Early morning on the Big Bay

The sun was just rising over the city as we meet at the end of McCall Street. Five of us carried our kayaks down to the waters edge, and began to discuss where we might head to. Marye suggested that we might head over toward the USS Midway and view the new statue that was unveiled recently, “Unconditional Surrender,” a 25-foot, 6,000 pound statue by world-renowned artist J. Seward Johnson commemorating a famous World War II photo.

The San Diego Bay was empty and calm as we cruised east. We all commented on how lucky we were to be paddling in San Diego. We slipped along the piers of the Maritime Museum getting a nice close-up view of the boats. After a brief break, we paddled passed a docked cruise ship, to head under the Midway. We paddled right under the flight deck in to the cove to get a great view of the statue. Unfortunately Jay was still sick, so we were without our traditional photographer. We all commented on the fact that the person who scheduled such an early paddle, we probably still in bed under his covers.....

Actually, we really enjoyed the calm of the water and lack of winds. Marye opted to head over to the Ferry Landing, and the rest of us decided to return to Kellogg Beach. My elbow was still feeling good, but I knew that there was still a few more miles to put under my keel.

With such light traffic on the bay, we decided to take a straight bearing rather than hug the north shore. Along the way we ran into two fellow kayakers. They normally head out to Ballast Point, then back to the Ferry Landing. We chatted a bit, and then headed on our ways. We landed safely back at the Kellogg Beach, according to the GPS, we covered about 7.5 nms. I forgot to record the time. After loading the boats, we all headed over to the Red Sails Inn for the traditional after paddle meal.

Overall the elbow felt good. It was a bit sore, so I put some ice on it and took it easy for the rest of the day, and watched it Sunday. I'm not ready for Night Herons yet, but the recovery seems to be on track.

You should have been here an hour ago...

The stars must have been aligned correctly, as I was able to get on the water on Saturday. The 9am'ers were planning on launching from the dock at Aqua-Adventures. The day was looking to be fantastic, we had a mild Santa Ana, so I opted to leave the wetsuit in the car. Jay, Neil and I hauled our boats down to the docks. We noticed that there were several full crab pots under the docks, we have suggested grabing a couple and having a nice crab omelette.

As we left the basin, we hugged the jetty, hoping to spy some Garabaldi. Jay, in his matching yellow outfit spotted several, but alas Neil and I came up empty. We headed out the channel. High tide was about 8:40, we took a look at the south jetty to see if we could slip across. This is something I had never done. But the water level was a touch too low. Jay showed me the best spot to do it, so one day...

Paddling toward the ocean, the channel became a bit more confused. We decided to push through and see what conditions were like near the bouy. After saying hello to the seals upon the bouy, the ocean was very calm, with 2-3 foot swells. We turned and headed down toward the OB pier. we met an outrigger paddling north, he told us that he had seen a whale migrating about this close to shore. He followed it a bit before I out ran him. The three of us then decided to head a bit further out to sea, and see if we just might get lucky.



But we had no luck, but what a wonderful day. This why I live in San Diego, 75 degrees, perfect ocean.....

To seek a little more protection from any of the swells, we heade toward the north side of the Mission Bay jetty.



The waters seemed a bit less confused, and I was able to enjoy the occasional push from the swells. Even though my strength is much less from all the time off water, my foundational skills seem to be intact. That's a real credit to all the work I did with Jeff.

As we paddled in, we ran into a kayak fisher. We asked if he was taking part in the bass tourament that was happening. We told us that he was just off the north jetty fishing when a whale passed under him. Drat! I am starting to feel like Ahab in Moby Dick....

The three of us turned into Mariner's Cove. I took this time to focus on my Flat Water Perfection... some paddling on edge, various draw strokes....As we left the cove and headed back toward the docks, we could feel the outgoing water as we crossed the channel. Aqua Adventures was holding a class, I could hear the instructor taking about Draw on The Move. So I had to do a couple...

Once we reached the docks, Tom greeted us. He did not join us, something about his 'annual' hair cut. We loaded up and headed over to Seaforth for some lunch. We ran into Mike B. there, who was enjoying a nice plate of scrambled eggs. All told, it was a wonderful day on the water. The elbow seemed good (it still does), my shoulders are a touch sore, but a good soreness.