I wanted to get into shape for my upcoming paddle around Isla Angel de la Guarda in the Sea of Cortez, so I scheduled a couple practice paddles. None of the other people scheduled to join me in Baja were ever able to do these paddles, but I decided I had to do at least one for myself.
A bunch of people I knew were paddling out to the end of the Estero de Americano and I hit on the idea of meeting them. I looked on the map and backed up 15 kilometers along the coast. Doing this distance round trip would be equal to a typical day on the Sea of Cortez next month.
15 Kilometers north of the mouth of the Estero put me on Salmon Creek Beach. I launched there early in the morning so I would have time to travel a longer distance and met everyone else paddling out the Estero. I timed the waves and made a good launch on this dumpy beach. I was paddling my Necky Narpa, the same boat I would be using in Baja, and had a swing-down skeg on it which was up during the launch to protect it. When I dropped it down, it stuck there and I discovered that I had run the cord for it incorrectly. I paddled over to some fishermen and asked them to re-string the cord for me, which they happily did for me.
I made good time and arrived at the mouth of the Estero at 10:30. I performed a good landing by surfing close to shore on a wave and then side-surfing up onto the sand. Nobody else had come down the Estero yet and as I found out later they didn't even get started until 10:30! So I had time to change into dry clothes, pull my boat up above the high tide line, explore the beach, get bored, consider leaving without seeing them, and start eating my lunch in preparation. They finally showed up close to 1:00 in the afternoon.
I was concerned about the afternoon wind coming up and anxious to leave. If the wind had come up strong I could have paddled out with the Estero group and gotten someone to drive me back to my car. The wind had been mild all day and had not whipped up whitecaps by 2:00 PM so I decided to launch and head back. I did another good job of reading the waves and paddled back out to sea with no problems. I paddled hard to get back before the wind really cam up and made it back to Salmon Creek in good time. My GPS says that my average speed was 3.5 miles/hour!
When I got to Salmon Creek Beach I set up to make a surf landing through waves that looked larger than I recalled from the launch. I timed it poorly and was rolled over once but came right back up. Once I was wet I lost all fear of the water and went back out and in again a few times just for the fun of it. In the process I got pitch-poled over and had to roll up one more time again.
I knew that the BASK crowd at the Estero beach would take their time getting ready and their time paddling back to the put-in. So I had high hopes that I could paddle twice their distance, on the ocean and into the wind, and still have time to drive back to meet them for drinks and dinner at Denucii's Restaurant in Valley Ford near the Estero put-in. Unfortunately they beat me to the restaurant by half an hour or more which was not nearly as impressive as if I had been waiting for them.