On Saturday, after our rough landing, we sat in a restaurant on the end of a pier in Port San Luis and watched waves exploding over the breakwater across the harbor. The swells had risen from 10 feet to 13 while we were out, and to almost 15 while we had a drink and some snacks before dinner. A large swell would explode over the breakwater and white water would wash down the inside. The original plan was to go directly home the next morning without any more kayak trips. But Don was staying around a few more days and was excited to go look at this breakwater. The waitress assured us that the enticing looking beach at the base of the breakwater was a nice public beach that can only be reached by boat. I agreed to meet Don for a short paddle out to this beach on Sunday.
Several other kayakers sounded interested, but nobody else showed up at 9:00 AM on Sunday except Don and I. We chose a put-in spot well inside the harbor that had a boat ramp and a wide sandy beach. As we were getting into our wetsuits and arranging our equipment two guys came by with a zodiac. We were interested in seeing how these guys did in the rougher than we expected surf. They pulled the boat out into waist deep water, then started the engine. I distinctly saw blue smoke come out when it started that first time, but apparently it died on them. For the next half hour we watched them pull and pull on the starter of that engine, but I never saw another puff of blue smoke. We launched with no problems over the surf and Don joked that when we got back they would still be there in the surf pulling on that engine. This did not turn out to be true, but when we came back two hours later their truck was also gone so they must have given up.
The restaurant we sat in the afternoon before had tables with glass tops and mirrored holes going through the floor and the pier. You could sit in the table and look down at the water! I paddled under the pier to find this restaurant and look back up at people eating breakfast. There were several places under the pier where lots of water rained down from fish packing plants, and I was able to avoid these downpours. The water near these places was black and oily with the bodies of slowly moving sea lions. Waiting for manna (fish guts) to rain down from above. I wondered if I was going to have to push my way through them like a field of kelp. All but one of them saw me coming and moved out of the way, and that one just grunted in surprise and splashed away when he came up next to me. None of the pier-hole tables in the restaurant had any one eating at them. When we stopped by at noon on our way back we still didn't see anyone at any of these tables. Perhaps most of the tourists don't like to be reminded that they are that close to the water?
We paddled along the shore and past the beach at the base of the breakwater. We had planned a picnic lunch at the beach but since it was so early we went on to explore the breakwater first. The swells were not as high as the evening before and they only occasionally managed to splash water over the rocks of the breakwater. I sat in a place where the rocks were damp and tried to entice the waves to get me wet. I asked Don if he was ready for his morning shower, but he stayed well back with a camera ready to catch me in the thick of it. The waves calmed down. I tried everything to get them to rise up: I drifted closer and closer to the breakwater. I turned by back on the action. I opened the hatch to my kayak for a second. I took out a non-waterproof camera that had some film in it I wanted to use up. The waves broke over a different spot and we moved there. Nothing worked. I had a long drive home in the afternoon and couldn't sit around here all day waiting for trouble, so we gave up. We did paddle out around the end of the breakwater to see what it looked like on the seaward side. There was a natural row of rocks here and the breakwater was built around and behind these. This was apparently a natural harbor and the man-made breakwater is just an improvement on that. Situating it on a natural reef like this also means the man-made structure will last longer and need less maintenance.
The beach at the base of the breakwater was well sheltered from the waves and we glided in for a landing. It still wasn't soon enough after breakfast for lunch, so most of the food I brought just stayed in the kayak. We climbed up the breakwater to look at the other side, then climbed up a trail past some NO TRESPASSING signs to try and get pictures of the lighthouse. Looking north up the coast towards the lighthouse we saw a small rocky beach that looked accessible to kayaks. There's still lots of things to explore here the next time I come to visit my sister.
