Kayaking at Point Lobos

Woke up at 6:30am in order to get to Santa Cruz by 8am. This is the part of sea kayaking that I don't like. Since the ocean tends to be more calm during the morning hours, most trip starts early in the morning. Given it is about an hour drive on the hilly Highway 17 to the coast, I sometimes wish I am staying on the ocean front:)

We met up at the carpool location. From there, it is another hour of van ride to Point Lobos. This time Dave Johnston , our tour guide, drove, so I was able to catch up on more sleep.

We launch at Carmel River State Beach. This beach is beautiful! It is quite wide and deep(by Nor-Cal standards:), with a cliff on one side. The water front dips quickly, so there's not too much wave. The sand, however is not fine, but like small pieces of granite, making moving the kayaks literally painful:(

The weather on Sunday was slightly gloomy, but not windy, so conditions was just right for kayaking!

As with previous trip, Dave have people sit in their kayak on the sand and he pushes the kayaks into the ocean. The first kayak launched successfully, but the second flipped! Not an auspicious start!

It took us about another 15mins to launch all the kayaks, including relaunching the one that flipped. Just as we kayak past the kelp forest, into open sea, one of the kayaker felt seasick. We had to go the next cove and unloaded him. Like I say, not an auspicious start.

Coming out of that cove, we went into blue fish cove. In the kelp forest there, we observed lots of wild life. Dave was able to pick up a jelly fish in the water. It was quite a sight to the translucent animal in the water. We also saw a crab. It was curious enough to climb onto our paddle. Big mistake, as I was thinking about salt and pepper crab...Luckily for the, we decided there was no room in the kayak for it, and it would live another day:)

From Blue Fish cove, we paddle between rocks to go into another cove, whose name I forgot. Paddling between rocks can be dangerous because the waves are strong between the rocks, but all of us made it through safely.

In that cove, we saw a baby seal. The animal was sticking its head out of the water, curiously observing us. It is so cute! We also saw red moss and majestic cypress tree, growing on the cliff face, barely hanging on to anything.

There was no real beach near Carmel River State Beach, so we were not able to rest on this trip. We explored about 2 more coves and started heading back. The trip back is quite uneventful and all kayaks got onto shore without flipping.

We were on the sea for a total of about 3 hours. At one point, I was a little hungry and felt a little seasick. I had packed a sandwich, but since we did not stop, was not able to eat it. I should have brought along a power bar, which can be eaten on the go.

Despite the bad start and a little seasickness, I had a good time. Going on the water is always exciting for me and the view of the rugged shoreline from the sea was quite a treat. I would not recommend this trip for beginner however, since the sea is somewhat rough.

Pictures will be posted after I had my pictures have been developed. I need to buy waterproof casing for my digital camera on future trips.