La Jolla today...couple lessons learned
 

I watched and watched the surf and weather reports. Used my subscription to Surfline, gauged swell windows and direction....
Lesson from today....the wind forecast rules all else.
Arrived at the launch at 6:45am. It was literally as good as you could wish for, easy walk into the water and hop on. No stress....looking couple hundred yards north the shores was pumping. Paddled out to the kelp to make bait and you can hear the surf hitting children's pool and along the shores in front of the hotel and condos...boom..boom..boom.
Made bait in no short order, two greenies and three Spanish. Off I go with three way swivel and 4oz lead deployed. Glorious conditions till about 10:15am. Then the wind started, it went from a lake to easily 1-2 foot whitecaps real quick. Paddling back to the reserve was all done with the blade going in on the right side, the wind pushed me into the kelp and it was a bitch to get to the southern most buoy of the reserve. Had a whale come at me in its innocence which only added to the "this is just great" factor.
Back at the shores just as the wind died. Hope the other two guys who were further out than me made it back. Chatted with Dave from Chula Vista and we both were happy to be on land.
Will not do a gamble again when wind advisory is in the news. It was a good learning expertise and made me grateful my wife bought me a vhf a year ago. I had an alternate plan ready if the wind was to much to deal with.
So, no fish but a good day on the water.

If it was blowing anything like it was here all day in Temecula.......you are going to have some sore arms. I think we were having gusts in the high 40's today.

Yup.. Sunday is suppose to lay down finally.

Sometimes the forecast is right and sometimes its wrong. Today's forecast for Cabrillo was supposed to be 10mph with gust to 13mph, I took my chances and fortunately it was more like 1mph with gust to 3mph. Occasionally, the wind would pick up but would only blow for about 30minutes and die back down. Again, sometimes the forecast is off but that's why you should always be prepared to deal with the worst. Glad you made it back but don't let that deter you from going back out.

We were lucky
 

Good to meet you yesterday Allan. Like you, thankful to get back and glad I didn't hesitate to turn tail for home. Santa Anas in SD very difficult to guage accurately, unlike our typical northwesterlies. I knew with the first puff it could get ugly quick. Check this out, from this morning's LA Times:
"Two kayakers were blown out to sea off Latigo Point in Malibu and were reported missing for about an hour. Lifeguards located the kayakers and helped them get safely back to shore."
Lucky indeed...

The wind here can go from dead calm to over 30mph in a matter of minutes. You can actually see the wind coming at you by the texture on the water. 40-50mph wind is not unusual. Stay alert and you won't get hurt.

That was a classic short notice Gulf of Baja blow...LJ style. I saw that offshore wind from about a half mile away. A ton of white caps mixed in just behind that front told me to get going. Just glad my mirage drive stayed together. I rarely try to push it too hard but had to yesterday. I def would've had some challenges paddling in the PA14 if I had to. Jim

Daemon, that was you paddling in on my left..!!' I hate to admit it but I was silently swearing at you as I was paddling!!!

Glad you made it back alright. I'm also glad I had alternate fishing plans decided a few weeks ago for my buddies bday. Unfortunately he struck out but the schools just didn't want to bite. I guess the official count was 16 fish for 47 people.

Hope you get the ff dialed in for next time so we can put it to work. I'll probably wait until my ff is installed before I make another trip down there

Thanks for the report

Cheers!

Irishman! I kept an eye on you but anytime I slowed at all...I was pushed closer to the kelp edge which would've been doom for me. I can't believe the yak rentals were going out as I was coming in. They just did not look prepared...Jim

I was out there with my lady and it was pretty rough. Chased a dozen whales for a few hours and then made the long paddle in. Took about twice as long to get in but made it back right before sunset.

A bit more risky then I usually am but it made for an empty ocean and I realized that all the lobster pots look like good anchors to tie off to.

windfinder.com has some great links for wind forecasts.

Windfinder's my go to but LJ Shores was forecasted 8 mph tops on Sat. It was more like 15-20, not gusting, just hard.