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Paddling with Sharon

Sharon and I did a lot of paddling after I retired, and moved to Washington State. I had been kayaking for years. I built my first kayak from a kit that I bought from an ad in a National Geographic magazine in 1954. When we got married I bought a double, so we could paddle as a team. I was a strong paddler, she normally just road along, paddling occasionally when she felt like it. It worked out well because we could talk about what we were seeing and just have a good time together. If we would’ve had single kayaks, she would’ve had to hurry, and I would’ve had to wait. This way, we were in fact, a team.

We paddled in Canada, the Broken Island Park on Vancouver Island, the coast of British Columbia, the coast of Maine on the East Coast, the Gulf islands, the San Juan Islands in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, in Central America in the country of Belize and a lot in Baja California, Mexico. Our paddles were, for the most part, fun, relaxing and quality time we spent together.

We quite often camped for a few days on these trips. This was one of those trips, in Baja California. We had been camping for three days north of Bahia Los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez side of the Baja Peninsula. The water was calm. It was time to paddle back to our takeout in LA Bay where our car was, 6 miles south. We loaded up the double kayak and paddling toward LA Bay when we saw a huge blue whale feeding ahead of us. The whale must have been at least 80 feet long, it was swimming in a giant circle about 100 yards in diameter.

We paddled to the center of the circle and stayed there for about an hour while the whale continued to feed and circle around us. We had lunch and watched. It was one of those things that just happens every now and then that you have to take the time to enjoy. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I had never been close to a big blue whale before, and it was very special for me.

We finally decided to paddle on, but we had drifted with the whale out quite a ways, so we decided to take the path behind one of the off shore islands, and then back to our takeout. It was now about 1 PM, and the sea was still calm. We had a nice slow paddle along the shore of the island for about 2 miles. We came around the south end of the island, and we still had two miles more to go to reach the mainland’ and our takeout beach.

It was now 3 PM and the offshore wind had come up with a vengeance while we were protected by the island and totally unaware of it. It was blowing at 30 mph right in our face, and the seas were 4 feet, also right in our face, and we still had two miles to go. I started paddling as hard as I could, and we were barely making any headway. I knew I couldn’t keep paddling that hard for very long. I told Sharon, “You have to paddle as hard as you can, because I can’t move us alone.”

She was already scared by the waves coming over the front of the boat and slapping her right in the face; she was in the front cockpit. She had never in all of her paddling had to paddle hard. I didn’t even know if she knew what I meant when I told her that. She was scared now, and being scared is the best motivator in the world. She reached out and dug her paddle in, and we started moving. The two of us gave everything we had for over an hour, not resting for a moment, and just made shore before we collapsed. I gave her a big hug and kiss and told her how proud of her I was, as we were resting on the beach.

An hour later. The wind stopped and the ocean was dead calm again. It was just an afternoon offshore wind, but I had been at the same spot when a wind just like that blew for a week straight, day and night, and I couldn’t take a chance of being marooned on the island.

The good part for me, was that I now knew how hard Sharon could paddle. The bad part for Sharon, was that I now knew how hard Sharon could paddle. In all of our paddling, she only had to paddle that hard once more, when we had to tow another kayaker up river, against the current, for a couple of miles. When I needed her, she always came through like the champ she was. We were indeed, a team.