Kayaking to Catalina - Underway at Last

The dawn is barely a rumor on the horizon, so everyone wears headlamps as well as reflective gear as they push into the low surf at Cabrillo Beach. Delayed a week due to illnesses and a questionable weather forecast, kayakers from the UCLA Marina Aquatic Center set out on October 8th to achieve their summer kayaking goal: to paddle from Cabrillo Beach to Catalina Island.

"We put in at about 5:40am," says David Salper. "You could only see the dancing blips of your comrades' headlamps and the stars.”

Lead instructor, Brendan Nelson, and fellow UCLA instructors Anthea Raymond (editor of the Silver Lake Patch), Steve Goldman, and Bob Gurfield met students Mary Drenick, Wanderley Reis, David Salper, Evelyn Nguyen, John DeRago, and teaching assistants Sung Byun and Allison Gunn, at the UCLA MAC at 3:30am to load the kayaks and then drive to San Pedro.

They stowed the gear and supplies they would need for a long day on the water in the kayaks. "When we unloaded them at Cabrillo Beach," remembers Mary Drenick, "they were so heavy that a pair of us could only manage one at a time instead of the usual two."

"Setting out in the early morning hours certainly allowed us to avoid the winds which typically build later in the day," says Steve Goldman. "It also gave us the chance to watch the moon set and the sun spectacularly rise over the Pacific coast."

Mary agrees: "Being on the water in the dark was different. You couldn't see anyone else except for headlamps in the distance. Then when you got closer, you could see the outline of a kayak but couldn't tell who it was.” They stayed in a tight group, paddling in the dark, listening to the barks of nearby sea lions they could not see.

A proper course was essential and David Salper took the lead position at the beginning. "I strapped the compass onto my kayak deck and almost immediately noticed the compass reading was extremely blurry," he says. "It was so hard to read, I asked Bob Gurfield if I could use his."

They noticed that the plexiglass view-window that magnified David's compass had been pushed down. "Once Bob pushed the plexiglass back into place, it was fine," says David. "Until the sun rose, I then focused on finding a comfortable pace while tracking on our heading to Catalina, due south from Cabrillo beach."

A veteran kayaker and sailor, Bob Gurfield has done this paddle before, one time both ways in a single weekend. He has also circumnavigated the island.

While this was Steve Goldman's first cross channel trip, he is a veteran of long-distance paddling and has circumnavigated Manhattan three times. He was also very active in kayaking groups and competitions in New York. "But this trip marked a personal milestone,” he says. “My first extended open ocean crossing. It was truly a once in a lifetime trip that I'm hoping to do at least a few more times in this lifetime!"

Mary Drenick admits to not seeing many sunrises in her life, but this one made up for that. "The sun rising over the water and coast was spectacular.”

David Salper recalls the sunrise: "The day broke as sweetly as any you can imagine, the water surface glassy and still as an early morning lake. The entire distance between us and the island lit up slowly."

First light brought another surprise. A whale surfaced near the kayakers.

"I've wanted to see a whale from a kayak ever since I started kayaking," says Mary. "When I heard the blow, I knew it wasn't a dolphin. I looked over, and there it was. Beautiful."

The whale submerged and then surfaced again nearby. These modern kayakers were no threat. The expedition took a short rest to watch and concluded it was a fin whale.

Not a bad way to start a twenty-six mile paddle across the channel.

Next: a variety of sightings mid-channel, transit navigation, and dealing with the westward swells.