Sunday morning there were only three of us going on a paddle. Fred Cooper who had gone abalone diving with me the day before, and Paul Tibits, who had driven up Saturday and joined us for dinner the evening before. The ocean had been dead calm for weeks but the swell was on the rise and we were afraid we would not get to do any rock gardening on this trip. The original plan had been to paddle north from Point Arena Cove and go around Point Arena Point, or at least go north until we got scared and then head back.
Point Arena Cove is well protected and we had an easy launch. But as we approached the north end of the harbor the swell got larger and larger. We worked our way around the first point into swell that was over eight feet and promising to get higher in the afternoon. Then we stayed far from shore as we paddled north past huge breakers crashing into the exposed shoreline. I had paddled this coastline on a calm day and was disappointed that we could not go close to shore behind some of the rocks.
I turned inshore to look for a rocky island I knew about while Fred and Paul went a more direct route. I heard Fred shouting and turned back out in time to see a whale spouting. Fred had seen this whale spouting and traveling straight toward him. It spouted in front of him and then he actually saw it go under his boat! Of course he worried about it coming up and knocking him over, but once it was past he decided that it was an incredible experience and was jazzed to have seen a whale so close.
With no rocks to paddle behind we made good time and paddled the 8 kilometers to the point sooner than we expected. The point extents out to sea under the surface and waves were breaking far from shore in this area. To get around the point on this day we would have to work our way far out to sea and back in again. And if we did all this work we would find ourselves in front of a long dumpy beach with large waves preventing a landing (or especially a launch). We paddled far enough out past the point to get a view of the beach and then turned back.
I had a chart on the deck of my kayak and I had been watching the shore for signs of a large rocky island called Sea Lion Rocks. This island was so large that it looked just like the flat topped cliffs of the shore from out at sea. Fred and Paul had not noticed this island at all as we passed it. I had peaked into the channel between the shore and the island and decided that we could try to get behind there. The large waves rose up and broke on either side of the channel as we approached. I half hoped that we would have to surf a breaking wave into the calmer water but we slipped behind the island without any mishaps.
I had explored this island the last time I was paddling in the area and knew that it had some interesting caves. One of them goes clear through the island where it is narrow, and I ducked through this on a calm set of waves. Then Paul and Fred had to follow me. We paddled down to the south end of the island where I knew there was an incredible rock formation. Unfortunately you can only see this natural wharf by paddling through a slot in a reef, and then you have to exit out a cave on the other side. The waves were too rough to allow us to do that his trip. Since the last time I was here, the little cave I remembered has been carved into a large arch by the ocean! Now I want to come back and explore this area even more so I can see what the weather has done to it!
Behind the island we found a calm beach where we could land and eat our lunch. It was a treat to be able to get close to shore on a very rough day when I had feared we would do the whole trip far from shore. After an easy launch we worked our way south back into the harbor and a safe landing. On the return trip everyone agreed that the large swell seemed to be calming down, but perhaps we had just become used to them.