Technically speaking, the harbor is located in El Granada, a village that sits about 5 miles away from the coastal city of Half Moon Bay. Arriving there at around 10:20 am on Saturday, I had no problem finding parking in the C lot. In fact, there were plenty of spaces to go about, and unless there is some big event going on, you’d definitely be able to find a space for your car. I chose to park in a space just across the street from the Half Moon Bay Kayak Co. (HMBKC), as there is a beach next to the rental shack that you can easily carry your board over and launch directly from there. I wouldn’t worry about tides and currents at this location if you’d only be paddling inside the harbor without any plan of venturing outside in the ocean.
Even in low tide, the beach is easy to launch from, as it’s hard (baked) mud that you’d be stepping on. Your feet won’t sink into the mud here at this beach.
When I launched my SUP, a man was just coming back from his fishing kayak. Throughout my paddle, I’d see fishermen and fisherwomen on the piers, on the breakwaters, on the beach, and on kayaks. Having learned from my prior experience paddling in the bay, I always tried to make a big loop and stayed as far away from them as possible, or else I’d run into their fishing lines and have my name cursed at for the rest of the day =)
Oops! It seems like this post isn't published yet. Stay tuned for updates!There are lots of shorebirds here, with brown pelicans dominating them all, but there are also western gulls and elegant terns to a lesser extent. I first caught sight of them as soon as I left the beach next to HMBKC, where they were in the water, and on the inner breakwater of the harbor. Paddling just a bit further and I soon went outside the inner breakwaters to enter the outer harbor. It was a tad more windy out here, but nothing compared to the open bay or other unprotected paddles that I had been to. From here, I headed to the north shore and the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club, where a couple of women were sitting out by the waters and enjoying their drinks. Then I noticed a raft of sea lions and harbor seals not too far from shore.
There must have been some 8-10 of them on the float. I paddled around them, while also keeping some distance away. It was a good thing that I charged the battery to my Powershot SX40 HS this time around, so I took it out from my Pelican box, zoomed in from afar, and took a few shot as best I could. Taking pictures from a paddle board was definitely not as easy as that when done on firm ground, for I was subjected to the board bouncing and spinning around due to wind and waves. I would compose, snapped a shot or two, then paddled again to re-position my board so as to be able to get a good look. I left after some 5-10 minutes though, reminding myself to come back later in my paddle for they seemed not too active at the moment. Perhaps it was still too early for them….
I paddled toward the western side of the outer harbor, and a heavy layer of fog was blanketing my view toward the inner harbor. I was happily composing and taking pictures of ships entering and leaving the harbor when a sea otter surfaced its head some 10 ft away from my paddle board. Now, I had read elsewhere that some sea otters would jump on people’s kayaks and made themselves at home. Not wanting to be in that situation, I paddled as hard as I could, trying to get away from the sea otter as fast as possible. But the little guy (or gal?) just went after me and my board…. holy crap, gotta try harder Nguyen, next time you’d need to eat 4 bananas for breakfast and not just 2 like you did earlier to day… I was putting in my 100% effort for a full 15 seconds, then looked back to check on the otter, and it was no where to be seen. Just to be safe, I continued paddling away from where I last saw him, making sure that he was not underwater and right beside my board, ready to jump up at any moment. Luckily that was not the case, and I was able to have my board to myself for the rest of the day.
Then I came to an abandoned tugboat from the WW2 era in the harbor. The background story was that it had been in such bad condition for a while, and its owners requested the harbor master to take shelter from a storm sometime back. But then the owners never made repairs to the boat, and its condition deteriorated so much that it sank while floating away from its original docking space. I think the harbor association is trying to sue the owners for reparation costs, but I’m not sure if that is going anywhere. For a full story about the boat, you can read it from this link here.
Since I wanted to do a full loop of the harbor, I continued along the outer breakwaters toward the mouth of the harbor (southern side), then closing the loop near the inner breakwaters. Everywhere I paddled, pelicans were there. Oh, and by the way, this harbor smells like fish [sauce], and I meant it in a very endearing way =) I love nước mắm (fish sauce), and the strong smell here just reminded me of this, more than any other harbors could. I wasn’t sure if this is due to the many shorebirds, and thus the overwhelming number of fish they hunted to sustain themselves, so that these fish meal gave up such smell [aroma] for paddlers like me to take in?
More kayakers and paddle boarders now joined me in the outer harbor, and since it was already around 1pm, I decided to head out to the sea lions one more time to take a few more pictures, then I’d call it a day. Well, when I got there, they were growling continuously… may be it was due to the multiple kayakers and paddle boarders encircling them? I stayed afar to snap a few more photos, then turned around and headed back. When it was all over, I had covered around 5+ miles, and since that was not much exercise for the day, I opted to check out the nearby JV Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. You can technically get there by paddling outside the harbor and go north, and the reserve is some 3-4 miles away from here. But I chose to drive instead =P
I hiked the Bluff Trail at the JV Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, which gives really good views of the ocean and tide pools from afar, when there are sufficiently low tides.There were two highlights of this trail, the first is a cypress-lined path, and the second is a haul out of sea lions near the parking lot. I also saw many visitors venturing out into the tide pools themselves (there’s a short path from the parking lot leading to the beach), but I thought there wasn’t much to be seen at the moment. This is definitely a good side trip from Half Moon Bay that you can take, and the trail is short and full of nice views for you to take in. It is highly recommended from me =D
