Dave was demoing a Necky Elaho with skeg from Aqua Adventures. We loaded his boat and off we went. More fun with a 15 minute wait to cross the border into Mexico. Once across we headed south on Highway 1 D, the toll road. As we drove we noted heavy cross winds and hoped that they didn't extend Punta Bando. We were wrong...

We stopped at a nice restaurant, Juniors, just before La Jolla campground and ate dinner. The air was cold and the wind was really blowing. After dinner we headed for La Jolla but our travel was impeded by one of Ensenada's finest! He was going to cite me for running a nonexistent stop sign but I was able to dissuade him. RHIP

At La Jolla we checked in, paid for 2 days and proceeded to set up out tents in 30+ kt winds. Great fun. We finally bedded down and both awakened at about 0600 to moderate winds.

After walking around we had breakfast at Patty's Cafe. During our breakfasting the sun came out and the winds ceased. Our view of the ocean revealed a little chop but no wind waves so we decided to launch and take it, stroke by stroke. We headed down the coast toward La Bufadora,

We rounded the first point and met a little breeze; the water was clear, there was a moderate chop but paddling seemed comfortable. We rounded the next point into some rocky areas. By this time we had a fairly strong wind in our faces with good sized wind waves. We went more shoreward and played in rocks as we went along. We took our rock gardening slowly, not having the Master, Steve Brown, along to guide us. We paddled into a cave as we came out we were met by seven seals who had come to watch. When we left the cave mouth and back out into open sea they disappeared.

We continued going through channels and surfing over the rocks, gaining experience and bravery as we went along. Both of us got at least one chance to practice our combat roll--successfully, too.

We stopped for a break on a rocky beach, took care of the necessaries and had a little snack about 2 hours into the trip. Launching again we saw fisherman on the rocks around us and we had to be careful in a few places to avoid their lines. Rounding the point the wind was at our back and the chop increased. We paddled into La Bufadora and over the blow hole, itself. I packed into the hole just far enough to be able to ride the "blow" out while Dave entertained the crowd with a rolling demonstration. We landed at the usual spot and took a break pondering whether we should paddle back against the increasing wind and chop or take the bus to La Jolla to pick up the car and come back for the boats.

The local dive shop owner assured us that we would be clear of the head winds as we rounded the point--a mile and a half by his calculation.

Paddling won and we launched into the harbor and headed northward. As we left the sheltered harbor we were me with fierce head winds. We also noticed that the local dive boat and some commercial fishing boats were staying in the lee of wind but we were determined. The winds were fierce; stop paddling for a moment and get pushed back faster than paddled forward. We tried to keep behind the rock formations to ease the effects of the 30+ kt winds. There were 5-6' swells at about 4 second intervals interspersed with some real big ones. Staying behind the rocks we had to be careful of suddenly rising breakers over hidden rock formations. Bracing into sudden swells became common place.

Finally we rounded the point, which Dave later calculated to be about 5 nautical miles and not 1.5!, and landed on a rocky beach to rest. Seal launching into the "stuff" again we paddled back to La Jolla with the wind at our left rear and a huge 6-8' rear quartering sea that lasted until we reached the bay. The Sirocco handled well with few correcting strokes but the rocker of the Elaho, even with skeg down, made tracking in the high seas difficult.

We landed, exhausted, and pulled our boats up on the beach. At our campsite, we had new neighbors attempting to put up their tent. Next to them, Mexican Marines had set up a huge field tent, purpose unknown. As we moved our gear up to the campsite, changed into warm, dry clothing and put gear away the new family gave up on pitching a tent in the wind and left. The marines struck their new camp and left, as well as most of the other campers in campground. We decided to eat and follow suit.

We drove to La Bufadora and ate a fantastic meal at Celia's, as usual. Returned to camp to find our boats covered with sand and filled with about 3" of the stuff. We struck camp and left as quickly as we could. We were the last folks in the campground.

The trip north was uneventful though slow until reaching the toll road. We were stuck about 45 minutes at the border then home.

Overall, a great day on the water. We were physically exhausted but felt good in that we made it. We had a chance to use all those bracing techniques and draws and strokes that we practice regularly for just such days as these. At no time did either of us feel endangered or at risk because of conditions, just somewhat fatigued at times and a little muscle soreness which disappeared at our rest breaks.

It really was an intensive day on the water, as planned. Would we do it again? You bet. All except for the sand in our teeth! We wouldn't intentionally travel to Mexico to paddle in high seas and 30+ kt winds but it did make for a great experience.

    Mike Brown