A few large swell humped under me. I rationalized that these were rising over the shallows near the jetty but they kept up all day long. The wind also became stronger all day until it must have been over 20 knots. No problem, it is going my way! Well if I wasn’t paying attention the big swell would break into spilling whitecaps over my shoulder and surprise me. It was rough enough that I didn’t feel like taking my break every hour. Stopping chilled me down right away; I should have put on an extra layer of fleece before launching. Stopping to eat lunch was a hassle. I turned the kayak into the wind and opened food items one at a time between waves. Sometimes it took waiting out several waves to get organized to eat one item and I often had to stop and turn the kayak back into the wind.
The wind and waves did push me along at almost five miles an hour so the day wasn’t really as long as it seemed. For fear of the dumpers close to shore I ended up spending the day far from the beach and approached the outer end of Gregory Point just past the Coos Bay Jetty. I worked my way between the reefs to get pictures of the lighthouse. There is a bridge out to the lighthouse and I went under that from the south. I had wanted to go under this from the north, but didn’t want to risk the surf coming from that direction.
As I worked my way through reefs and behind Squaw Island the water became calmer and calmer. By the time I turned into Sunset Bay the wind and water became dead calm. Kids splashed in the water and people in inflatable kayaks puttered around. I felt way over-dressed. I used the bathroom, got out my cell phone to leave a message for Dave Harry and ate my lunch sitting on a warm sunny beach. I put all my excessive gear back on and started out Sunset Bay. Soon I was appropriately dressed again and bracing over the occasional eight foot spilling wave. I hope none of those inflatable kayaks tried to follow me out.
Just a mile or so south was the Simpson Reef. I headed directly into the middle of this hoping to duck through and get into protected water behind it. As I entered the reef I noticed that every horizontal shelf was covered with Steller sea lions and harbor seals. I found a rough passage between some rocks that allowed me to go through without spooking the bulk of the hauled out marine mammals. It turns out there are a couple scenic lookouts along the coast here with dozens of people looking out at the seals. I hope they noticed and appreciated that I tried to avoid spooking the seals. On a beach during this trip I did run into someone who asked “Are you one of those two kayakers that were yelled at by the ranger at Sea Lion Caves last year?” Yikes! They remember me!
As I hoped it was calm inside the reef, which was much more extensive than I had thought. I started to go around Cape Arago to South Cove where I was planning to spend the evening. But I noticed that the north-facing North Cove was dead calm behind the protection of the reef. I had ignored this beach during my planning because I figured it was pounded by the northwest swell. Landing to look around I found something I craved: a patch of gravel beach! This beach stank from kelp washed up nearby, it faced into the wind from the northwest, it was going to be rocky at low tide in the morning, the gravel wasn’t level and required some engineering to camp on. But I wouldn’t have to camp on sand! Also this beach looked more secluded than the popular South Cove on the other side of the point.
A few people did come down to North Cove in the afternoon. I followed the trail back up to the scenic loop and looked down at Middle Cove and South Cove. Both were beautiful and would have been great places to camp, and were probably protected from the wind. But I was happy with my gravel.
As I walked down and up the long beach around North Cove, I spied something colorful washed up on the sand. A flash memory camera card. Despite being a little faded from abuse it looked to be in good condition. The gold contacts on the end were clean and looked usable. When I returned home I put it in a card reader and found 16 pictures, the last of which was taken on July 14th, 5 days before I found it. Half of the pictures were of two kids playing bingo. Behind them was a bulletin board with notices about bingo benefits for several athletic events. Clues on the bulletin board allowed me to track down the bingo hall and talk to them. I sent them a print of one of the pictures with the caption “Do you know these kids?” and instructions on how to contact me. The rest of the pictures were of a guy in a dune buggy with two dogs on the Oregon Dunes. As of this writing I have not heard back from anyone yet about this manner.