Winter Solstice
I only gave a 1 1/2 day notice on the Web for this trip (my
first that I organized via the club), but two experienced paddlers, Bill Becher
and George Miller, joined me at Zuma at 7:45. We were all eager for some good exercise, and had relatively fast boats,
so we decided to do it both directions rather than just one. It would be no
problem with the surf at Zuma for launching, but we saved having to shuttle
cars. So we drove down the coast, and were almost the only cars parked at Surfriders
Beach just south of Malibu Pier.
At 8:30 we were in the water at Malibu starting up coast. Sunny then, but
the sun stayed behind the overcast most of the day. Very few boats around or
people on the beaches. We continued along past the movie stars' colony and
Corral Beach at a good clip. There was some wind later but we still did
3-3.5 knots. Swells were about 1-2 , max. 3 feet, in line with NOAA prediction.
Sea surface was smooth much of the way until we got near Point Dume. A number
of sea lions stuck their heads up through the kelp to look at us. Water was
very clear and I watched to see if I could see any fish, but the sun wasn't
bright enough or high enough to see very well. We took a break on the beach
before Little Dume and then continued around the point.
Half way on the trip
there just west of Pt. Dume and we felt good, but it would be another 10 miles
going back to save energy for rather than go farther. Two of us beached for
practice at Zuma, and soon entered the water again. Waves were mostly small
and the tide was getting fairly low then. Coming back around Pt. Dume we
spent some time at the rocks about 150 yards offshore. Unusual how the
starfish clump together, exposed by the tide at protected spots on the rocks.
There would be maybe 40 of them, many different colors, grappling atop one
another. The pelicans there hardly bat an eye with us close, but the
cormorants get edgy in our presence so we backed away from them.
While on the way back, the offshore breeze was behind us, or it was calm
and we made good time at around 4 knots. I often got hot while putting out
the upper limb propulsive energy and had to keep dousing my body with sea
water to keep cool. The waves seemed to have died down a bit as we got near
the end. But still I remind myself to keep an eye out for a "rouge" wave when
I am close to shore. Another kind of mammal - harbor seals, recognizable
because they typically lie there as furry pods and must wriggle to move
around; sea lions can stand and walk on their flippers as legs. One large
rock had at least a dozen of the seals. The only dolphins I saw this day were
from my car as I drove past Trancas beach area in the early morning. The fish
life we saw were only small boils of bait sized fish on the surface. As we
paddled along we conversed much about our past and future trips - Alaska,
Baja, Costa Rica, Channel Islands -- lots of ocean around for paddling!
So this ended up being a fairly gung ho trip; we hardly stopped to eat or
drink, but I am sure we were engrossed in the pleasure of moving right along
over the water in a new place, with a lot of scenery, and keeping up our
physical levels for long and remote future trips. A fine day overall. Some
breeze, but no whitecaps or significant chop. Near the end, we cruised around
more rocks exposed at the low tide near Malibu Point.
Finally back by the Pier, we landed in the lake -like conditions there.
I figured we did 21 miles (18 nautical miles). Back at 2 pm, we loaded our
cars, and said so long until the next time. A great paddle! So. Calif. is
great - being able to paddle like this in such nice conditions, with congenial
people, on the shortest day of the year!
Ron
Hudson
Submitted on December 21, 2000