One more day it was

Traveling without a strict itinerary is great. As we woke up to pouring rain on Monday, hitting the road again couldn't have been less enticing. Fortunately Sheila had offered us her couch for another night which allowed us to have a lazy day in the city walking around Fisherman's Wharf with all the other drenched tourists... Not before stopping in for an Irish Coffe, however, at the famed Buena Vista Cafe
, just to get us going for the day. The most delicious dinner was served to us by our San Fran hostess with the news that the paddling club that she belongs to was going out on the bay early the next morning in their 55ft. long Hawaiian Outrigger.

After a few of the essential information, such has what to do if we capsize, we were pushing the boat down the beach and into the water for a paddle out into the bay which gave us a beautiful view of the Golden Gate and a close-up of Alcatraz. Paddling in an outrigger is a bit different from the leisurely paddling of a canoe, which we were both more accustomed to. Much more coordination was required when switching sides on the count of Hut, Hike, Ho -Hawaiian for something - so as not to loose momentum. For fear of being called out for being out of sync by the 'outrigger' - the person steering in the stern - we had to watch the two pace-setters up front diligently. It was a great work out for the arms which seem to be dwindling away to nothing.

After the paddle, Sheila sent us off with full stomachs after preparing for us a substantial breafast and loading a 12pack of beer into our panniers, claiming that we would need the carbs to tackle the upcoming Californian coastline.

Feeling a bit soft after 4 days out of the saddle, we have arrived for the night in Half Moon Bay where we are camping at a State Beach.

Back on the road for real tomorrow!