Maryly was up in my neck of the woods and the waves looked reasonably calm on the WEB (which is not necessarily the same as being calm on the ocean) so we decided to go for an open ocean paddle. I suggested Gleason's Beach which has a short horizontal carry across a sandy beach from Highway One. When we got there the waves were arriving in large and small sets and I predicted that we would have an easy time if we waited for a small set to launch through. Maryly was not so sure but when she got in her boat I saw a window in the waves and told her to go. With a shove from me her sit-inside kayak easily made it out to sea and I soon followed.
First we went pretty far from shore to get past the first small point, then we worked our way into the edge of the rock garden between Gleason and Duncan's Landing. We wove a calculated path, staying behind the outer rocks which broke the large waves, but staying far enough from the shore to avoid the medium waves when they broke. Maryly found this reasonably comfortable.
When we got to Duncan's Landing we came out from behind the protection of the rock garden to go around the point. I wanted to show Maryly "The Crack in the Hogback", a channel through the middle of Hogback Rock that is sometimes navigable. But the open ocean around this point was choppier and had larger waves than we had seen inside the rock garden. Maryly exceeded her comfort level and was not happy out there. I convinced her to follow me far enough to peek into "The Crack", but she was too busy watching the waves and bracing to pay attention. We started back.
Turning back required traveling a short distance with following seas. Having the waves sneak up behind you can be unnerving and this takes some experience to get used to. I think the conditions this day exceeded Maryly's abilities by just a little which should give her more confidence next time. The swell was probably around four feet, just large enough to occasionally spill and break over the back of our kayaks. Maryly worried ("Whoa"!) and braced when this happened and managed to stay upright until we ducked back into the rock garden.
But then it was time to turn back around the point and set up to land at Gleason Beach. Just as we approached shore the largest set of the day rose up under us. These waves threatened to push us to shore and then dumped explosively on the sand. We had to backpedal to keep them from taking us in. Maryly became angry and said that she really should not be out in conditions like this! I told her that this was probably just a large set and all we had to do was wait it out. The large set did last a long time and we had time to drift towards the shallow rocky end of the beach where the waves rose up even higher. We worked our way back to the sandy middle of the beach. Eventually the waves calmed down and I talked Maryly into attempting a landing. I followed her close enough to call out encouraging instructions. Like "Its still calm and still a good time to land, keep going". And "There's a medium sized wave coming now, but it will not break on you". Soon Maryly found herself safely on solid ground again and was glad that she had had the experience. "Cheated death again"!