Interesting tidbits on little boats at the Baywood Navy site. Our friends down in the Morro Bay / Los Osos area have a saying that they "don't sail in water deeper than they can stand in." Even so, there's a dramatic little tale right on their opening page. It begins...

Near Tragedy on Back Bay

My son, Daughter-in-law and their two children aged 5and 3 wanted to go out for a paddle on September 20th.  As is usual for families with young children it took us a while to get ready and we hit the water at Coleman Park around noon.  We had done a car shuttle so that my Subaru with the trailer for the larger canoe was at 1st St. in Baywood Park and planned to paddle down the bay ending there.

They were in a 17 foot tandem canoe with a center seat.  I was paddling a 17 foot marathon canoe. It’s very narrow and fairly tippy, but I have a number of years of experience with it. As we left Coleman the wind was getting pretty brisk. We proceeded across the channel to the end of the sand spit and turned south.

We took a couple of hours letting the kids out to play on the sand several times.  When we were across from Baywood Point we headed across the bay.  By now the wind was around 20 mph. (Story continues here)