While many people spent Monday cleaning up after the storm and coping with power outages, some used the day to play.

Tom Murallo and his father Dave, both of Waterford, launched their kayaks into the swelled Connecticut River at the Great Island boat launch in Old Lyme Monday afternoon, relishing the chance to survey the storm damage from the water. His father planned to harness the tail end of the hurricane winds with a sail on his kayak, while Tom Murallo would paddle.

“We want to see how everything’s affected,” the younger Murallo said, as he buckled his life jacket, a GoPro video camera strapped around his chest.

A few yards offshore from the launch, the Great Island nature preserve was entirely submerged, just the tips of marsh grass poking out of the water.

“It’s weird,” Tom Murallo said. “You can almost paddle right across it.”

Off the town-owned White Sand Beach in Old Lyme, two parasurfers took advantage of the remnants of Hurricane Sandy to ride the choppy waters and stiff winds. On shore, town resident Jennifer Morgan was letting her two yellow labs, Diesel and Morgan, take a swim about 3 feet of water that had pooled on Seaside Lane and Howard Road. Morgan said both she and her dogs were eager to be outdoors after being cooped up most of the day on Monday. She ended up at White Sand after visiting Old Saybrook and a few Old Lyme beach communities to survey the damage.

“I was stupefied by what I saw,” she said.

j.benson@theday.com