Konstantin Gortinsky, Roger Lamb and I have not been following through with the Tuesday Evening Paddles very often. The last two Tuesdays have been canceled due to weak shoulders or strong winds. Roger left for an extended hiking trip and finally Konstantin and I got together on a Tuesday evening for a paddle. The wind of the last few weeks had finally died down (and started blowing in the opposite direction). The swell calmed down to a very calm 3 feet. Konstantin and I decided to go to “Grandma’s Beach”, which I had always called Gleasons Beach. This beach is one of the few places where Highway One drops down to the sand in Sonoma County instead of staying up at the top of the cliff. It is actually an unnamed beach but since the nearest named State Beach access is called Gleasons, I always called it that. Konstantin calls it Grandma’s Beach, so that is what I will call it from now on.
When we met at the side of the road the wind was picking up to 12 knots from the south but it was a warm wind and we were very comfortable changing into our wetsuits. Konstantin got into my Coaster to try it out and I squeezed into his wooden kayak. He has been interested in finding out why everyone is so crazy about the Coaster and we had been trying to arrange a trip where we could switch like this. His boat is carefully padded to press against his hips and this pressed painfully against me. Eventually this cut off circulation in my legs and made paddling the wooden boat very painful. Konstantin did not like my seat arrangement and said that the rear of the seat cut into him in an uncomfortable way. However, he LOVED the way the Coaster handled and decided that it was the perfect boat for rock gardening day trips. He says that it is as easy to control as a river kayak, but still tracks in a straight line when you want it to. He wants to get one now.
We paddled north towards Duncans Landing and went behind all the rocks close to shore in the mild conditions. When we got to the cove we continued around the point, through a channel full of choppy water, and out the “Crack in the Hogback”. “The Crack” is a favorite place of mine. Just outside The Crack I tried rolling Konstantin’s boat and found it to be easy with my Greenland paddle. Then we turned back around the farthest offshore rocks. My legs were tingling and falling asleep so I alternated between pulling one leg and the other out of the thigh-brace and pumping my knees to try and restore circulation. But whenever we went behind a rock or through a choppy area I wanted to have complete control of the boat so I had to put both legs back into the thigh braces. I considered paddling the boat all the way to Salmon Creek, but I was so uncomfortable that I convinced Konstantin to land a Grandma’s Beach to switch boats. He didn’t want to. He says now he has tasted the forbidden fruit and didn’t want to paddle is own boat any more!
My legs were so numb that I stumbled around on the beach for a few minutes before I could walk straight. We checked the time and decided that I had another hour before I had to leave for a dive club meeting in Santa Rosa. Unfortunately, as we found out later, the watch in my PFD is still set on daylight wastings time, and it was an hour later than I thought. So we paddled for another hour and then I was late for my meeting! We paddled south towards Salmon Creek Beach with the thought of landing and switching boats so Konstantin could try the Coaster in the surf. But even with the watch running an hour late we didn’t have time to go surfing. The wind was picking up and that made surfing look like a cold wet activity. Instead we let the wind help blow us back to Grandma’s Beach. There we both made exciting but good landings and put our gear away to go our separate ways.