One of the new people decided that he would stay at Butterfly Beach and practice surf launching and landing rather than paddle. The other 16 of us started to launch when we realized that we would have to do a briefing on the water because half of the group was already on the water. There were about 6 people who were not very experienced with surf and there was a very weird southwest swell as a result of the Hurricane. With a lot of help, we did manage to get all 16 boats launched. A few of the boats had to make two attempts to get out.
As soon as we were all on the water and held our briefing, we saw our first sea lion. Then the wildlife sort of disappeared for a while and we had a calm easy paddle. While we were paddling, Eric, a brand new to the area paddler in a ww boat (you try paddling 10 NM in a ww boat and keep up with 17 - 18 foot glass touring boats), did a hard brace as his boat just edged over. He asked "what just hit me"? Turns out the rest of us could see the fin of a sea lion that swam right into his boat. Maybe the locals just aren't used to seeing shorter ww boats in the area. I'm certainly not used to seeing one keep up with us like he did.
We arrived at Summerland and decided to land in the surf (at least most of us). Four paddlers decided to turn back and land at Butterfly before the winds picked up. The rest of us landed without any incidents. All made beautiful straight in approaches without getting wet. We snacked on the beach and several of the more energetic paddlers wanted to go to Carpenteria, but the weather forecast was now calling for some strong afternoon winds so everyone decided to launch and head back.
John Peterson (in his new skin on frame boat that he just built) and I stayed on the beach to help launch those who needed some assistance. Then it was our turn. As I pushed off, a wave caught me and started to turn the boat. I decided to just paddle on and then turn the boat myself, but a second very quick wave came up and I was in the water. I started to push up with my paddle and then thought that a lot of paddles were being broken lately, so I popped the skirt wet exited and straightened my boat out. Then as I got back in, a larger than normal wave started to pull my boat back out and my skirt was not yet attached. I quickly got the back on and the front and left the sides off and just paddled out through the surf and then finished putting it on.
We had an uneventful trip back to Butterfly but when we got there, we found the surf to be much higher than when we launched. There were a lot of swimmers too, so we landed one at a time with the ones on the beach, helping those who were coming in. About 3 or 4 people decided that they needed a swim as they were landing their boats, so they wet exited. Several made some very exciting high brace broached landings, and the rest made some very uneventful straight in approaches.
All in all a great day on the water
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