[Paddlewise] The Expendables

The hysteria started a little early this year! The OC Register ran a 
photo of an early Blue Whale visit the other day and talk of a hunt 
wasn't far behind. With the OC Marathon clogging up my usual haunt, I 
didn't mind heading out today on a wild goose chase!

Debra and I set off too close to 8 to quibble. Ken, Barb and Dave had 
set out an hour earlier, so there was some thought of catching them on 
the sea. It was a super clear day, so as we made our way out of the 
jetty, I thought it shouldn't be too long before we saw them bobbing about.

We aimed for a small buoy and soon could see it was occupied by a couple 
paddlers. But when we got closer, we found two paddle boarder resting 
before the trek home. They said they'd seen no kayakers, so we started 
heading a bit farther up the coast.

Soon I saw a group of 5 kayakers and I could tell Barb's Pilgrim was in 
there. Debra took an inside angle to intercept them, as they seemed to 
be abandoning the hunt for a coastal paddle. As we got a bit closer, I 
was sure they'd stop and wait for us, but for the first time in my life, 
I was wrong! Debra was far ahead to my right when I started thinking I 
came to hunt whales, not Ken and Barb! They weren't trying to make it 
easy for me to catch up, so I decided to return to whale hunt 
mode--sitting idly on the water!

Soon I was all alone. I can only assume that by how close Catalina 
looked, I must be half way there. Truth be told, I couldn't be 
disappointed on the day, as I had no hopes of seeing a whale and just 
wanted an excuse to sit on the water and enjoy the beautiful coast! And 
this was an exceptionally beautiful day.

A whale watching boat took up residence a mile off my starboard bow, but 
I didn't figure they'd have any more luck than I. All of a sudden, I was 
sitting up in my boat and sprinting in their direction! I saw something 
dark rising slightly out of the water. Following along, I saw it again, 
but no spout or tail. I figured if It was a whale, the boat would have 
spotted it by now and they weren't moving an inch, so I wonder if I'd 
seen a pod of dolphins rising. Anyway, looking at the boat still quite 
distant, I could see the kayak group on their return leg.

I remained lollygagging in the Lollygagger as Debra and Ken paddled up 
to me. Debra splashed me with water and asked in mock indignation where 
I'd been the whole time! Turns out as she finally joined the group, 
she'd seen a kayak the same color as mine and assumed I'd joined them on 
my separate tack. When after a while she realized it wasn't me, they all 
looked around and couldn't see me anywhere on the water! It was as if a 
Blue Whale had swallowed me whole! They actually paddled to the whale 
boat to ask if they could see me and they pointed me out.

So we all paddled home mostly together. Debra was happy not to have lost 
a kayaker on her first paddle after all that training. We pretended that 
next time we'd bring radios and try to stay in better contact, but 
really, who wants to do that! I paddle solo and/or abandon the group so 
often, it's best to accept that maybe I should just be assumed to be 
expendable!

Mark

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