Shore Lines

Mendocino paddling.

Keyhole Pal

Mendocino Kayaking

A good day for paddling, though the swell was rising and that made free diving or scuba tricky with heavy surge and low visibility.

Risk Assessment

Mendocino sea-cave that leads through a cathedral arch to an amphitheatre.

The swell was a bit too high and the tide too low to pass through that arch safely. At a low tide, the bottom of the arch pinches inward, and with this swell a more skilled paddler could ride in on the wave, but the risk of being jammed down into that crevice was too high for me.

"Whirl is King" -- Aristophanes

Where Are You Headed?

Invitation to Exploration

Out To The Arch In The Fog

Looking south from Van Damme State Beach.  Past photos will show those rocks--the near-small and the further-larger--in bold bright sun.  Quite foggy here.  45 minutes earlier, the skies were blue with only fingers of fog in the distance.  This is about 9 a.m. or so.  The arch is off to the west--about 3 o'clock--beyond the margins of this photo.

I start my paddle out toward the arch that I can't quite see at this point.  The arch should be beyond those wash rocks in the distance here and off to the left a bit.

That mist-obscured hump behind the rocks in the distance . . . that's where the arch waits.

The arch beckons!  Note the wave energy off to the far right, but also the calm water amidst the kelp.  Since I was not sure how conditions would really be, I'm playing safe by kelp crawling here.

Closer yet, and I leave the thick kelp behind for a few moments.  Love the ripples in the water.  I spent a long time trying to capture the ripples and the swell moving through this area.  Not sure that I succeeded; check my earlier posts.

Slightly different photo from the one above.  I had meant to cut it from this entry, but don't you think the fog is getting just a bit thicker?

Quite close now.  I love having a goal.  I've dived down to collect abalone here in the past.

A better view of the archway.

The archway!  I didn't catch the right angle here, but that's not a paddle-through opening in the rock.  Generally, there's a rock floor visible or awash or lurking a foot below the surface.  I've been tempted to  dismount and climb in there, but the wave action's strong enough to take seriously most of the time.  I love paddling here.

General Notes:

I keep a compass on my kayak, just in case the fog gets really thick.  I enjoyed feeling my way into the fog, paying attention to the swell, the wind, and any currents in motion.

On this day, the fog kept moving in and out, thickening and lightening, as the morning moved on.  When I pulled up at 8 a.m. the sky was fairly bright and blue, but before 9 p.m. that fog had set in rather thickly.  None of that seemed to matter for most of the abalone divers greeting Day One of the resumed season.

In years past, I have collected abalone from the rocks in front of that arch.  I hear there's a 45-foot drop off on the other side of the arch with abundant and bigger abalone waiting there.  I haven't explored that yet, and 45 feet of Nor Cal depth is different than Hawaiian depth: colder, denser, murkier, sharkier.  Just saying.

If I find the right dive partner . . . .

Note: This isn't that Arch Rock down Blind Beach way.  That one's still on my to-do list.

On The Kelp-Road, Annotated

Or, Foggy Arch Beckons.

I like the slanty bit of swell lifting up here with the arch-rocks straight and steady in the background.

Look at the satiny texture of that water too.  The kelp has smoothed out that swell so well.  Note also the splash of a breaking wave behind and to the right of the wave face in front of us.  There's some of the energy that the kelp is leveling out.  (Though "leveling out" may seem a strange phrase when we are looking at the rolling incline, yes?)

Arch Rock: Anticipation

I want to kayak that arch. Maybe Saturday.

This morning, I didn't even know the arch was there and couldn't see it because of the fog. Here's the afternoon prospect; I took the shot on my way home after a solid workout on the river.