We're committed to your safety.
As expedition wilderness guides, the safety of our customers and staff is our highest priority including from microbiological concerns.
The good news is that sea kayaking is inherently much easier to adapt to covid-19 than many activities, in light of new regulations from the state of WA and the CDC, as well as our own reading of the scientific literature we are implementing some changes.
Covid-19 Symptoms
We are screening ourselves daily to make sure we don't have symptoms of Covid-19.
If you as a customer develop any of the Covid-19 symptoms in the 14 days prior to your trip let us know, and we will refund or rebook you. The symptoms are: Cough, Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, Fever, Chills, Muscle pain, Sore throat, New loss of taste or smell.
Small group size and number of households
As required by the state of Washington, during phase 1 tours may only consist of a single household and be up to 8 people. During phase 2 (estimated to begin June 1st, and possibly sooner in Thurston County).
New policy for solo sea kayaks
Traditionally, we have put all customers into our high quality, ruddered, tandem sea kayaks. We do this because we take our customers where the wildlife (and biolume) are, including sometimes into more exposed and potentially rougher areas than many less experienced kayakers would seek out on their own. However with new restrictions of limiting participants in each kayak to being from the same household, this restricts us to only accepting even numbered parties with no opportunity for solo kayakers to participate including in phase 2 and beyond. We are now allowing folks to use some of our limited number of solo sea kayaks on a case by case basis depending on the route of the tour, predicted weather conditions, physical conditioning and experience of the paddler. If you'd like to be considered to use a solo kayak please call us at (360) 453-7135 . Please also note that there may be weather and "sea state" conditions that are appropriate for folks in tandems, but not for individuals in solos, where we would need to cancel the reservations of individuals in solos (who would be refunded) but not those in tandems. As well as we are using high quality sea kayaks which are preferred by experienced kayakers (ie "guide boats") and are narrower than entry levels "recreational kayaks".
Social distancing and masks
Generally speaking we will maintain a minimum distance of 6' between all participants and staff which is slightly less than one full paddles length of distance. When tasks require getting closer, for example when adjusting foot pegs, or "rafting up" all staff and all customers must cover or mask up over their mouth and nose. These can be as simple as a bandanna or scarf, or a mask. One benefit to bandannas is they can be worn low around the neck and quickly pulled into place. Note that N95 style masks are ruined if they become wet, unless specially treated, and are overkill for our activity and needed by frontline health workers. Soon we will have cloth masks lined with silk available for sale. Potential customers who are unwilling to wear masks when coming into close contact with staff or customers from other households are wished well, but asked to take their business elsewhere during the pandemic.
Cleaning of materials
Materials the customer comes in contact with such as the lifejacket, sprayskirts, and the boats themselves will be cleaned in accordance with CDC guidelines and United States Coast Guard best practices.
General info and perspective
The good news is that sea kayaking and other outdoor activities are inherently safer regarding Covid, indeed recent research from Japan indicates Covid-19 is 18.7X less likely to spread in outdoor environments than indoor ones. Other researchers report a similar pattern of the overwhelming amount of transmission occurring only in indoor spaces. We hope this page makes clear that we are taking the challenges and concerns posed by Covid seriously. We will do everything in our power to mitigate and minimize and risk of Covid-19 and have an excellent safety record, but folks in high risk categories are advised to speak with their doctors about participating in tourism activities.