Peter suggested that we re-think paddling to Gina because it was really rough out there yesterday. We decided to make the decision when we were on the water and could better assess the conditions.

Since I had put off loading while I determined if we were going, I was the last to arrive at about 0845. Even John Ernst beat me there and since my wife did not come, I wasn't able to shift the blame for being late ;-)

There were 10 boats and 11 paddlers this morning. We had one new paddler in the group and a few that occaisionally paddle with us. We headed out of the harbor and quickly decided that although the conditions were doable to get to Gina, we didn't know if they would hold. It was getting cloudy and a light drizzle was starting. Looking out, Platform Gina was invisible as a squall was right over it. We decided to paddle West into the wind instead of South to Gina. We stayed about 1/4 mile off shore and paddled non-stop to the Edison power plant 3.7 NM away. The weather continued to clear and I remarked, "where are the 6-8 foot swells that the weatherman forecast. The conditions were light winds that gusted to about 10 knots and the seas were about 2-3 feet. Shortly after my comment, we started to hit the 6-8 footers and the wind picked up. We also had about a 2 foot wind chop which made it difficult if one didn't pay attention. We took a short break at the power plant and then decided to paddle out towards the Channel Islands before heading North East back to the harbor. This would put the wind and swells directly astern of us and eliminate having to paddling with stern quartering seas. We paddled out about 1 1/2 miles off shore and then turned towards home.

The swells kept getting bigger and about 1/2 mile from the breakwater, while Peter O'Sullivan and I were just laying back as the 2 sweeps, I got hit by a really big swell. As my boat started to broach, I reached out with a rear rudder stroke to straighten myself out and made a foolish mistake. Instead of trusting my instincts as to my paddle blade's orientation to the water, I watched it, instead of what was coming. Suddenly I was hit by another swell and I started to go over. It was too sudden for me to say anything, and Peter, who was about 15 feet in front of me, looked and thought--Steve doesn't have a white deck. He quickly turned and started paddling towards me.

By this time, I had wet exited and was holding my paddle, but my boat was blowing away. I soon realized that I couldn't reach the boat with the paddle holding me back and if I didn't get it NOW, I would never catch it. I dropped the paddle, caught the boat and the paddle drifted back to me. Peter called the others quickly on the radio to let them know I was swimming, but they couldn't hear him. I heard him fine on my radio, so I don't know what the problem was. We watched my pump float away - I keep saying I'm going to get a tether tied on it but haven't. Peter then came up to the bow, and I moved to the stern and together with him lifting and me pushing on the stern, we emptied the boat and righted it. Peter then moved to a bow to stern position, but this put me downwind of the kayak. I knew this would make a rescue attempt difficult, but we decided that it would take too long to switch postitions. As I started to swim up onto the back deck of my boat, the wind was pushing my kayak into me and causing my legs to go under the boat. I failed on my first attempt to get up, and Peter asked if I would be able to do it on a second attempt. We both knew that the longer I was in the water, and the more attempts we did, the weaker I would be. Peter then asked for my paddle float and he put it on my paddle that he was holding. As he stabilized my boat, I did a paddle float re-entry ( I guess I would call this a modified T-Re-entry) and I easily got up onto the back deck and into my cockpit. I put my skirt on but did not pump the 2 inches of water in the boat, because we still had not gotten my pump back. Peter couldn't see it, but I spotted it and he suggested I keep the paddle float on until I got behind the breakwater and he went after the pump.

I felt pretty stable and told Peter that and I removed the paddlefloat and paddled back. Just before I got to the breakwater, Mike called me on the radio to see where I was, but with the 2 inches of water sloshing back and forth in my boat, large swells and my adreniline rush wearing off, I couldn't stop paddling to use the radio.

I finally made it back in, and we continued to Kiddee Beach and then over to Daddy-O's where as is the custom, I was required to buy Peter's lunch.

We learned several lessons today:

1. Rough water rescues are MUCH harder than pracitce sessions
2. Always have 3 people as the sweep. If my boat had drifted away, we would have been in a lot of trouble.
3. Practice sessions are imperative. It took Peter and I about 8 minutes to complete this rescue. If either of us had not been practiced in these skills, I would have been in the water a lot longer.
4. No matter what the weather, dress for immersion. I was wearing a short sleeve rash guard underneath a full length farmer john, neoprene booties, a hat, and of course my PFD. I did not feel any cold at all although I did have a paddling jacket in my day hatch that I could have put on if needed.

Did we see any whales? Not this time, but there was a harbor seal who followed me back into the harbor. Aside from a few birds, that was the only wildlife that I saw. Total mileage on the trip as about 8.7 NM or about 10 statute miles.

    Steve Holtzman