Not long after we arrived home from China, Maryly Snow suggested a paddle in the ocean. She wanted to paddle out to the Bodega Rocks, a trip you can do even if the ocean is pretty rough. As the weekend approached, however, the water calmed down. The swell was so low that I predicted that we would be able to go behind the rocks and close to the cliffs like I have only been able to do once before.
A group of people drove up from the Bay Area with Maryly and met me at Campbell Cove. We launched and paddled out of the jetty and I wanted to turn and go straight to Bodega Head. But this was Maryly’s trip and she wanted to go to Bodega Rocks first. We paddled out there and queued up to take the short-cut between the rocks and out to sea in front of the rocks. This is a trick you can only do on pretty calm days also.
We turned and headed towards Bodega Head. Here I lead a few people directly into the rocks in front of the cliffs. Not everyone was comfortable with this and a few went outside and around the rocks. Maryly followed close on my tail, a maneuver that worries me because she could follow me into a place that she might not be able to handle. I would carefully read the water and dodge sideways a few meters to avoid a shallow spot that I detected by seeing a dark patch of water. Maryly followed my average course and went right over this rock. When I pointed out to her that she was over a dangerous spot, she insisted that she was only following me. Wrong! She was not following my exact course and a few meters is the difference between the place where the next wave breaks and the place where it does not! Besides you cannot let someone else make these decisions for you. You must read the water yourself and pick the safe path yourself. A difference of only a few seconds can change this decision because that is enough time for a larger set of waves to come in and change the places that the waves break.
The water was a little rougher than the swell reports on the Internet would lead you to believe. So we were forced to exit the rock garden at a few places and turn back into it. Eventually we made it to the calm rock garden under the whale watch lookout. This was in fact calm enough that all the kayakers were able to paddle close to the cliffs.
I was paddling on the ocean again for the first time in over a month, and it felt wonderful! The water wasn’t flat but moved under us. We had to keep on the alert for the changing waves and conditions. I was in my Coaster which fit me like a glove and which I could hold onto securely with my hips, thighs and feet. My elbow was still giving me problems with tendentious, but if I used absolutely perfect form with my forward stroke there was no pain and I could paddle all I wanted. In fact, I paddled faster than every one else and pulled way ahead as we left Bodega Head and approached Horseshoe Cove. Here I passed on the oral tradition to a few new kayakers and told them about the politely requested “no kayak landing” rule in this cove. We paddled into the cove, pointed out landmarks, and paddled out without landing.
We decided to go look at the end of Salmon Creek Beach and see if we could land there. The waves were scary going around Mussel Point, but as we approached the beach I saw a very calm stretch along the rock all the way to the beach. Just stay in that and you will be OK. Of course I stayed much farther out and got a wild surf ride in for my landing. After being gone for a month and paddling in calm river water, this was exhilarating!
We all landed and sat down on the beach for lunch. After eating we queued up to launch back into the water. I told everyone that they should hug the water right next to the rocks leading out to Mussel Point. But almost everyone stayed a “safe” distance away and got blasted by breaking waves over their decks. Dave Littlejohn went way out from the rocks and had an incredibly wild time crawling over the breakers. However I think he was practicing a rough surf launching on purpose. I followed my own advice and was the only person to get off the beach without getting a face full of water. Then I turned back and surfed into the beach again, and again. In the process I did managed to get as wet as everyone else.
Once everyone was back out to sea for the last time, we turned wide of Mussel Point and took the direct route back to Bodega Bay. At Maryly’s insistence one group of kayakers went the long way around Bodega Rocks again. Several of us turned part way around the back side and waited for them. I went that way in the hopes of finding some surfing rides in the water breaking around the rocks. But the waves were calmer than before and the tide was lower. The only place I saw waves breaking was in the shallow water on the rocky shelf around the rock, where it was too shallow to take my boat. From here we all paddled back to a calm landing inside the jetty at Campbell Cove.