, and a great opportunity to show off my new lens.

Getting back to the harbor through the now-following seas was pretty easy, and we rounded the breakwater and set ourselves about a self-tour of the harbor area. There’s always so much to see among the boating folks’ prizes, from the creative names to the vast diversity of watercraft. The Monterey Harbor is a large and popular place – – I’m going to guess there are several hundred ships/boats berthed there.

These range from down-and-dirty working boats (mostly for fishing), to the splendid whale-watching Princess Monterey (note the elongated snout) – – –

– – – to an eclectic collection, or (shall we say) bizarre entries into the sea-going craft category. I won’t bore you with pix of tidy-looking sailboats and motor yachts; the following may be a little more interesting.

To the best of our knowledge and observation, these are not just floating pieces of oddment, but actually lived-on, in-use boats in good repair. Yup, even the Chinese junk is not actually junk – – although it is arguably the junkiest looking one of the bunch.

All of this boating wonder-world is woven in among the wharves of Monterey. They are built up on big pilings that are spaced just far enough apart for our slender Bote to navigate under the wharves and piers. But the ropes, nails, and barnacles/mussels can be a bad thing for an inflatable, so we pick only the safest of passages to navigate through. The buildings atop the big Wharf are mostly restaurants, and we waved happily to many dining patrons who gazed curiously out at us from their white-linen tables.

We took one last pass along the endless rows of boats, before heading back to the pier.

Back at the parking lot, Bote deflates and packs up in about the same as setup time, 15-20 minutes or so. There’s another 20 minutes at home rinsing everything off and packing it back up into Howie. Not so much overhead for a really fun outing. All in all, a pretty nice way to spend a day.