This was kind of a spur of the moment paddle. Vincent called me and said "let's paddle" so off we went! We launched from Spooner's Cove at 8:15. The swell was real small, but it was also real foggy. I was a might concerned about it, but I had the compass and the bearings, and Vincent has no fear, so I sucked it up and off we went. Vincent hadn't kayaked this route before and he was real excited about rock gardening the caves and arches and reefs south of the cove. He was in and out and over ALL of them! Rocks and breaking waves worry me, but Vincent's enthusiasm is contagious and with his help, I finally went into some of the bigger caves and around some of the rocks. It's so beautiful through there. It was fun! We continued down the coast this way until we could make out Lion Rock in the fog at about 10:30. This landmark is where the 1 mile security zone around Diablo Canyon Power Plan starts. At that point we headed out to sea along the compass heading timing it to be sure we got a mile out. It was foggy! We absolutely could not see land which was a brand new experience for me. It's an odd sensation, but being with Vincent, it wasn't a scary one. After about 20 minutes (which was actually too long, we ended up more like 2 miles out), we turned left and followed our new heading down the coast.

Eventually we could make out Pecho Rock to our left through the fog in the distance and adjusted course towards it. We paddled past it, admiring all the barking sea lions on it. We landed on one of the beaches along there for a lunch break and then we were off again. The fog had lifted enough to see land and we had the small bit of wind and swell there was behind us and we reached the end of the breakwater at 1:20. We surfed the wind swell all the way to Shell and landed there at 2:00. It was an awesome, awesome trip! The pictures are at this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21735874@N03/sets/

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Kat and I's original plan was to put in at Cayucos just north of the pier at 8 a.m. and paddle up to China Harbor and back. Unfortunately for us, the 4th of July Parade was in preparation and we couldn't park anywhere. The parking lot Nazis were making sure that nobody could get to the beach. Major bummer.

So we decided to head up to Cambria and launch from Leffingwell Landing and paddle up to San Simeon Beach.

We're glad we did. It was a great day. The swell was non-existent, the wind was only a breeze, and the sun came out on our way up to San Simeon.

It was a pretty uneventful trip north. We ended up paddling a ways out to sea to avoid the massive kelp beds, and we saw some sea otters in the kelp although they were too shy for us to get pictures.

We landed at San Simeon just south of the pier 2 hours after we launched. We had a quick bite to eat, and then re-launched as we were concerned about the wind.

The wind never got stronger on our way back. It stayed perfect--just a slight breeze to help push us along.

Kat saw a whale breach off in the distance. I was disappointed I missed it; it's not too often you get to see that.

About a mile north of Leffingwell, we noticed a zodiac type raft bearing down on us. We were a bit concerned as to its intentions, but it turned out to be Fish and Game wardens checking to see if we were fishing and had licenses. They were very nice, and after assuring themselves we were "just kayakers", they motored off.

We landed back at Leffingwell about 1 p.m.--an hour and a half from San Simeon Beach.

Although our original plan went south, it was a really great, great day on the water. Just beautiful.

Thanks, Kat!

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