I walked up to the top of Cape Arago where my cell phone worked to call Dave Harry. He gave me the weather forecast: More of the same for days and days. This morning and the last were windy, overcast and cold. Bad for camping on exposed beaches. I broke out my windbreaker and hunkered down trying to get out of the wind. It didn’t work and I was cold to the point of shivering sometimes. At 8:00 AM I put a stick in the sand at the waterline, but the water kept going out! It didn’t come back up over my stick until 10:00! I jumped into my cold wet clammy smelly wetsuit and dry-top. Within minutes I was warm and comfortable. I should have done this hours ago! Warm and ready to launch I might have been inspired to drag the kayak over some rocks earlier. Fortunately I did not have far to go this day so the delay was not a big issue. Waiting for the tide did mean that I had better light and higher water for rock gardening around Cape Arago.
The coast for several miles south of Cape Arago was nice and cliffy, as opposed to being a nasty boring sandy dumpy beach like much of the shore I had passed so far. However, there were few caves in these cliffs and none that I could get into yet.
I figured that the reason I had been uncomfortable in the wind and waves the day before was because I was a little cold. Every wave that spilled over the deck chilled my waist and endangered my core temperature. Stopping for a break in the wind chilled me down more. So on this day I put on another layer of fleece between my insulated dive skin and my dry-top. Rock gardening around Cape Arago I started to get hot and sweaty but as I left the point I came into the wind and waves again. Instead of worrying that a wave might dunk me, I looked foreword to a refreshing splash. With this attitude the day was fun and the hours went by pleasantly.
A section of coastline came by that was sandy but a few hours into this was a row of offshore rocks at Fivemile Point to keep my interest. Past these I started seeing a lot of traction kite windsurfers zipping in and offshore. During breaks I held my paddle up in the air with one hand to pull me along in the wind. My GPS clocked me at 3.6 mph during my lunch break. Two of the kite surfers saw my paddle on the horizon and came out to see what I was. They were surprised to find a kayaker “in the middle of nowhere” and were curious about my trip.
This was supposed to be a short day, only 15 miles, so despite my late start I turned in the Bandon Jetty soon after 2:00 PM. I landed at the public boat ramp and explored the tourist section of Bandon Old Towne. I reserved a room in a motel and made 4 trips carrying gear across Highway 101, the last trip carrying the empty kayak itself. I washed a bunch of smelly gear in the sink and only then took the time to wash myself and get a snack. I was supposed to meet Brian Schulz for dinner but had hours to burn before he arrived.
I was sitting in a bar nursing a drink while writing in my journal. Out the view window I saw a skin-on-frame kayak go by on top of a pickup truck. It was unmistakably a Brian Schulz design! I ran out into the street and stopped him on his second pass through Bandon Old Town. At first he didn’t recognize the crazy man standing in the middle of the road blocking his path! (We had only met in person once before on the San Francisco Bay). He was early and had already reserved his own hotel room. We proceeded to the restaurant for dinner and had a great time swapping stories. I think we will do well together on the rest of this expedition.