Peter O spoke with me on Friday to tell me that although it was blowing hard in LA County, there was no wind in Oxnard and the water was flat. The only problem was that it was foggy.

George Miller and Mike Brown called me yesterday as they were driving to Northern CA to tell me that the winds in Oxnard were only gusting to 10 knots and the water didn't have any whitecaps on it---all good signs.

Today, the sky was dark with smoke, the sun was bright orange, and there was no wind when I left the house. Chris Wood called just before I arrived at the put-in to ask about the wind. That's when I noticed all of the trees were bent from the blowing winds.

I was ready to call Len and Chris to tell them we were going to cancel, but I remembered that I did not have cell phone numbers for the 2 newer paddlers joining us. It's a good thing I didn't, because a few other paddlers showed up who had not RSVP'd. The reason we usually ask for RSVP's is so that we can notify people in the event of any last minute changes.

I arrived at CIH just before Len and we were estimating the winds at 15 - 20 knots inside of the harbor. Soon Chris, Paul Jonathon, Tim Werner, Kevin Harris, and Rosalio Trejo joined Len and me. We all discussed the weather for a while and decided the wind was too strong for a coastal paddle but that we would do a trip around the harbor. Of course, as you can see from the pictures, the tide was too high for us to get under the bridge, so we had to go around from both directions in order to get any type of paddling. We cut it short because nobody really wanted to be out for any length of time in all of the ash and smoke. The wind did start dying down as we paddled and by the time we finished, it was just about calm.

Instead of Daddio's--the group went to Baker's Square for lunch where we regaled ourselves with tales of bravado and carnage--since there was none of either on today's paddle.

It still was better to be on the water and paddling instead of staying home and watching the ashes fall.

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    Steve Holtzman

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