[CKF Info] [Paddlewise] Day #42, Pig Town Jig

[Tomitacat at aol.com]

You know you're being humored when people tell you that you're a good  
paddler and you almost made it out through the surf.  That's  code for "OMG, what 
happened."  As I was paddling into the surf, I felt a  little conflicted.  I 
heard shouts of "go, go, go" and "hold where you are"  and "stop!"  So, I did 
what anyone would do.  I didn't do anything --  bad decision.  Anyway, I was 
prepared for the surf launch because I  wore a semi-dry top and my helmet.  To add 
salt to the wound, Tsunami  Chuck (a.k.a. Samisen Chuck) successfully 
negotiate the surf with only half of a  paddle.  Shish!
 
Ken and Mark did a good job with the Herbrew National hot dogs with  gourmet 
wheat buns and room temperature catsup and mustard.  Yum.  The  food tasted 
great. The weather was perfect and the company was marginal  (lol).  It really 
was a lot of fun.  Hope more folks will join us for  the next Pig Town Jig.  
However, next time I vote for having the  picnic at the Coast Guard beach -- no 
surf launches or landings.
 
A message from Barb Tomita 

 
In a message dated 5/15/2008 12:42:00 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
sandmarks at ca.rr.com writes:

5/14/08

Things seemed to conspire to sabotage our Crystal Cove  Hot Dog Paddle this
evening, but the desire for tasty, albeit mysterious  meat products overcame
all obstacles!

It started when I came across  Ken and Barb on the road heading to the beach
and realized I had forgotten  the pan to cook the weenies. So unless we
wanted to cook them over an open  fire with our fingers, I had to head back.
I had gotten an early start, so  it wasn't too bad a set back. The Secret
Beach was almost deserted which  made launching pretty easy and I soon glided
to a stop at the Coast Guard  beach to join the rest of the group. Ken and
Barb were there with Dave  O'Connor and Chuck Freedman, with only one
snag--Dave and Chuck had both  forgotten their paddles! Only Barb had brought
a backup paddle to loan to  the unfortunate, so we hoped for Duane to arrive
to see if he had brought a  spare. No such luck, but Chuck did have half a
Tooksook paddle in his car  and so used it for the paddle!

We all set out a few minutes past 5pm,  but Duane wanting more of a workout
decided to do a lap around the island  and to catch up with us on the beach.
We were a motley group paddling out,  but Chuck with his half paddle kept up
fine. Outside the harbor, Ken and  Dave went to check out an inflatable boat
seemed abandoned and floating in  the kelp. I made a bee line for the Arch
and made a few passes through the  playful water. After my last pass, I saw
the group heading on down with me  quite a ways behind. It wasn't till we
were almost at CC that I noticed Ken  was no where to be seen. Even now that
Duane had caught up with us, there  was no sight of Ken! Turns out he'd
decided to hang out at the missing  dingy to call it in to the Harbor Patrol.
His good deed took a bit longer  than expected because he couldn't hear the
HP over the radio through the  closed ear vents on his new Gath helmet!! He
arrived with all of us but  Barb on the shore and sent her in on the tails of
a large set, which she  handled with ease.

We set up hot dog camp and I brought out my surprise  for the night. In my
back hatch(thank heaven for QCC hatches), I had the  world's second cheapest
guitar. Second cheapest only because I'd just put  new strings on it. I
figured I had a captive audience, I might as well  abuse them with a song or
two. Ken got the hot dogs cooking and Chuck  treated me to an overpriced
beer. Duane and Barb both played some licks on  the guitar and we got down to
serious dog munching. After dessert of tasty  brownies, I once again realized
I'm not ready for an audience without a few  margaritas in me, as I butchered
my version of "Four Wet Pigs", which  seemed so appropriate for this paddle.
Perhaps I did a bit better with my  two other songs, but Barb made the guitar
sound beautiful as she and Ken  tried to finish a duet. But the sun was
getting low and Barb was itching  for a surf launch, so we closed shop and
headed for the boats.

I got  out quickly and despite the cool temps decided to do some punching in
the  shore break. Barb got sent off the shore at an inopportune time and
while I  shouted at her to keep going, the shore crowd told her to stop and
she got  hit full on by a goodly sized wave and sent back surfing to shore! I
missed  it, but I heard there was quite a bit of carnage involved, but soon
she was  back out and launching over another big one. Paddles being scarce on
this  trip, Dave was force to launch with a GP and seemed to be stuck in
neutral  in some of the shore break even while his paddle seemed revved into
high  gear! He made it out, but it didn't help bolster his opinion of
traditional  paddles.

Soon we were all headed home, paddling beneath a beautiful  sunset. Despite
our set backs, we managed to down some tasty puppies and  all return safely.
It started iffy, but turned out to be a great paddle,  funny how that
happens. I left the group at the CG beach and returned to my  Secret Spot.
With high tide, I was only about 15 feet from my car. I threw  my paddles an
such in the back, but when I came back for my boat, it had  decided to wander
down the harbor a bit. I managed to corral it a few docks  down before it
made me take a swim. What a great day on the  water!

Mark  Sanders
www.sandmarks.net

#
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