In January I took a break from work and the winter rains and wind (it blew 60mph here last night) of southeast Alaska and went to the Todos Santos islands, located about 4 miles off the pacific coast near Ensenada, Mexico (about three hours drive south of San Diego, Ca.) The Todos Santos are composed of two islands each about one half mile in length. The trip was led by Ed Gillette of Southwest Kayaks. Ed is famous for kayaking from Calif. to Hawaii and other amazing kayak adventures. He is leaving the tour business after 15 years and is planning to write a book about his kayak adventures. This was one of his last trips before retiring. We drove down from San Diego on Saturday. The start was interesting with a surf launch into some fair sized breakers. Everyone made it but there were some anxious moments for some. I was using a paddle (a Swift) that was new to me and it took me a little bit getting used to. In fact by the time I got used to it I was past the breakers! The most interesting part was landing on the islands. The beach(?) was in a small cove that was shaped so that it compressed the swells and the waves broke steep and quick! The beach itself was rocky and steep adding to the drama! Since I had surf landing experience I landed with Ed to help "catch" everyone else. This meant grabbing the bow of the kayak and getting the person out of the boat before the next wave broke on top of them. fun, fun. The island we were on was a bird colony with western gulls, brown pelicans and blue footed boobies. Nesting season had yet to begin so our presence was not a major disturbance to the birds. However Ed made sure we didn’t hike into sensitive areas. Each evening at sunset the birds would take to the air by the hundreds, fly in wave like formations and squawk and squawk. It was as if they were saying goodbye to the sun. Then the next morning at dawn they would take to the air again and greet the morning sun. Most enjoyed this but a few others said it reminded them of Hitchcocks movie "The Birds" A small colony of sealions lived on one of the rocks near the island and as we would paddle in each day one or two would follow each kayak in "enjoying the show". Each day we would jump in the kayaks and launch from our beach into the surf. A few people flipped but eventually everyone made it. We would paddle out two miles beyond the islands and sit and watch for migrating gray whales. Each day we saw several as they would swim by in groups of 2 to 6. They were headed to Baja to calve and breed before returning to the arctic to feed. We had several close encounters of the "whale kind". One whale surfaced within 30 feet of Wayne of paddlewise fame. It was moving fast and lurched to duck under his kayak just in time! I thought for a second we would have to change Wayne’s name to Jonah. Afterwards we began to refer to close whale encounters as a "Wayne moment". Between the two islands were a set of waves called "the killers" because some fishermen and some surfers have been killed there. (this may be a myth but the name stuck). When El Nino was kicking up big surf a couple years ago a surf board co. offered $50,000. to who ever surfed a 50ft. wave. Guess where the prize was won at...that’s right "the killers". What was unique about the waves was they broke diagonal to the gap between the islands so you could paddle beside them without being in the break. We watched surfers surf past us without having to worry about the surf break. Strange but true. On Monday everyone left leaving me solo for five days. I enjoyed the experience of being alone with the birds and God. A distant storm began to push in some big swells which made launching and landing rather interesting. Still each day I made it out and saw more and more whales. One day while waiting I saw two whales coming and figured they would pass in front of me. They figured different and turned toward me! Let’s just say it was close (15 ft maybe). One was a big lady covered with barnacles! She ducked under my boat and kept on moving. I think they enjoy scarring kayakers. Something to do on the 3000 mile journey. On Saturday the next group paddled out to the island. Ed had warned me that some of them were not very experienced. No kidding! One guy had never paddled before and another was about 70 and had a fused leg from childhood polio. I admired him for giving it a go. His life story told that night around the campfire was one of not letting his leg hold him back from life’s adventures. However he provided all of us with an anxious moment. He missed a paddle signal while coming into the beach and wound up doing an "ender" in the surf just a few feet from the beach! Luckily he did an unintentional pirouette and managed to land on his side rather than the top of his head! it was a close call. During this weekend Ed Gillette and a marine biologist paddled off by themselves and saw what they believed was a newborn whale (hours old maybe) The mom was lifting the baby out of the water to breathe. A Mexican tour boat was circling the mom and calf for a better look, apparently unaware of the stress they were causing the mom whale. The mom actually swam the calf over to the kayaks to get it away from the tour boat. Although I would have liked to have seen this sight we agreed that a flotilla of kayaks would have greatly stressed the mom. On Monday we headed in. We had to surf in through the breakers. Ed had me go first to "catch" while he gave surfing lessons. A couple people flipped but no one was injured. I learned a lot about kayaking and leadership from Ed Gillette. He has the unique ability to tell stories of his adventures without sounding egotistical. All and all it was a great trip. I sometimes think back to the gulls taking to the air each dawn to greet the sun. Ah, that we all would celebrate each new day with the same joy. Bob Sitka *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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