The surf was it's usual small 2 -3 foot at Butterfly Beach, but the interval between waves was extremely short and it made for some tricky launching. Everybody got off the beach ok but Alfredo's beautiful wood boat that he built got tumbled a few times. Actually it wasn't the boat's fault. Alfredo had never done a surf launch before. He swam twice and picked himself up each time and tried again until he did it successfully. One of the regular gang was showing off by playing in the surf zone and then capsized and had to wet exit in the shallow water. We were putting on quite a show for the beach goers on shore.
While helping Alfredo launch, I twisted, pulled or did something to my elbow and I thought it would get better as I exercised it on the paddle. We paddled to a very nice beach several miles west of Carpentaria and landed for leg stretching, snacks, etc. Almost everyone landed without incident. Alfredo did a great surf landing and didn't get wet at all.
I went scrounging drugs from everybody to ease the pain in my elbow. I had left my first aid kit in my car. George's first aid kit had some type of pill but we couldn't read enough of the label. It did say it was not to be used by aspirin sensitive people. If all else failed I was going to take that. John Ernst then came to my rescue and he gave me some Advil. I popped 2 and we launched to go back.
Everyone launched ok, although one paddler walked out past the breakers and decided to do a re-enter and roll to get back in the boat. The beach was a little difficult to launch from because it was so shallow. As water would float your boat, you couldn't paddle fast enough to get into deep water and you would again be left high and dry as the water rushed back out to sea. It took me 3 starts and stops before I had enough water to keep going (but as my wife keeps telling me, my boat requires a little more draft than most everybody else).
On the way back, David, John, and George left a little earlier so they could play in the surf at one of the surf spots. The rest of the group stayed with me at a very slow pace because of my elbow. Both Mike and Patrick offered a tow if I needed it. If it wasn't for the fact that at this point I could see our take-out, I probably would have accepted. We all landed at Butterfly without much problems. I don't recall anybody getting seriously wet on the landing. At this point, Peter came up to me and offered to carry my boat from the beach. Nobody has ever had to do this for me before, but this time I accepted Peter's offer. THANK YOU PETER!! and thanks to Mike and Patrick who kept offering the tow line to keep me going.
The only wildlife we saw today were some pelicans, assorted other birds and several sea lions in the kelp. After we loaded the boats and gear, most of us headed into SB for tacos at a little stand that George and John recommended.
Overall, it was a really fun day on the water. Pictures of the land portions of the day will be forwarded to Ray, but no pictures were taken on the water. I had my hands full just trying to keep up, and although Mike had a camera with him, he forgot to use it on the water.
See ya on the water,
Steve Holtzman
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