22 February 2006

was, as it turns out, not a half-bad day for a mid-week paddle. Paula, Lila and I met Dennis at Cadboro Bay about 9:00 and got the boats in the water. Dennis very kindly lent Lila his boat, which made dealing with the transportation issue that much easier. Paula took the Pamlico 100 and Lila paddled Dennis' Advanced Design and while they were playing about in the bay (this being Lila's first time in a kayak), Dennis and I went for coffee. When we got back to the beach, Lila and Paula were already back onshore, having spent the better part of an hour on the water. Lila was is a great mood, very excited about having tried a new sport--particularly one that had recently been described to her as "extreme" by one of the staff at Pacifica Paddlesports. She had purchased an O'Neil 3/2 wetsuit the day before at Sportstraders, so she was feeling both warm and confident. Overall, she had a blast poking around the nearshore.
Then Dennis and I snagged the boats and put out. After a bit of sprayskirt trouble , we headed out to the southside of the bay, eventually working our way around the point and into Willows bay. There was a fair bit of wind, causing me no little trouble with weathercocking (the boat turning into the wind rather than maintaining a set course). The wind seemed to be coming from our two o'clock, making the paddle an effort--no paddle-and-pause today! Just keep paddling! But once we made the point, we spun around and coasted in front of the wind back to the entrance to Cadboro Bay. We kept moving in and out of windshadows, but overall we had a terrific time.