[Paddlewise] Day #66, Chillin' with the Otters

8/2/08

Eight of us were undaunted by an early morning shuttle or the 22NM nature of
our paddle from Dana Point to Oceanside this morning. It was our chance to
paddle with Rogue Otters Jerry and Brett to help celebrate the final days of
their epic paddle. My vow to give up long paddles after my Catalina
milestone seems to have fallen by the wayside after last weeks SB paddling
and today's challenge. Still it was a beautiful morn as we headed south
under cloudy skies.

Who knew otters could talk so well! We were regaled with stories non stop
for the first hour. For some reason, the talk died for a short time and
Duane reminded us that this paddle was too long to run out of conversation
already! He was right; as soon as the talk had died, I was thinking about
how many miles and hours lay before us. No worries, the chat started again
and was never too far away during the rest of the paddle.

We were soon passing close by to Trestles where many surfers were out
enjoying the nice waves. Although we were pretty far out, a lifeguard
informed us that kayaks weren't allowed in the area and asked us to head out
least a "rogue" wave knock us to shore! We figure he was just showing off
for his surfer friends! We continued on to San O where I snuck in to the
kayak surf area to catch a nice ride. With my fancy camera in my cockpit, I
decided to limit myself to the one good ride and headed back out through the
incoming sets as Duane came in for a ride. I was able to punch through a
couple nice waves to get a bit of air on the back side--well worth the three
hours to get there!

We continued on past the unrelenting shore. As we closed in on Camp
Pendleton, we could see a Navy hovercraft way up ahead shooting up plumes of
water. We paddled on thinking a patrol boat would show up at any minute to
kick us out of the area, but Honorary Rogue Otters for the day, we didn't
care! Ahead in the mist we could just make out the tall condos that marked
the Oceanside harbor.

An hour away from the harbor, Jerry decided to head out solo for a little
speed work. I don't care if he did just paddle 1200 miles, I wasn't gonna
let him dis us CKF paddlers, so I headed out with him. I may have had to
work a bit harder to keep the pace than he did, but we were moving pretty
good there for a while. At our last break, I had asked Duane for some Advil
because of some pain in my leg and trying to keep up with Jerry helped me
forget it. It was nice to have Jerry alone to hear more of his amazing trip.

We decided to hold up and soon the group caught up so we could make the
harbor entry together. The water around the harbor entrance was a bit messy,
but the water was warm and felt great coming over my bow. It was a busy
harbor as we paddled over to the dock to land and I'm sure we were all sad
it ended so quickly!!! Despite their many travels and the long day, the
Rogue Otters carried my boat up ramp to the parking lot and while I took my
gear to Duane's car, I was more than happy when Dennis and Dave carried my
boat to the car! Dave said "it sounded like a good idea at the time, but now
it just seems stupid"!

It had been an epic paddle, my longest to date. Jerry and Brett were always
full of stories which made the time go by nicely. I loaded up with Duane for
the trip home and as we headed out, we saw the Otters, stuck till Dennis
came back from Doheny with the Car. Duane gave them one last blow on the
conch shell. Of course, the Otters had already made friends with some guy in
an RV and he pulled out a plastic horn to give Duane as good as he gave. A
fitting end to a great paddle.

Mark Sanders
www.sandmarks.net

 #
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