As it turned out, I had a second opportunity to visit this mystery spot a couple weeks later. I’d gone for a not-very-satisfying surf earlier in the day and craved more. I dropped the kids off at camp and noticed that the conditions were pretty close to what I’d imagined would be ideal and decided to paddle back out to the rocky point.

This time I brought a surfboard and wore my wetsuit. Despite the enormity of our tandem kayaks, the board took up most of the free space. (Serves me right for bringing a 10-footer!)

When I got to the mouth of the harbor, perfection:

I surfed my brains out. Not a soul to be seen, at least no other surfers. I got into a non-stop surf-paddle-out rhythm and kept going until I was almost completely exhausted. (I had so save something for the 1.75 miles paddle back to the car.)

The video above is one of the smaller waves of the day. I didn’t get out and record until things started winding down. Some of the set waves were overhead!

At first, I was cautious. I didn’t know what kind of currents/rocks/fauna were waiting to get me. After a while, though, I got pretty comfortable with the setup and had some great rides.

I found my line-up by positing myself directly between this washed up lobster trap and a sign on the other side of the harbor mouth, about twenty yards off the rocks:

As I put it in a text message to my wife: “Expotition was an UNBELIEVABLE success.”

A salty selfie on the way back out: