We paddled about another mile or two past the bridge where you made your turn around. We hauled out in an area of tall grass and had lunch and lazed around for 45 minutes or so before we decided to turn back. The channel was deep and it seemed we could go much further. At one point a great blue heron flew from a tree over our path. A quill feather fell from this huge bird and came corkscrewing down from 100 feet right in front of us. We picked it up and decided this was most auspicious.
On the way back we paid for every inch of the wind aided free ride up the estero. The wind was howling and although we made it back to the mouth in 2 hours it was a long 2 hours. I would guess you faced about the same plus the paddle down the ocean. The wind blew strongly most of the night. We were able to find good shelter behind the dune grassed bank on the east side of the sand bar. There was enough wood on the beach for a nice fire. We had a good meal, chewed the fat until about ten and pitched our tents on the edge of the dune grass. I had to remove my rain flap at about 11 because the wind slapping was driving me crazy.
During the night a large sea lion made his way in the estero and set up shop directly across from us. He was there in the morning and didn't seem to want to do much of anything but lay about. The wind died some after 12 PM and was only about 10 knots in the morning. The only person we saw at the mouth was some one on the hill riding an ATV. It's likely he was tending the sheep. He saw us but paid no attention. He was across the estero from us.
In the morning we launched uneventfully in a smaller swell then the previous day. There was much less wind chop as well. The skies cleared and winds remained moderate. We had an easy paddle to the parking lot. All of us landed without getting wet except for Jeff who tried some fancy surfing. That seemed only right after all the times I have gone board surfing with him only to get thrashed. In the end it was a great paddle. It's always fun to explore and area that you haven't seen before.