Where's Jane?

Last Saturday, several of us decided to do the circumnavigation of Coronado. Both Jane and I missed the San Diego Kayak Club sponsored one in July due to the BCU 3 Star assessment we took.

Since I had just done the Night Heron version about two weeks ago, I drove down to Coronado and parked about where we landed that Tuesday. I was a touch early, so I walked out to the water to find probably the nicest looking ocean I have ever seen. There might have been 1 foot surf at best and the rest of the ocean look like glass. Sweet! Low tide was about 6am, so we also had that going for us as we paddled back around into the bay.



I went back to the car, and a few minutes later Diane Kemp arrives. She's the president of the SDKC. Comments on the early nature of the paddle were exchanged, then we unloaded our boats and gear down toward the water.

But still no Jane or any other folks. Hum... Did we get the day wrong. We gave her cell phone a jingle and nothing. We were not about to let such perfect conditions go to waste. So we drove the cars down a block to the boat ramp on the bay side. Grabbed the last few pieces of gear, slopped on the sunscreen and strolled back to our boats.

But still no Jane....

Down the shoreline, we saw two other kayaks launch. Could that be someone? At first we thought they were paddling up to meet us, but they quickly headed out to sea. We kept looking around, checked the cell, then decided to launch holding to our 7am launch time.

We pointed our boats toward Point Loma, and began a nice steady pace. The ocean was flat. Diane made a comment, to which I reply "Shh! Do not anger King Neptune!"

I looked back toward the beach and the ocean behind us to see if any kayakers were around, but even in those calm conditions, no one was to be seen.



We had to head almost to the end of the breakwater to slip over the jetty. Diane crossed first since I had the tow belt. As I crossed, a beautiful Garibaldi swam under me. We followed the jetty enjoying the birds as the sat upon the exposed rocks. Diane stopped to snap a photo or two.





The both of us continued chatting about all sorts of topics as we cruised along the shore of North Island. One of the piers on the base was being used by a large group of servicemen/women. We passed the Ferry landing and the boat traffic that was starting to pick up. We never really stopped along the way. I was trying a waterpack on my PFD, and the pace was relaxed enough that I never felt pushed. I would say except for some photo-ops, we just keep on motoring....




As we turned into Glorietta Bay, the breeze started to pick up. A gentle reminder of why we did wake up early....The sun was out from the early morning clouds, and the Hotel Del look great from this side as well. We pulled up the docks completing the 11.5 miles in 2 hours 40 minutes. A quick snap of Diane on the docks, since the camera was tied to her whistle during the paddle, we loaded our boats on cars, all they while wondering Where's Jane and the rest?



Well we found out about an hour later. If I bother to fully read the email and look up the address on the map, I would have seen that they meet about two blocks south of where we launched from. When the swung by where we had parked to unload, we had already moved our cars to the boat ramp. Since there is a slight rise between the street and the beach, they never saw our boats. They launched about minutes after us, but neither group saw the other. They also had a grand time. They cruised a bit slower and stopped for coffee at the Ferry Landing.