Teawhit Head - Quillayute River

The forecast was for fog, light wind and 3-4' swell for the day and the webcam for LaPush was socked in the day before. We all arrived at the boat ramp on time and it was indeed foggy. Upon discussion, Toleak Point did not seem a reasonable destination, given the fog, but we decided to launch and head for the #2 red buoy about 0.4nm from the end of the jetty and then decide whether to go further.  I had calculated compass bearings and distances for the day and we had a  GPS chart as back up, so it was a good opportunity to do some practice compass work.

Paddling from the end of the jetty, we could see nothing around us. Even James Island close by on our right was completely obscured. Following the compass course, we caught sight of the buoy on schedule. At the buoy we decided to go ahead and paddle to the Quillayute Needles a little less than 1 nm to the south. Again using compass and a watch, we paddled forth into the fog, seeing occasional sea otters, a puffin or two and lots of other sea birds. The sea stacks emerged in the fog and we explored these striking rocks, encountering a large raft of sea otters sheltering among the sea stacks. 

After exploring the Quillayute Needles, we again conferred and decided to go ahead to Teawhit Head, hoping to land on the sheltered pocket beach there for an early lunch. Again setting a compass course we paddled into the fog. Before our destination came into view, we passe the NOAA Research buoy that has been in this area for many years, indicating to us that we were on course. Eventually the head came into view in the fog, and the swell conditions were mild enough that we were able to paddle through the narrow gap in the rocks protecting the beach.

Taking a leisurely early lunch at Teawhit Head, we enjoyed watching a sea otter browsing in the protected water in front of us. As it was still as foggy as when we launched, we decided that it would be prudent to head back rather than push on to Toleak Point, in case the fog got much thicker. So we retraced our route, using reciprocal compass bearings and a slightly different route through Quillayute Needles. We saw more puffins and sea otters on the way back. The fog started to lift a bit while we were in the Needles and created some beautiful lighting before it closed back in again. 

Arriving back at about 12:30pm, we decided to explore up the Quillayute River. in a mile or two up the river, we emerged from the fog into bright sunshine. We paddled up to just past where the Mora campground is and took another break in the sun. The current was getting pretty swift, but we could have made it further, but there were a number of fishermen upstream that we would have had to paddle through.

Heading back down river, we paddled back into the fog and through a large flock of pelicans on the river as we headed back to the ramp. We got back to the ramp around 2:30pm.

Total distance was 11.27nm
Average moving speed: 2.9 kt