Last summer, my wife Edie and I visited Prince Edward Island (PEI) for the second year in a row. The island abounds with great adventures, including easy hiking and marvelous bird watching for active seniors.

We love to go kayaking, especially on the unspoiled reservoirs near our Vermont home. But though the sea really calls to us, we had never tried sea kayaking before. Rather than attempt our first sojourn on the sea by ourselves, we decided to sign up for a guided sea kayak tour, paddling Prince Edward Island and Rustico Bay in a kayak built for two . This turned out to be an excellent decision, one we would recommend to anyone looking to “push their own envelope.”

On a foggy June morning we set out from the vacation cottage we rent in North Lake on the eastern tip of the island, bound for Rustico Bay, a scenic, two-hour drive to the west. There, we would embark on our first-ever sea kayak adventure. As already noted, we’re accustomed to freshwater kayaking, but this promised to be different, and exciting!

Fortunately the fog cleared as we drove and we enjoyed the great views that make PEI such a treat. We particularly enjoyed seeing a red fox trit-trotting along the side of the road with a half-grown hare in its mouth (probably for a den of hungry kits).

We arrived at Rustico Bay a bit after 10am and soon located Outside Expeditions, where we were cordially greeted by owner and expert kayaker Tim Nicholls, who proved to be friendly, helpful, extremely knowledgeable and very, very patient dealing with older, first-time sea kayakers. After giving us a brief tour of his establishment he took us out on a deck overlooking the bay and harbor.

Here we were confronted by a plank, as in “he was made to walk the plank.” Gadzooks, evidently piracy is still practiced in these waters! Tim proved to be a merciful pirate, however, and we were not made to walk, but were treated instead to the magnificent view. This is very much a working fishing harbor, and Tim pointed out the two lines of buoys that guide the fishing boats safely in and out of the harbor through a channel that avoids the shoals, which are too shallow even for kayaks. While we were talking, it was fun to watch the occasional fishing boat returning to unload its catch at one of the various fish houses lining much of the distant shore. The view across the harbor, with the blue water sparkling in the sunshine, made us eager to get paddling.

Tim next fitted us to life jackets—or, excuse me—”Personal Floatation Devices” (don’t want to sound like amateurs . . . ) Then he took us to our two-person (—or, excuse me—”Tandem”) kayak. This was certainly a new experience for us: the l-o-n-g, slender profile gave it a far sleeker look than the much stubbier one-person craft we are accustomed to.

Tim proceeded to carefully instruct us in the proper  use of this unfamiliar craft. The key difference between our one-person kayaks and this longer craft is that ours are steered with the paddles, while this sea kayak has a rudder controlled by the feet of the stern paddler.

During our many years of canoeing, Edie was always the bow paddler, while I was the stern paddler, so it naturally fell to me to take the stern cockpit. There is a pedal on each side, forward of the stern cockpit. To turn right, push on the right pedal; to turn left, push the left pedal; to go straight, keep the pedals even. That sounded simple enough, even for me, but in practice it turned out to be considerably  trickier. But also necessary: we soon discovered that it’s very difficult (almost impossible) to steer a kayak this long in wind and tidal currents without the rudder!

Tim guided us toward the far side of Rustico Bay, keeping to the shore side of the buoys marking the channel. This made perfect sense because, for reasons of both safety for us and courtesy to the fishing boats, we didn’t want to obstruct the channel in any way.

The tide was going out, and we were paddling against the strong current. That slowed our progress quite a bit, and part of the time Tim hooked onto our bow with a rope and added his considerable paddling strength to help pull us along. We really appreciated the help. It was great fun to pass near the various buoys and see the tidal current flowing outward past them, while we fought the current as we moved at what at times seemed a glacial pace in the opposite direction.

While paddling across the harbor, we were treated to the sight of an osprey flying over the bay. We also saw a mature bald eagle, very high up in the sky and quite far away. Despite the distance, we could tell that it was an eagle because every now and then either its snow white head or white tail would flash in the sun. This was just the icing on the cake of a spectacularly beautiful scene!

When we reached the fishing boat docks, we cruised alongside, enjoying our view of the fish houses where the fishermen sold their daily catch. Tim also pointed out an osprey nest with one chick clearly visible. The parents were undoubtedly out fishing (probably the osprey we had seen a few minutes earlier was one of the parents). The nest, incidentally, was on a platform that had thoughtfully been erected for the use of ospreys. The scenery and wildlife were right up our alley, and we were thoroughly enjoying our time in the kayak.

The trip back was easier, too, because we were going with the tide; if you’re going to give this a try, you may want to pay attention to the tide charts so that when you’re tired on the way back, you aren’t fighting a tide that’s going the wrong way. We enjoyed watching the passage of fishing boats every now and then. Whenever we  were close to the line of buoys, the boats passed very close to us.

Soon we were back ashore, saying goodbye to Tim Nicolls, with thanks for all his advice and help. We departed with the satisfaction of undertaking a new adventure and learning a bit of a new skill in the process.

Outside Expeditions has kayak tours of various lengths and degrees of difficulty. We wisely chose the Beginner’s Bay Kayak Tour, which takes approximately 1-1/2  hours; if you don’t have a lot of experience as a kayaker, we’d highly recommend you start here. However, there is also the Harbor Passage Tour, which takes three hours and goes into the open ocean to view some of the cliffs and coves of Prince Edward Island National Park, with a break and “healthy snack” halfway through. In addition, there is a two-hour abbreviated evening version of this tour, which also gets out to the cliffs, sans the snack (bring your own!).

To contact Outside Expeditions for prices, additional information, or to make reservations, call 1-800-207-3899, e-mail adventure@getoutside.com, or go to www.getoutside.com.