Met Steven Liu and his two friends Tim and Jerry at Ocean Cove, morning of May 12. I’m looking forward to my Ocean Kayak Trident’s maiden voyage. After many hours setting up all my gear and figuring out where everything will go I’m eager to give it a try.
Tim needed to rent gear so we headed up to Gualala where there is a hardware store that does day rentals. After we got Tim all set up and got sandwiches at the market we headed north towards Point Arena. Steven joined me to navigate and not far north he indicated a spot to turn off. A small dirt lot at a place called Moat Creek. There’s a dirt path to the beach. We walked down to see the conditions and it looks pretty good.
Steven couldn’t find his kayak carts so we need carry our kayaks in pairs down the long path which is a lot more work than I was expecting. I’ll be buying my own wheels now! Finally I get in the water while the three of them are finishing preparing. A harbor seal bobs nearby checking out the newcomers. Soon Steven joins me and is paddling straight out with me following. We go pretty far out and finally decide to drop down and check it out.
I put on my fins, mask, and snorkel, and take my iron attached to a float line to explore before clipping on to some kelp. I dive a few times and the viz looks pretty good, maybe 8-10 feet. Seeing abs and I pull a legal one right off. Drop that in the bag and tow my kayak a little deeper towards Steven. I pull an 8 inch ab next, it’s in the bag, move out more towards Steven. Now I dive and see lots of BIG abs. As usually regret pulling the first couple I see but seems like I do it every time. I find kelp close enough to the surface to clip to and start diving. One huge ab has a starfish on it. It is clamped down hard though and can’t get my iron under it. Don’t want to kill it so leave it. Soon I do pull a 9 inch one for my personal best. Drop that in my bag and pull out the pole spear.
Not seeing any fish just schooling so am going to poke around in the rocks. Not seeing much. Steven is again way out there. On one surface I look for him and see him pulling a big fish out of the water. I’m going to go join him. It’s on! Unfortunately as soon as I go to unclip my kayak I hear Tim yelling in the distance. He’s drifted 100 yards or more south and seems to be having a problem. I get on the kayak and head over to help him. Looks like he can’t get back on his kayak. I paddle around and come alongside his to hold it for him. He manages to get on. We start paddling back north but we’ve drifted pretty far now. Also his kayak seems to have taken on water as it’s riding low in the back. I escort Tim back to near where we launched and consider going out to join Steven but quickly decide to just stay with Tim all the way in.
We paddle back in and drag our kayaks up the rocky beach. I would have liked to have shot fish with Steven but consider my first time out on the kayak a major success. Got my abalone limit with a personal best. The kayak should be a great dive platform for both free diving and maybe some line fishing too.
Later when cleaning my Abs the largest one has my first pearl! A small teardrop shaped one a little smaller than a nickel. I get to try my new slicer on these and it makes some perfect abalone steaks we simmer in butter, white wine, and garlic.
