Cambria, off the Ranch 5/3

Drive up to meet PJ at the stairs on the north end of Marine Terrace, he likes to launch there.

On arrival I wandered out to the stairs to check out the launch, which is basically a paddle out through a rough rocky chute into rows of breaking walled sections. My first thought was "PJ is crazy" and right about then The Man comes walking up the stairs. He noticed I was looking at the breakers and said "it looks worse that it is". Oooookay. But sure enough, we both made it out without a hitch. It was just a matter of being patient, picking the right line, and knowing when to put the "paddle to the metal". Harvey Street is still an easier launch though, and PJ is still a little crazy.

We had a few strikes but nothing landed. Light fog, cold, choppy water with bad visibility. Combined swell made for some big sets, including one big rogue breaking way outside on the paddle in. After that I think we both had one eye on the horizon the rest of the way in.

Then the strangest thing happened...

A Fish and Game Warden pulled up and checked us for fish, checked our licenses and made sure we knew where the new boundary was. In all our years neither of us had ever seen a Warden down in that area before. Weird. It was like he knew we were there. He was cool though. He had been up and down the coast in a skiff the day before and said nobody’s really catching anything so far. No surprise there, the water is just too cold and too stirred-up right now.

The most fun part was the launch & the landing!!!  What can you do, we weren't even sure we were landing back @ our launch spot from 20 yards off the beach, the fog was that thick!

My biggest problem was for the first time in years I was on the verge of loosing my cookies.  I was on the edge even gurguling & tasting bile (oversharing, I know).  I turned into the swell & paddled backwards & that seemed to calm my stomach.  I had to go home & lay down for an hour before I felt right again.  That's what you get for looking @ your GPS in the fog.

We just gotta wait for the dang wind to stop blowin, but of course again it looks like it's blowing 20-25 again.

Nice to get out there again, looking forward to it calming down.

fog is tough... I'm not launching in fog anymore.