Last weekend we took our beloved m/v Milo out for a quick trip to the Gulf of Alaska. The swell forecast was looking pretty good. But mostly, after working at home for almost a week following three weeks of non-stop wave hunting were feeling pretty desperate for some waves and a bit of boat time.
We made the run out of Kachemak Bay and checked our favorite nearby haunts, the swell was looking strong with a bit more south than we usually find and winds were light. Leaving our night’s anchorage on the first morning we spotted an incredibly nice looking left pop up and peel for a hundred yards over a reef. We’d seen this wave try to break before, but never with this much promise. We watched this wave for about ten minutes to make sure weren’t hallucinating but the answer was never really made clear. It never broke again like the first time. Most likely the tide was changing so fast and the currents shifting that we had just witnessed the last good set of that tide cycle. oh well, plenty of other spots to check.
We launched the Humbug (our 14ft RIB launch) and myself with two eager friends went out scouring the coast for a surfable wave. Our search was rewarded when about 45 minutes later we found a nice punchy left pushing through some rocks. At first it didn’t look like the rocks could be avoided, but after some optimistic patience was revealed that the sets actually broke a little out of the rocks. Radio the Milo and 30 minutes later Mike was paddling into some nice head high lefts at our new discovery.
The photo doesn’t really do this wave justice. Once I saw that it was indeed a legitimate wave I dropped the camera and started getting ready to get a much closer look, feel, and taste . . . We surfed this wave for about 3 hours before wandering on to check a few other spots and explore some new territories. Eventually the wind picked up and the intermittent rain showers turned to snow (yes snow in May!).