We started time at the harbor mouth as we paddled towards Gina. Most of the boats were fully loaded as if for a 3-5 days camping trip. Henk, on his SOT, found the handling characteristics of his boat quite different with a load and turned back at Gina when he realized he was making a correction stroke for every forward stroke. There were 2+ foot wind waves coupled with an early westerly current.
George and Dublin Dave took a far lead. John Desbrow and I were paddling fairly close for a while when we were greeted by some large sea creature, possibly a small whale, coming vertically totally out of water and dropped back down. My GPS died en route so I was dead reckoning and directing my boat towards George and Dave. We all maintained what we thought was an adequate ferry angle but as we approached the island we were all, in turn, carried to the landing dock area. Paddling back to Cathedral Cove against the wind was tiring.
George landed first at about 2:50 followed quickly by Dublin Dave and I came in just over 3:04. The rest followed shortly. We rested on the rocky beach and began launching at about 1015 hours and were met by increasing winds to 20+ kt with and increasing westerly swell and breaking wind waves. Just enough to make things interesting and keep us practicing our bracing skills.
Lonesome George was the first to land after releasing his greyhound instincts just after passing Gina. The rest of us followed with an average return time of about 3.5 hours. Not too shabby considering that our entrance into the harbor had winds directly in our face making it the hardest part of the trip.
We finished up at Big Daddy-O's to replenish the calories burned.
A good trip that left some of us with tingling feet from the foot pegs, John P with a sore lower back and all of us somewhat tired (read exhausted) from the push but feeling elated at the accomplishment.
Another great day on the water--no capsizes, no broken boats, no broken bones and everybody that went, returned. What more can one ask for?
Mike Brown