For a bunch of little reasons Roger Lamb, Konstantin Gortinsky and I have been unable to get together for our “regular” Tuesday evening paddle this summer. Finally we found a date when we could get together for a paddle in the evening. Unfortunately, my kayak and other gear was at home and I had to dash back to get it before meeting the other two guys at Bodega Bay. When my truck was finally loaded I stared down Highway 116 to get to the coast. There were some flashing lights ahead, a mile long line of cars waiting, and a bunch of cops milling about on the road probably making things worse. I turned back and drove in to Monte Rio to take Moscow Road around the obstruction. CalTrans had been doing construction work on the Moscow Bridge where the road connects back up to Highway 116. Usually the bridge is open while they are working on it but this time they had closed the bridge for the evening without leaving a sign at the other end of the road. I had to turn back again and considered giving up. But when I got back to Monte Rio I turned right and drove down the Bohemian Highway to Occidental and took Coleman Valley Road up into the hills and back down to Highway One. I made it to Campbell Cove almost an hour late. Konstantin’s car was there, Roger’s was probably across the harbor at Doran Beach but no sign of any kayaks. Roger is notorious for refusing to wait for people when they are late, so they probably took off without me.
I suited up, launched, sprinted out the jetty and turned north to go around Bodega Head. I didn’t see any other boats on the water until I was almost to Mussel Point, the northern end of Bodega Head just before the start of Salmon Creek Beach. The other two guys had paddled around to the beach and checked out the conditions for surfing. They said that it did not look good for kayak surfing this day. So I turned around to follow them and paddled back at a more leisurely pace. There is a point on Bodega Head where people hang out at the cliff-top to watch whales go by. Below this point is a little rock garden that we are often able to play. Roger and Konstantin related to me how Roger had been surfed up onto a low rock and scratched up his hull on the way out. At first he thought it was just a scratch but his boat was taking on a little water. We had Roger roll his boat over so we could take a look and found some bad cracks in the hull. The rock had punctured the fiberglass in little triangular tabs that had sprung back into place. At the edges of the tabs the frayed edges of the glass fiber were overlapping and keeping most of the water out. Roger had a bit of repair work to do on his boat again.