Home sweet home! It's the last paddle of the bay! I was excited that after about a month of paddling, I was finally getting back to where I started. When I started I had no idea whether I would be able to finish because of all the storms that we had in January. I was prepared but it was quite an undertaking. Lucky for me, the good weather continued and we had beautiful sunshine for the last day.

On January 29th, 2017, I paddled with Suzie Lee, Carlo Maravilla, Ben Chiang, Amy Mosbey, Sean Mosbey and Gary Leong from Treasure Island to Mike's Paddle in Alameda. This was definitely an advanced paddle as well because for half of the way, we were paddling in the high traffic area leading to the Oakland shipping lanes. Although I checked that morning's ship log and no big ships were passing through, there's still a lot of current going between the Bay Bridge and the Rock Wall in Alameda.

We left early around 9 when it was still pretty cold outside. We paddled to the back side of Yerba Buena Island and hung out with the harbor seals for a little while. Then we headed towards the Oakland Estuary and encountered pretty strong flood. The eddy behind one of the buoys was about 20 feet long and you can clearly see the current spreading around the buoy. After we reached the safe harbor of the rock wall, everyone relaxed and we were able to explore the navy ships in Alameda. We took some pictures and then headed back to Mike's Paddle.

Hazards: Advanced paddlers only, boats, shipping lanes, wind and current.

Put-in: Treasure Island has a couple of places to put in. Clipper Cove is probably the easier put in because it's sheltered. The unfortunate thing is that the ramp next to The Winery SF is steep and slippery - definitely not a one person carry and put in operation. For this put in/take out, we would stage a person in the water and a person near shore to help a paddler get into the water. Group effort is needed! There's another place near the north end of the island which is under construction at the moment and will likely be for a while. You'll have to carry your board a ways and also go down a boat ramp with slippery seaweed. The north end is a perfect place to put in for downwinders going towards Emeryville/Berkeley/Richmond depending on which way the wind blows.

Take-out: Mike's Paddle in Alameda. The best SUP shop in the Bay Area!