Disappointment salvage

What now?

Today we headed down to St. Mary's Bay hoping to do some kayak surfing. The remnants of Hurricane Katia had passed by on Saturday and huge swell was forecast along the south coast of the Avalon.

A check of buoy data at the mouth of the bay indicated a swell of 2.2 meters straight up into the bay. I fully expected to find good surfing conditions at Point La Haye. Huge disappointment. There was huge swell alright but only where it broke over the shallow underwater extension of the point. No green water at all. Only water being stood up and turning to foam. There would be no surfing.

I felt bad for suggesting the location. We had driven over an hour so we were going to paddle anyway. Once everyone had gotten on the water safely we decided to paddle down to St. Mary's, the community.

Wide berth

The swell at the point was awe inspiring. Getting caught in it would have meant getting trashed and possibly seriously injured. We steered a wide berth.

Heading north

Once out of danger of getting caught in the breaking swell we turned and headed north to St. Mary's. While it wasn't suitable for kayak surfing, the swell did make things interesting along the shore.

Around the stack

Paddling around rocks and this sea stack meant careful timing. Mistimed and there would be a surprise.

Almost there

We made it to St. Mary's and stopped on a beach just out of sight for lunch. The wind came up and made for a bit of a slog on the return paddle. It was only 13 kms paddled today (felt like more though) but we made the best of it. I'm reminded of the Stones song ... "you can't always get what you want ... but if you try sometimes ... you might find ... you get what you need."

And, that today, was to get on the water.