Eleven paddlers decided to get up at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning in order to meet Len Goodman at 8:00 am at Cabrillo Beach just outside of the Los Angeles Harbor. As we unloaded boats, gear, and changed clothes - we noticed a little confusion amongst most of the paddlers. Nobody was really sure if we were supposed to have been meeting at 8:00 or ready to go at 8:00.
At 8:45 AM everybody who was going was finally ready to launch. The paddlers
were:
Mike Bode
Bob Hammond
Carol Fallon
Ann Berkery
Ken Fry
Barbara Tomita
Henry Pilcher
Kathy Pilcher
Beverly
Paul
Terry
Len Goodman
Steve Holtzman
It almost looked like Derek Hutchinson demo days with all of the boats on the beach. There were 12 closed deck boats and half of them were designed by Derek. There was one Andromeda, two Siroccos, and three Gulfstreams.
Trip host and former Naval Officer Len Goodman called us to a briefing where we all introduced ourselves and told a little about our paddling experience. Len then gave a safety talk about how we would cross the channel in a formation called "Ships in Column" as opposed to "Ships in Line."
We then launched without any incident into the two inch surf and paddled to the start of the main channel. Len then held up the group as we waited for all to get caught up. We then started across and our new found skills of formation paddling soon degenerated into the normal gaggle of paddlers. Len held the group up in the middle to wait for a whole bunch of boats, ships, etc, coming and going into the harbor.
At that point the CG (auxiliary?) yelled at us that we were stopped in the middle of a shipping lane. I told them that we were waiting to cross behind the fireboat that was coming up.
The group then paddled close to the eastern side of the channel towards the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Len took the lead and I paddled at the tail of the group to make sure we didn't lose anybody. All of us felt extremely small as we paddled next to the container ships tied up for loading and unloading.
We took a break at the bridge and then Len said let's paddle to the other side of the channel before we turn back. As he set out, NOBODY followed him. When he was 1/2 way across, I mentioned to everyone that we really ought to be paddling with him. Since nobody wanted to lead, I took the lead crossing.
Once we were across, Len started out with the group following him. They stopped to let the slower paddlers catch up when they were right next to a passenger cruise ship. This brought our second warning of the day as the Harbor Patrol started using their bull horn to get us to move away from the cruise ship.
At this point, we could see the Tall Ships coming in. There were about eight of them that we saw. Len and Mike Bode paddled into the middle of the channel to get some pictures, while the rest of us stayed close to the sides.
Paddling next to the restaurants, we were treated to sights of copulating sea lions, masticating humans, fire boats with all of their nozzles spraying, and loads of pelicans and gulls.
We continued paddling into what is normally called Hurricane Alley because of the fierce afternoon head winds only to find that we only had about a 5 knot head wind and no wind surfers out.
There were a few large boat wakes to surf, and I surfed one through the pier pilings. For some reason (smarter than me?) nobody else joined me going through the pier.
We landed on the beach, cleaned and loaded boats and most of the group set up for a very nice pot luck lunch. My only disappointment of the day was that I did not get to try out any of the rescue features of my new Rescue PFD.
Steve Holtzman
Directions to the launch are as follows: Directions: From the 405 Freeway, go south towards San Pedro on the 110 Freeway, which will end and becomes Gaffey, go left on 22nd Street, go right on Pacific Avenue, go left on 36th/Stephen White Street, go left into Cabrillo Park.
My favorite moment of the day was when one of the sea lions took a fancy to one of our female paddlers and lunged at her boat! THERE was a Kodak moment if ever there was one (that unfortunately went unrecorded).