In the early ninties I use to take the bus from work in downtown SF to where I was living, off of Park Blvd. in Oakland, just under Piedmont.  You ride high in a bus, and one evening -- summer of course -- I saw a guy down below, in the middle of the bay between Yerba Buena and SF, and not too far from the bridge, in a kayak.  I remember thinking at the time, just how cool that was.  Anyway, today I achieved a goal I've been contemplating for a while -- going from the east bay over to SF and back.  You can say I cheated, by bailing and finishing up at Middle Harbor Park, but the currents are a piece of work, freaky at times, and the first stretch, from Emeryville to Yerba Buena was all chop, swell and current.  I was beat.  Anyway, I'm ready for some easy kayaking.

On the return, south of Yerba Buena, the same seal that toyed with me last week, two plus miles away easy, surfaced again.  And again, he came up behind my kayak and made a big splash.  I was able to see the splash, but not him. Not more than ten feet back of my boat.  Gray Harbor Seal.  He surfaced to the west about 50 yards, way off.  I beat on my kayak like a drum to keep him going, but he didn't come back. 

No long after a guy on a big jet ski -- late fifties, big, tough, prosthetic left leg -- who came out from the Oakland Alameda Canal, circled around and stopped in front of me.  "What are you doing out here," were his first words.  Haveing fun, I said.   He told me he could catch 20 feet of air off of a ferry boat wake wave.  Said I could get a jet ski like his for 6-9 grand used.