Trip #13: Muir Beach

Yesterday Anders, Nina, and I scheduled to practice getting in and out of waves.  Unintentionally, the waves created more than the usual challenge for us. Going in was fine, at least for A&N.  Nina got in first and then Anders jump in with me wading in to keep it stable.  They lost the oars for a sec but otherwise trouble-free.  I, on the other hand, had a rather tough time.   Stupidly, I tried to follow them quickly and did not take time to read the waves.  Sure enough I got tumbled massively and filled the entire kayak with water.  Only now did I find out that these kayak don't empty of water very easily.  I had to drag it up the shore a bit, open the zipper and turn it over to drain the water.  I did succeed in getting in the second time.

In the water the waves were quite high and I realized that I needed the spray skirt for the first time in awhile.  Luckily, we had brought and set up the skirt for A&N's kayak.  Another lesson I learned was that when a kayak fills with water, it puts a major cramp on your style/speed. 

Since we were a little tired and since we knew landing in these waves would be even more difficult we kept our time on the water short. I landed first with little problem.  A&N, however, had their troubles this time.  They landed fine but unfortunately the wave they landed on was quickly followed by another.  Nina was hit quite hard with the kayak, knocking her down and Anders got scraped up a bit.  

Needless to say we were very wet and cold afterward.  Even though I had put our wallets and phones in 3 bags, the water still got in...

The final lesson of the trip came today.  Since we were so cold and miserable, we did not properly dry the kayaks before we packed them.  This doubled the work and mess in cleaning them. A day of learning.