August 28, 1997
Waldport, Oregon, USAPaddling here from Seal rock sucked! When I left the shore, it was sunny and tolerably windy; but when I got out on the water, the sky turned gray, and the wind started gusting intensely from the south. It was choppy, and the swells were also coming at me from the south; not a fun combination of conditions. The boat was moving up and down, and side to side. I was constantly bracing. It was scary.
Paddling into that wind felt like I was towing 5 kayaks behind me. At one point, I looked at the shore and realized I had not made any progress for 10 minutes!!! I was furious! After cursing and complaining for a few minutes, I told myself to either shut-up, or get off the water. I knew I couldn’t keep it up too much longer, but I didn’t want to go in, because there were no houses in sight. I figured, "If I could get to a house, I could try to make friends, and they would let me hang out there until the storm passed." I regretted leaving Sea Rock. I had it all; a bed, a good place to work on my journals, and I was been fed really great food.
Whenever I find myself getting depressed, I always ask myself questions that I know I will find positive answers for. "Why am I on this journey?", is always a good one to start with. "I want to meet cool people, and have adventures.", was the answer. "So why should I be upset? By leaving Seal Rock... I’m just giving myself the opportunity to meet more people. Who knows... maybe I’ll meet a person.... and something good will happen. And as for having adventures... I’m having an adventure right now. I’m not going to die today. Before I left on this journey... did I really think it was always going to be easy? No, of course not. I knew there would be tough times. So... shut-up and stop complaining!!!", I told myself.
I fought hard for another hour, then surfed onto a beach lined with houses. I had left Seal rock at 2:10pm, and landed at 5:40pm - covering a distance of only 4 miles in almost 4 hours. I immediately set up my tent, and changed into dry clothes. On the other side of the dune, fifty feet from where my tent was pinched, a man standing on his porch hollered at me "It is against the law to camp there!" "I know the law..." I informed him.
A short time later, a police officer arrived at my tent and asked me to leave. After explaining my situation, and allowing him to copy every piece of identification I owned, he advised me to find a new place to camp for the following day. I asked the officer what the jerk who reported me said when he notified the police. I laughed when the officer told me, "He said he knew you were Canadian by your "Canadian accent". "I’m sure the huge Maple Leaf on the T-shirt I’m wearing had nothing to do with that assumption..." I retorted.
That night, at 10pm, I knocked on a door hoping to get my email. An elderly lady answered, and let me in. I ended up spending the next two days with Eunice, due to the persistent south wind. She let me camp on her lawn, cook in her kitchen, and use her shower. I think her home is extraordinary. It’s filled with lots of art work and things she has found on the beach. She has many Japanese glass fishing buoys, and interesting pieces of drift wood all over the place. One evening, Eunice even took me out to eat at a local diner, and treated me to an Albacore Tuna steak. She left town on the third day, so I needed to find somewhere else to plug in my computer.
Mike, a man staying in a house across the street from Eunice, has been letting me get my email here the last couple of days. He seems very interested in my journey. Today he took me to visit the Yaquina Bay Coast Guard Station to meet the Commanding Officer, a Mr. Scott Clendenin. Commander Clendenin was cool. The three of us sat in his office talking about my trip for an hour, and then Mike and I went on a guided tour of all their vessels. Mike is a retired air-force Colonel, and now works on sending satellites into space and other space related operations. There’s a chance he might be able to help me with getting my email through Satellite when I go into Mexico. My life would suck without email.
