San Elijo State Park to Mission Bay, September 29th 2005.

The launch over the surf zone was, as usual, not as bad as anticipated. I had another experience in the "embarrassment zone", with a small wave turning the heavy boat sidewise and unable to turn it back without getting out. A guy on the beach saved me from having to exit by getting his feet wet so he could straighten me out. Then I made it out over the breakers without getting my face wet. There was a pile-driver barge just south of the beach when I landed the day before, and this morning there were two new islands nearby: A tugboat had delivered two barges piled high with rocks during the night. This must be how those municipal piers are built.

The morning started out with another long sandy beach that might have been boring if I hadn't run into a family of bottle nosed dolphins. They kept pace with me for quite some time. I made (hopefully) interesting noises by thumping my paddle on my kayak. This worked once and several came over to surface near me. When they submerged I saw one under the water turn sidewise to eyeball me has it went by.

I stayed close to shore so I could go close by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Even as I got close to them I started seeing science stuff! I saw a group of divers around an Institute zodiac getting ready to submerge. I saw a jet ski with an aluminum box mounted on the side. The box had a GPS antenna, the kind that surveyors use, and a satellite antenna. I'm guessing that it had an ultrasonic depth sounder on the bottom so it could map water depth, record position, and beam the data directly back to a computer. I watched two guys lower an ROF off the big Scripps pier. (Remotely Operated Floaty thing). It looked like an ROV but had too much flotation and not enough gadgets hanging off it. I'm sure good things are being done!

I continued close to shore past La Jolla and watched a guy walk on water: He was standing on a large surf board and paddling himself around with an extra long double-bladed kayak paddle. When I got to the cliffs at the end of the sandy beach, I found the first caves I could go into on this whole trip! I had passed a few others but only on long days when I couldn't spare the time to stop. This was a medium long day, only 22 miles, so I took the time. Both caves I went into had two entrances. After I came out the second cave, a huge group of people in sit-on-top kayaks were lead into the caves by an outfitter. I paddled on around the rest of the La Jolla peninsula, which reminds me a lot of the Monterey Peninsula with short rocky bluffs and a similar architecture to the buildings in the city.

I paddled straight to the entrance of the Mission Bay Jetty and then four long miles across the bay to a boat ramp near my motel. The closest motel to the water that I had found (for under $300.00 a night) was an additional mile from the boat ramp. The longest distance I had to roll my kayak this trip.