Maryly suggested this trip and announced it at a BASK meeting on September 27th. She also announced it on BASK's email list server and then organized the trip. I didn't expect many BASKers to come up to Sonoma County on such short notice, but 10 people contacted her in the few days between the announcement and the event. The waves were larger than we would have liked, so not everyone showed up, but a nice group of people paddled out of Stillwater cove despite the waves and fog. Right after the trip was over, Maryly felt driven to write up a trip report and below are her impressions of the day:
"That was a great trip! Better than I thought! I had planned on more of the low waves and quiet winds we've been having. And I had to pick up half a lamb from Still Water Cove Ranch (lucky me!) so I thought it would be a nice paddle. Then, as the week progressed, I heard reports that the waves were increasing! Oh no. The wave and wind reports from Saturday night were down right disappointing, so I started thinking it might be nice if no one showed up. I could take a nap, read, work on some projects at home. Or maybe the conditions would be so bad we'd have call off the paddle. Mike, not paddling? I could imagine canceling the BASK trip and then Mike wanting to go paddling, so I would go too, and regret fighting the wind and waves.
"Well, we got a treat! The water looked very calm! And at Still Water Cove there was absolutely no surf! There was kelp piled high on the beach at the water line. Mike figured it out right away, that you could perch your boat on the kelp, put your spray skirt on, and shove off through the slimy kelp into the water. The kelp launch.
"There were 10 of us: Bob Berner in a wood pygmy he made 3 years ago, his friend Patrick in a Scrambler (sit-on top); Roger Lamb in his Coaster; Mike Higgins in his Coaster; Jenning Gee on her Malibo (sit-on-top). Bob Ko in his yellow Looksha Sport; Ingrid Ramsey in her purple Looksha; Don Barch in his yellow Sportee; Gordon Adams in his wood Pygmy he made about 3 years ago; and me in my orange Looksha Sport LV.
"The fog was low and gray, and stayed with us all day. The ocean still had lots of its summer kelp. The ocean swell was around 8 feet all day. We paddled from Still Water Cove a little south, to give Ingrid and Don time to catch up with us, and then we paddled north. One kayaker, with a propensity for sea-sickness we learned later, did get seasick so he and a friend stopped at Gerstle Cove for lunch, while the rest of us paddled further on to Stump Beach, which we never did find in the fog, so we turned back and landed at Gerstle for lunch too. On the way back to Gerstle another kayaker, feeling a little queasy herself all day, lost her breakfast, so to speak, in the kelp and accepted a tow. By noon we already had scored a two-barf paddle! When we landed at Gerstle, we found two kayaks on the beach, but we didn't see signs of our fellow paddlers for a good hour. They had walked over to Stump Beach and back to meet us.
"After lunch we paddled back the way we had come, through kelp beds and quiet open areas, rising and falling with the swell, through rocks large and small, submerged with breakers, or prominent with chop and surge. We watched waves breaking around us, crashing against the cliffs. We were lucky to see and hear them so close at hand, and lucky not to have had much wind. Roger and Mike did their obligatory 6 rolls each. I did my first ocean roll!. Flubbed my second.
"Bob Ko had to hurry off to pickup his wife at the airport (did you make it on time??), Bob Berner and Patrick headed back to waiting families, and the rest of us (Roger, Gordon, Don, Ingrid, Jenning, Mike, and Maryly drove to Mike's house in the redwoods for a hot tub and dinner (thank you Jenning for making salad and pasta for us!! Good planning!) Sitting at Mike's computer writing up this trip report, my chair feels like it is swaying in the ocean swell.