We’d made arrangements put in at Marshall, early Sunday morning. It was overcast, calm and warm as we paddled out. We had the currents and tide with us so it was an easy time of it. In the beginning that is.

Driving up to Hog Island Oyster Farm we’d passed this coastline many times. This part of Tomales Bay has a quiet, sort of haunted quality to it. It’s still a vibrant area, but quiet and not accustom to paving over history as much as letting the sea do the work of dismantling the abandoned.

The water was clear and shallow, filled with baseball size jellyfish. We could tell we were being trailed by harbor seals but rarely saw them. It seemed to be their MO for one to swim ahead of us and watch from a distance and other’s to follow in our blind spot directly behind us. We could hear the noise of them clearing their nostrils as surfaced, but other than that they were pretty sneaky.

We shot down the middle and started come up on the oyster strings.

Oyster spawn drifting in cages in the tides.

It was an easy paddle out but on the way back the wind had picked up and the tide was against us. We’re row for a good fifteen minutes and we'd bascially be in the same place. The only way to avoid dumping was to paddle in a zig-zag pattern but it meant covering less ground.

By the time we beached at Marshall we were both exhausted. But that was the tip of the iceberg.