5/18/08 Expansion of my horizons was on call today. Not that I haven't done a twenty miler before--heck, just did one a couple weeks ago, but today we were heading off the coast farther than I'd ever been before! Destination Oil Rig Edith was a shake down cruise for next weeks paddle to Catalina. Before this paddle, my longest excursion off the coast was 4 or 5 miles looking for Blue Whales. Their were five, me, Duane, Ken, Bob and Steve of us getting an early 7am start from Alamitos Bay. Edith is 8 miles off shore, but with the harbor exit, we'd be puting in about twenty miles. Even at 6:30 this morning, it was already hot and we wondered what we had in store for us. Outside the harbor we'd be using Duane's crossing procedures--a smart way to keep the group together, safe and focused. Duane took the first stint in the lead and I followed, this being my first chance to navigate using a compass with a target out to see and as yet hidden in the haze. As my turn at the lead came next, I was lucky that I could hear all the early morning chatter behind me to keep track of the group to know they weren't falling too far behind. After a while, you could see occasional glimpses of Edith, but I tried to rely on the compass heading for practice. We rotated shifts and the mileage seemed to pass rather quickly as we passed closer rigs and large ships anchored off the coast. Many seals seemed lying about, their flipper stuck in the air either to cool off or warm up, we weren't sure which. Steve was our greyhound on the day, so when he led, I put my head down and hunkered in to keep up with him. We were glad to have a minimal breeze to at least keep the temps at bay a bit. Soon Edith was clear to see and we made our pass to the barking cheers of the seal sunning on the rig. We took an extended break and Bob, Duane and I indulged in Duane's traditional Edith Crossing Swim. It was nice to feel the complete coolness of the ocean, but soon Bob and Duane were back in their boats leaving me as the only shark bait. I decided to do a reentry roll, but on my first attempt, I came up sitting on my 64oz water bottle! After that my roll deserted me along with the plethora of water bottle floating around in my cockpit! While Ken gave me a bow, the rest of the group collected my belongings and we had no more excuse to linger with Edith. The first leg of the trip home seem to really drag for me. I think I was mostly PO'd that I'd missed my reentry roll! I was next in the lead and things settled down and mile came slowly but surely. Steve once again tried to show off on his lead, putting a few of us in a bit of hurt, but Duane threw a lasso on him. For the most part, it was just mind over matter as we kept paddling on through the occasional boat traffic. I think Ken and I were feeling it most at the end and since he's got at least ten years on me, I think I was the official slow poke. Be we all showed we have what it takes for next week's crossing. As I'm the only one in the group who's never made it, I guess I was most on trial. I don't have much fear of the first crossing, but I wonder how a couple nights of camping will recharge me for the twenty miler home. Today we ended the paddle with a trip for some fast food burritos. I'm hoping next week to stock up on Catalina Buffalo burgers! Mark Sanders www.sandmarks.net # *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:49 PDT