Renick Woods Blog: Paddle to Port Orchard

One of the reasons I haven't been updating this as much is the warmer weather. I won't go as far to say it's been great but it's improving. Hopefully if it keeps up we should see summer by August. Last year I had been eyeing a route that I wanted to paddle. Shilshole to Port Orchard. Seemed easy enough, just long. My first attempt at this went not as planned at all. Winds that day didn't want to cooperate in any way, blowing from the south. I was basically paddling into a 15-20 knt head wind the whole time, and fighting a little current. I made it about half way and couldn't continue. Exhausted and frustrated I had to stop. This year I wanted to try it again. So I got my friend Sam to pilot a boat, grabbed everyone that wanted to go on the boat, and tried it once more. This time things went as planned with no winds on the way there and sunny skies. Dolphins swam by in the shipping lane, seals everywhere, friends and my wife encouraging me to hold pace, it was great. Held a 4.5 average pace. Hit around 5.5 in some spots. Got to PO in about 3hrs 15 min(give or take a few). On the way back the winds picked up and we were able to drop sails and cut the engine. Couldn't have asked for a better day. Thanks to everyone who came along! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. Big thanks to Sam for getting the boat. Thanks to Taryn for taking the pics. And special thanks to my wife for all the support and belief in all of my paddling adventures.