Narrows and Salmon Beach

Today I got up early to join Mike, Ted and Holly to catch the maximum ebb (predicted at 4.3 knots) flowing through the Narrows. It can stir up some nice rips and boils around Point Defiance, and standing waves when the wind is opposing the current. There isn't much wind today though. We launch from Owen Beach and paddle south toward Salmon Beach, spending some time paddling into the current and around back through the eddy. I learn that in Misterie you don't want to be caught floating backward in the current because she is impossible to turn around. 

It's a pretty shoreline -- sandstone cliffs, bald eagles, and lots of kelp. Halfway to Salmon Beach we spot an empty Bayliner adrift. I knew I should have brought my new Northwater towrope! Mike and Ted paddle up close to investigate. Not too long afterwards a little motor boat drives by to pick it up. We reach Salmon Beach and admire the famous mermaid sculpture. Later the motorboat and Bayliner drive by and stop at one of the floats. On closer inspection a window is smashed. I ask the guy tying it up if the boat is his and he says no. Apparently residents of Salmon Beach are always on the lookout for things drifting by in the water and race to pick them up.  Always bring your towrope -- if I had I could have scored myself a slightly beat up Bayliner!