I put on only the farmer john part of the wetsuit, with a T-shirt to keep the flotation vest from chaffing under my arms. As I started out through the mild breakers, I splashed a little water on my arms, and in the breeze I started feeling a little cold. I wondered if I was under-dressed for this day, but decided to push on and warm up by paddling harder.
As I thought, the waves were milder than predicted and I was able to go behind a large rock just under the row of houses along the cliff north of Gleasons Beach. There is a little beach at the bottom of this cliff that normally has pretty rough surf between all the rocks. This day I could have landed on it, but contented myself with paddling in the narrow channel between the big rock and the beach. As I passed directly behind the rock, it exploded several dozen cliff swallows. They are apparently not used to visitors and flew around diving and crying at me. Between this rock and Duncans Landing there are a bunch of low rocks that are usually pretty popular with the harbor seals. To avoid disturbing them, I usually go around these rocks even when the water is calm. I hadn't seen any seals from the road on the way by, so I headed closer to shore here than I have gone before. As I went by I surprised 3 seals on one of the rocks farthest from shore. As they often do, these watched me go by and didn't get really alarmed until I was safely past them and heading away. Then they panicked and charged into the water.
I passed a group of fishermen standing in the surf at Duncans landing. They were casting nets for surf fish, probably for bait, and had poles with long lines cast over the surf. As I left them to travel along the inside of the point that creates the cove, I found another colony of cliff swallows. Behind the point like this, I was in a wind shadow and I finally started feeling reasonably warm. From this point on, I didn't notice the cold any more. At the very tip of the point, I braved the choppy water and breakers to go between a rock and the shore. A friend of mine, Paul Futcher, complains that none of my pictures ever show very rough water (he is a white-water river kayaker). As I paddled out behind this rock through very choppy water with breaking waves, it occurred to me that this would make a picture that Paul would not scoff at. But when the water is rough, I'm too busy to deal with the camera! So I still have no "rough water" pictures to show Paul.
Around the north side of Duncans Point there is a big rock named the "Hogback" with a small beach between it and the point, where I have landed once before. There is a crack through the middle of this rock that I have considered paddling through. But as I approached the Hogback, a park ranger drove up to the top of the point (there is a road that circles the end of the point with great views). The ranger was probably there to empty the trash, but I wondered if he was there to see if I was getting in trouble. If I went through the crack in the Hogback now, he would think I am trying to show off. I have nothing to prove to anybody but myself, so I bypassed the crack just for spite and went past the rock. I could see where the crack went through the middle of the rock the long way, and came out rather close to the breakers on Wrights Beach. It's probably just as well that I skipped it this trip.
My goal was to go past Duncans Point, halfway down Wrights Beach, and circumnavigate a large rock near shore there. On previous trips this rock has been ringed with seals when the water wasn't too rough shoreward of the rock. So I don't think I've ever been around it on the shoreward side. This trip was no exception: As I approached the back side of the rock, I saw a group of seals. I stopped immediately and paddled out to sea. This time I got away before they saw me and managed to NOT disturb them. A small victory! Instead of going around the big rock, I paddled out to a pair of smaller rocks a little farther out to sea. Since I had skipped the crack through the Hogback, I got the thrill-seeking impulse out of my system by paddling between these two rocks. The swells came around the rock on my right (sometimes over) and turned towards me. They reflected off the rock on the left and piled up into huge choppy swells in the middle as I went through.
The rest of the plan was to paddle straight back to Gleasons Beach, pushing hard to make sure I got my aerobic exercise. This was the direction the wind was blowing, and now I could not feel it at all. I got overheated instead of cold on this leg of the trip. The waves were also going pretty south of west, so by staying out to sea for a while I was able to travel with the waves on the last stretch into Gleasons Beach. With the waves at my back, the water I had paddled in earlier on the other side of the rocks looked too scary to brave. So I went around all the rocks and came straight at the beach from the ocean. The shore is sheltered by all those rocks, so when I got there the waves were very mild. I powered my way up the beach behind a little wave instead of getting a ride.
