Paddle: Pt Bonita

David Kashetad and I launched from Chrissy Field at 7:50 with plans to rendezvous with 15 elite swimmers of Point Bonita. The swimmers were planning to ride the swift flood tide back to Aquatic Park. The morning was pretty sketch with a nasty 25 kt wind blowing from the west and occassional gust to 40. He paddled towards the center of the bridge riding the last of the ebb tide and keeping an eye on an a home bound ocean barge. Off Lime Point the barge still hadn't made its turn and I was worried we couldn't beat it to the north so we doubled back towards the south tower. Of course as soon as we turned so did the barge and we had a wild 5-minute pull to get out of the way. We countinued on towards Point Diablo with conditions getting progressively worse. The last couple of miles were brutal with high winds in our face and heavy seas. When we finally made Point Bonita and a motor boat came out to let us know the swim was cancelled because of the crappy weather. We took a break on the beach and then caught the flood tide back in the gate. It was one of the wildest rides I ever had in a kayak. We were racing along and a ocean bound frieghter had to be avoided. As we approached the south tower of the Golden Gate we were racing along pushed by the wind and tide. We tried to cut between the south tower and Fort Point. We didn't have the angle and ended up going north of the south tower. At one point I finally gave up trying to steer a course and simply fought to keep the kayak upright. Somehow we survived and landed by the warming shack at Chrissy Field. Pedro had a small group of swimmers gathered there and we pilot for them back to the wind surfing beach. What a day 10.3 miles in about 3 hours