Roger Lamb and I decided to make our Tuesday evening paddle a regular event and we met again at 4:30 PM behind Goat Rock. I got there a little early and jumped in the water to play. The waves were much calmer than a week ago and this promised that the rock gardening would be excellent. Unfortunately it also meant that the surf was too mild to get a good ride while I was waiting. I got one wild ride on a large wave close to shore and then one longer ride on a smaller wave. The sun was shining so I started practicing my rolls and getting wet while the weather still made this comfortable. Roger's car arrived and I started my stopwatch. It took him 12 minutes to carry his boat down to the water, get dressed in wetsuit, paddle-jacket, PFD, helmet, spray-skirt, and join me in the water. Many people complain that BASK trips are often slow to get on the water but Roger and I never take very long!
We paddled south and hugged the shore going behind every rock we could. This trip the limiting factor on where we could go turned out to be how deep the water was. We found ourselves looking at little sandy beaches from only a few meters away. I pointed out features of the Kortum Trail at the top of the cliff and got Roger interested in walking that trail one day soon. When we passed Shell Beach I congratulated Roger for paddling half of this trail all ready. Eventually we paddled the whole trail and then back again in one short evening paddle!
Wright's Beach is a long dumpy sandy beach with few offshore rocks to interest a rock gardener. But I asked Roger if he remembered the "Crack in the Hogback" and discovered that he has never been in this channel in the rocks. So we dashed past Wright's beach, detouring way out to sea to avoid scaring a group of seals on one of the few offshore rocks. The next point is Duncan's Point and the largest offshore rock here is called The Hogback. Through the middle of this rock there is a narrow channel that I call the Crack in the Hogback. Roger loved the narrow enclosed space with waves threatening to break even on this calm day. He agreed that this was the highlight of the trip.
We continued around the point and drifted close to the beach at Duncan's Landing just so we could say we had come this far, then turned back. We went through The Crack again and then headed straight back towards Goat Rock. I wanted to get back to the Arch at Goat Rock before sunset so we could watch the sun go down through the arch. But We didn't quite make it and had to stop and enjoy the sunset from farther south. After the last orange slice of sun disappeared at the horizon, we went through the arch by the light of dusk and paddled back for a calm landing behind Goat rock.