Sea Kayak - Hammersley Inlet

We launched at 10:15am on this cold and cloudy morning. The tide was quite high, and there was very little beach at Walker Park when we arrived, but by the time we launched there was adequate beach to use. The outgoing tide was a bit stronger than anticipated and we made very good time out to Mill Creek. We turned into the creek, but were stopped after a couple of bends by a creek wide log fall. Lots of dead and rotting salmon in the creek. We stopped at 11:20am for a stretch break on the small beach at the east side of the creek entrance.
After our break, we continued to Cape Horn where we did a few eddyline crossings on the relatively mild eddyline. We then headed out to Hope Island where we had lunch at the day use area. As we pulled in for lunch at 12:30 the sun started to break out, and by the time we finished lunch it was completely sunny.
After lunch we headed out again at 1:30pm, deciding to go around the east side of Hope Island while we waited for the flood in Hammersley Inlet. Coming around the north end of the island and starting to cross to the entrance of the inlet, we had to wait for 15 minutes or so for a barge heading into Shelton. We crossed behind the barge, but it started to hold position just outside the inlet, presumably also waiting for the flood to start. As we were paddling from Arcadia Point toward Cape Cod, the barge started up again and passed in front of us at Cape Cod.
Heading back from Cape Cod, the current pushed us along nicely so we were doing 4.5-5 kt much of the time. The sun continued to shine and we made it back to the launch at 3:35pm.
Total distance: 14.2 nm
Moving speed: 3.8kt