Cabrillo Beach to Smuggler's Cove
Duane Strosaker, Joe Cramp and I launched from Cabrillo beach on a perfect sunny
Southern California morning for a paddle to Smugglers Cove. Small surf and warm
weather promised a great day on the water, but this paddle would be end up being
most memorable for its entertainment value. We were unloading boats and admiring
Duane's new Kajak Sport Millenium, which had just purchased used, when we meet
up with three guys preparing to launch a canoe with a homemade outrigger into
the surf for a day of fishing. The surf wasn't large at about one to two feet
but there were occasional sets of 3 feet. They had never launched this craft in
the surf but they were sure they could do it without swamping or sinking their
open decked boat. They must have been pretty confident about this because they
hadn't bothered with PFD's or a bailing device. We weren't as confident about
the seaworthiness of their craft, but they shunned our warnings, as they were
not planning on going far. To their credit, maybe it was just luck, they got their
craft thought the surf, but not without becoming swamped in the process. We lent
them a pump and they quickly drained their vessel.
Great conditions made for fast paddle to Smugglers (about 4 knots) where we
meet up with Steve Brown and his group. Duane had more folks to show off his
new boat to. After a brief rest and bull%^&^%% session we launched for home.
We were about a mile from Carbrillo when the true highlight of the trip occurred.
About 30 feet off our starboard bow we spotted a couple of whales. It was a
great sight to see and the whales stuck around for a short while before taking
off. In six years of paddling the local waters I have never seen a whale from
my kayak so I was pretty happy
We landed without incident after a great day on the water.
Dave O'Connor
Submitted on April 20, 2003