Power Island: Happy Birthday Karen Mueller!
We were twelve in total and more than half of our group were TAPC board members. Our president Steve Somers, outings chair Lois Goldstein and Webmaster John Heiam, Secretary Karen Mueller, Membership Chair Jocelyn Trepte and Director at large Maxi Neugebauer. Other fellow paddlers were Bert Courson, Jeff Gwillim, potential new members Lori and Rick Heys, and our former president Marv Puska and his lovely queen Marlene.
We could not have asked for a better day for this crossing. The Bowers Harbor Boat Launch was not yet busy when we met in the morning, and we could leisurely get our boats prepared and ready. Before our launch we gathered to receive John’s instructions: “to head toward Neah-ta-wanta Point and from there to cross over to Power Island. Everyone will keep within talking distance while we are crossing over, to assure that power boats and jet skis will see us as a group”. A few of us were a bit delayed with drop down rudders and spray skirts, and John taking photos when we noticed the rest of the group was way ahead of us and heading directly for Power Island.
This was an experienced group of paddlers except for Karen and me; we were the newbies even though we received the “Most Improved Paddler” awards last year. It was my first open water paddle, and we had good sized waves which required some strong paddling for a long stretch. Thanks to John and Jeff for slowing down periodically and letting us catch up.
The water was crystal clear and in the shallow areas it was turquoise like in the Caribbean. Once rounding Power Island we had the sea behind us and stopped at the sandy and sunny beach equipped with picnic tables. We all took a quick swim to cool off and get refreshed before lunch.
The paddle back was much faster as the waves pushed us along nicely. Upon arriving back at the boat launch we had to compete for space with the power boats on the ramp while we tried to carry our boats to the cars. The Blue Angels passed over the Island just as we were finishing our outing, and some of us stopped in town to catch the last half hour of their performance.
It was a glorious day on the sunny and shimmering water, reminding us how lucky we are to have such beauty all around us. Thank you all for making this day possible!
Maxi Neugebauer