I got to the bus, and the thought of getting into my wetsuit made my knees feel weak. Now I really have to try this anyway. I got into my wetsuit and went back to the beach with the kayak. By the time I had my gloves on, the paddle assembled, and the bunghole stoppered, the entire channel looked reasonable. I walked out through the breakers on the beach and waited for two more medium sized waves to go under me, then got on and headed out. No problems until I neared the end of the channel, and then 3 big waves came in. I stayed to the left of the first one, which did not break on that side until I passed over it. The next one broke in front of me, but the breakers didn't push me back, they seemed to slide back over the top of the wave. The third one was the same, and then I was out! I didn't even get a face full of water on the entire assault! Now I was safe at sea, and the only question was, did I want to go the entire 3 miles to the next cove? I figured once I got started, I'd become determined enough to go the whole distance even against the wind, and this is what happened.
The waves were too big near the shore, I'd never get that kind of sightseeing done, so I went straight across to the next point. The waves got pretty big half way across, so I assume there was a shallow spot there. These big waves were often breaking out at sea, but I discovered that they were absolutely no problem if I was facing into them. The breakers slid over the tops of the waves as I rode over them, and did not try to push me back. Well, not push me back any more than the waves and wind were doing without whitecaps. Nothing much else happened out to Horseshoe Cove, which doesn't look like it has any beach access. I'll have to come down from someplace farther north to complete the next leg of the trip. The trip back to the beach was more work than it should have been with the wind and waves at my back. All those large waves with breakers were very little help. I've decided that pointing the bow where I want to go and not looking behind me, this is the way to deal with frightening waves out at sea. They are never as helpful as they look, never as scary as they look, just slide under me by the time they get to me. So looking just upsets me for no good reason.
Most of the trip back, I was accompanied by a sea gull. It flew up to me and practically hovered over me the first time. I waved my paddle at him, but he knew I couldn't reach him, and landed nearby. It was nice being able to see how fast I was moving by how fast he slid behind me. He did this a bunch of times, flying up and landing near me and watching me paddle away. I assume he was thinking "Humans are dumb, they toss the best part of the fish back into the ocean, perhaps this human will feed me".
When I got back to the channel in the rock, I got that weak feeling in the knees again. This weak feeling is a survival trait: It's mother nature's way of convincing you not to do something foolish. But it was too late for that! I have to land anyway! What I need from mother nature right now is not weakness, but an adrenaline rush! But fortuneately, like the breaking waves out at sea, the first few breakers that went under me slipped up and back over the waves, and did not give me the ride of my life as I feared. I made it most of the way to shore without incident until I got less than 100 meters from the beach. I made the mistake of looking back, and saw one of those really big waves breaking already, even though there was a smaller unbroken one in front of it. The small one got there first, and I desperately tried to ride it in, but it was too small. The wall of breakers caught up with me, and picked up the back of the kayak, like it was going to tip me over, but that didn't happen. I held my paddle in the steering position and pushed like crazy to keep the nose pointed to shore, and it worked! The nose came up as the breakers weakened going up the beach, and I zoomed the last 50 meters and slid right onto the sand. A successful (and dry faced) trip all around!