Chapter II.
Ten days later saw us ready to pull out everything having been prepared the day before, as dragging the boats over the sand bar and partially loading them with all our outfit, except that which would be used by us overnight and as we slept on the sand near our boats it was only a few minutes work to load them in the morning.
The stars and a moon just set, found us eating a hearty breakfast. It was a bit chilly, but not cold for some of our most beautiful weather during the year in California is in the month of February. The late storm had entirely disappeared and glorious weather had followed. The sea was not just as our captain would have had it – for a start the swells was running as I thought rather high, but the captain said that once outside we would find it not as bad as it looked from shore and the weather was so grand that it look tempting, not withstanding the swells.
Dawn found us waist deep in the surf lurching the large boat which was successfully run out beyond the line of breakers. The next boat got away in fine shape, but three attempts was made with the last boat and it looked for awhile like it would never make it, as only two men were left to launch it while the first two had the help of those who were waiting outside to assist. These two boys wrestled with this boat all of an 30 minutes before getting her out, but at last they succeeded without shipping much water – if the boat had been heavier and longer, especially in a heavy surf they no doubt would have had less trouble, altho, in a light surf the little boat was always preferred.
At last we were assembled and got our instructions – if a paddle was swung to and fro, highly over the head it meant wait until we over-haul you; if held upright without the waging motion, it signaled “look out”, or be on your guard.
Another order was to try and keep as close together as possible. Also in traveling from one camp to another, which generally would be from 30 to 40 minutes, a plan was suggested to us which we followed and found by following it that we was much benefited. In starting, say, on a run of 30 miles we were to head our boats in the direction that we were going and by getting an object astern of us and keeping it in line with the center of the stern of our boat, we did not have the neck breaking operation of turning our heads every few minutes to see where we were headed for.
After a little practice we became so expert in this that we would row for hours and find at the expiration of that time we were still inline with our landing place.
Before we became fully accustomed to this plan I have known more to row without looking over their shoulders for guidance many hours and found at last that they had been pulling at an angle of 20% from the point they were intending to make.
We found the sea, with the exception of a large ground swell, quite smooth until about nine o’clock when the wind gently at first, began to spring up, in fact we had seen it coming for sometime. It continued to grow strong, when about eleven o’clock the white-caps were running quite frequently and it began to lap over the sides of our boats, which caused us to consider the idea of putting in towards shore.
We were now out about 5 miles, and abreast of a place known as Chinese Gulch, when we noticed the signal from the Captain’s boat calling for us to “heave to”. On pulling up to us, the captain remarked that he favored running ashore at or near China Gulch to await for calmer weather that our destination could not possible be reached in such weather until well into the night and the indications were now, that is would blow harder and he did not feel that it would be a safe undertaking as we were to continue on, no one protested at this – for they felt it was a wise move on the part of our captain and showed him to be a careful as well as a responsible person to look to for our safety during the trip.
Big Sur…NEXT