The shore of San Diego here looks interesting with sandstone cliffs dropping into the water. I saw a few caves and considered taking the time to explore them. But I had another long day and resisted. Then a breeze came up from the south and had me worried that bad weather could slow me down. The breeze brought a thick fog with it and socked me in with very limited visibility. I worked hard in the fog and made good time despite the breeze.
The fog completely disappeared as I approached the end of Point Loma and I got some pictures of the lighthouses there on a sunny day. As I was drifting around the end of the point the fog came back as thick as ever. I was left with a vague memory of seeing some structures across the outer bay, perhaps an oil drill platform? Or maybe a super-tanker heading in the deep water channel? I could not head straight towards my goal to the south because that would involve slowly crossing the channel at an angle with no visibility! I hugged the shore around the point and started directly across the channel at a narrow place. I could hear a fog horn blowing and figured it was on a jetty ½ mile on the other side. I depended on my hearing to head for the fog horn and detect other boats around me, but there was a naval air station just inside the harbor. Jet airplanes would take off every five minutes and mask all other noises. Then there was this other INCREDIBLY LOUD NOISE, a roar like a rocket taking off. The sound seemed to fill up the whole sky. It would get louder and louder, build to a crescendo then sputter out. It was so loud I heard it 10 miles away later in the day. What could it be? A JATO rocket assist helping a heavy airplane take off?
About the time I expected to see the jetty I found a green channel marker buoy in the fog. I paddled over and hid behind its radar reflector to rest for a minute. From there I could just make out a red channel marker buoy 300 yards away in the right direction. I sprinted across to hide behind that buoy. From there I could just make out a pile of rocks, perhaps this was the end of the jetty? When I dodged across to this I found it was just a small pile of rocks with the fog horn I had been heading towards. It also had a sign that said "Danger, submerged jetty". I looked carefully at my map and discovered I had miss-read it. What I thought was a jetty was actually the deep water channel, but I had just crossed it between the marker buoys. I watched a yacht appear out of the fog, motor past my pile of rocks and disappear into the fog again. They were probably navigating by the radar reflectors. I wonder what the heck they thought I was doing out there! Since I was across the deep water channel I felt safe turning south after going east a little wile longer. Then I headed straight towards my destination, a GPS way-point on the Mexican border near shore.
The breeze died down and the fog slowly lifted until I could see some strange structures ahead. One looked like some sort of floating dry dock named "Mighty Servant 1". This was the chopped off stern of a freighter with a long low platform attached. The other structure was the naval ship "Watkins" which I first thought was a floating drydock, but then changed my mind. Instead of a channel for boats to enter, it had some strange folding ramps on the stern and both sides. Each big ship had two tugboats anchored near them. One was from San Francisco, what is it doing down here in San Diego? I continued south and stopped for lunch a mile offshore within sight of the motel where I would be spending the evening. It was hard to pass it by and keep going. But my goal was less than four miles away.
As I approached the border I recognized the road that runs down the coastline in Tijuana, so I knew I was looking at Mexican territory! But then the south breeze and the thick fog came back. I had seen the US Border Patrol driving trucks on the beach and flying helicopters over the land. I figured on stopping on my side of the border so I would not give them an excuse to hassle me. But in thick fog with 100 yard visibility I decided they would never know what I was doing. I followed my GPS to a way-point I had placed I had placed ¼ mile offshore on the border. I watched the numbers go down to zero, then reverse. I HAVE NOW PADDLED EVERY INCH OF THE CALIFORNIA COASTLINE FROM OREGON TO MEXICO!
I took some pictures of the circle of water around me in the fog. I still could not see the black border line on the water that is shown on all the maps. I could not see the shore but I could hear traffic in Tijuana and I heard voices singing in Spanish (probably radios blaring). Time to turn back.
The trip back to my motel seemed much shorter than the last 4 miles south. On the way I ran into two kids in a little sailboat. They had been caught by the fog, sailed back almost within site of land and were afraid to go in through the surf. Surf always looks a LOT bigger in the fog. They also wondered if they were in Mexico! My GPS confirmed that they were about where they wanted to be, ¾ mile south of the Imperial Beach Pier. Later I send a lifeguard down to check up on them. When I got close to my motel I came in for the best surf landing of the trip. I had started wondering if this kayak was capable of surfing without pearling nose down into the water. I wondered if the smartest thing to do was always broach it on a surf landing However, this time it actually surfed straight in for a nice landing and a nice end of The Quest.
That evening and the next morning I took the kayak apart and packed everything away in three duffel bags. I had originally planed to paddle 12 miles up the Jan Diego harbor, take my boat apart and pack all the gear at the municipal boat ramp, and roll everything to the Amtrak train station. But I decided to go easy on myself and get a shuttle van to take me to the train. This 12 mile trip actually cost me more than my train ticket all the way back to Santa Barbara! The baggage people at Amtrak were not as hard nosed as I feared about so many pieces of very heavy luggage. And they let me get on the 12:00 noon train instead of the 4:00 PM train that I had a ticket for. When I got to Santa Barbara I took out the folding wheels and strapped two of the duffel bags to them with a paddle sticking out for a handle. With the third bag on my back I was easily able to roll the gear the six blocks back to my car at the boat ramp. The shuttle had worked and I was ready to start the drive home!