Roger Lamb and I have been talking about trying out storm kayaking. We decided to do a trip this weekend regardless of the weather. If the swell was up, we would try riding the large waves around Duncans Point into the cove. If the swell that day perversely calmed down then we would still launch from Duncans Landing but go rock gardening instead. Either way we would get to go kayaking. The waves perversly calmed down. They calmed down so much that on the previous day there was even talk of changing the creek paddle to an open ocean paddle around Tomales Point. I had announced my trip with Roger on the BASK mailing list and one other person, Hans, showed up to come with us.
I have no qualms about carrying my boat down the zig-zag trail to get to a nice beach launch and have launched at Duncans Cove many times. Roger's "Coaster" is supposed to be 10 pounds lighter than my boat, but he says the manufacturers always lie about this and you should add 10 pounds to whatever they say. I loaded up my boat, put on my gear, and carried everything down in one trip. Hans declared that "an epic schlep". He made two trips and Roger made three; only because he dropped one of his gloves and had to go back to get it. I spent the extra time watching the waves break. Doing it by the book and spending 15 minutes watching the ocean to see what the largest waves do. When large sets came it this beach was very dumpy and even a little scary. But between these sets things calmed down into almost lake-like conditions. During one of these calm times Hans got paddle-fever and launched into the water. I went next and when Roger came down from his third trip he finally followed us.
I had suggested going south through the rocks close to the cove but waves were breaking between these. Hans suggested going north to Goat Rock. Immediately north of Duncans Point is a long stretch of beach with no rocks, but then the Shell Beach area has a nice rock garden and there are large rocks offshore. If things were rough up there we should still be able to go around those larger rocks and through the big arch at Goat Rock Beach. So north is the direction we headed.
Hans said he hadn't been kayaking for a while and was going to be conservative. Roger has finally started to develop a healthier respect for the ocean and said that he would be conservative as well. So I was the only one who went behind some of the smaller rocks at Shell Beach when we went past there. At several mussel-lined rocks on the way I stopped to try getting close enough to collect some. The swell was a little rough for this. I brought a pair of work gloves, a goody bag and I had promised my dad I would try to bring some mussels home for dinner. At Gull Rock, a big rock south of the Goat Rock Arch, the water behind the rock seemed calm enough so I put my gloves on after we stopped for lunch. I zoomed up close to the rock several times, dropped my paddle (on the leash), and held onto the rock by the larger mussels. When the wave would let me I pried a few medium sized mussels off or ripped off a handful of smaller ones. Eventually I would loose my grip, the waves would push me away from the rock, and I would have to pick up the paddle to get close again. I collected around 5 pounds of mussels in a few minutes and found the leather work gloves did protect my hands reasonably well.
Hans originally said that he would go through the big Goat Rock Beach arch, until we got there and looked at the conditions. Roger said that he had no desire to go through there today. I replied that of course I had the desire, but that didn't mean I would risk it. We sat there for a while and watched some really big sets of waves go through and some large walls of breaking water slosh back and forth. Eventually I saw a calm set of waves and decided to zoom through. Half way under the arch I could tell that my timing was good and I slowed down to enjoy the view. Then I discovered that I was blocking traffic as two other kayaks came up behind me. Watching me start in had changed everyone else's mind and they all decided to go for it anyway. After this we turned back to Duncans Landing.
When we got back to the beach, there was something bobbing in the water and a bunch of people waving and shouting. They had been tossing a football on the beach and lost it in the water. I picked it up and tried to throw it to shore. I have never been good at that and sitting in the kayak is not the best position to throw from. So my pass fell short and I had to go pick up the ball and surf the kayak to shore for the touchdown. I jumped back in the water to do a few more launches and landings in challenging surf. Roger jumped back in the water without his boat and went swimming for a while. It says something about a beach when a guy wears a helmet to go swimming in the water there.
Once on shore we met Hans' girlfriend who came by to help him carry his boat back up the zig-zag trail. Roger and I each had to carry our own boats. We mademade two trips each, one for all the equipment and mussels, one trip with just the empty boat. I noticed that I got pretty winded just carrying the wet equipment and myself up on the first trip.
Back at home I sorted the mussels into small clean looking ones and larger ugly ones. The large ones tended to be covered with barnacles, worms, and threads that didn't look very appetizing. These I steamed plain, threw out the water, removed the meat from the shells, de-bearded, and refrigerated for pasta the next day. The smaller ones were steamed in a broth of onions, garlic, celery, and white wine. We had them as an appetizer before dinner and drank the resulting broth with some French bread. The next day I learned to make a white cream sauce, warmed the large mussels up in that and served them over penne-pasta for a late lunch. The sauce was a little too thick for this application. Next time I'll try diluting it, perhaps with a little white wine.
