We awoke at first light to calm seas. It is not going to be an early departure and the carry will be a bit rocky. As we were loading our gear, Don discovers that his hat is missing. Hats are a necessity here so a quick trip to town is required.
We had to carry our kayaks and gear over the rocks
After several trips of ferrying loads, our boats were finally loaded. We are carrying lots of water and enough food for 12 days. We do not like to deck load our kayaks, but this was not an option for this trip.
At least they are still afloat! Wayne comes to the beach and we wave adios. We are off to unexplored coast line.
The seas are calm and our boats ride quite low. They feel more like tugs than a sporty kayak. It is always good to know that today our boats are the heaviest that they will ever be on this trip.
Heading North with our boats packed to the max.
We head out of the bay and paddle for about an hour, before we feel the need to take a stretch. Last time we were in our boats was August and our bodies need to adjust to sitting again.
Stretching always feels good.
We feel quite fortunate that we are having calm seas for the first day out. We have not been able to get a wind forecast so are back to doing a lot of now casts. With islands to the East of us and cliffs on the shore we are impressed with our vistas.
Taking a view break
The wildlife today was impressive. Lots of turtles, sea lions, whales and most likely a bobcat on the shore.
On days like this one can put in some miles. We do not expect to have a lot of days like this since we are heading into the windy part of the year here
When it is time to make camp we find a small arroyo that will be perfect for the night. The sun has set and the moon provides us with some light. For the past several long trips we have done we were able to make a lot of our meals in advance and dry them. This is not the case for this trip and we are back to making meals from scratch. They taste good it just takes a lot more time to prepare them. With our boats quite heavy our mileage was less than 2mph, still we are happy to be on the water and looking forward to tomorrow.
Mileage paddled 16.4 nautical miles