Posted on May 18, 2019

Jim insisted that I would try his Valley Gemini and since I am a Valley fan I was glad to leave my Aries in Tracy and try his boat. The Gemini is quite a bit shorter and beamier and would be a great boat to surf Tomales Bay.

The group met up at Millerton, then parked a few vehicles at Nick's cove, our destination for the day, so that we would have a way to shuttle back to the launch site.

Millerton to Nick's Cove is about 10 miles, perhaps a bit more when criss crossing the bay.

Weather was awful as predicted which made us terribly happy. There were a bunch of old salts in the group, folks who knew what they were doing, many of them BASK members.

We launched but most unfortunately the storm didn't hit quite as hard as anticipated. While we had a fast downwind paddle we surfed swells only once in a while and not for the entire run as we had hoped.

The Gemini performed very well. Another strong boat by Valley, I thought. Later that day Jim and I switched so that I could also test his Romany. The Romany is a sweet looking kayak but for some reason the seat didn't quite work for me. I think I would need to paddle it for a while to get used to it. The Gemini, in contrast, was comfortable from the minute I climbed in.

The fastest paddler was the only lady in our group, Carla (?) in her NDK Pilgrim. Super impressive.

Hanging out with Jim & gang was a blast. It was proven once again, there is no such thing as bad weather.

After the paddle Jim invited me to the Hog Island Oyster Company where we finished the day with beers and a few great bites. Everything tastes better after a good paddle through conditions.