Headed out Thursday with Trav to beat the weekend crowd and because I had a party to attend up at Steven's Pass for Mike T's engagement. We made it out to the coast in time for an afternoon session sharing glassy waist high waves with 3 other guys. Outgoing tide eventually put a squash on the waves so we paddled around the point to 2nd beach. Not much action over there either. It was a long paddle back, but good exercise.
Pulled up to the market shortly after sunset and we were asked about the surf by some stranger. Turns out he's working on the Crowley tug stationed in the harbor. I dropped Brock's name and sure enough they knew each other. He invited us back to the tug for a tour of the boat and a cup of coffee. Never being on a tug boat before we were stoked to check it out, but decided to stick with cans of Ranier instead of the mud brewing in the galley. It was pretty much what I expected- a big ass boat equipped with huge engines and a set of chains big enough to drag any ship. Everyone aboard was pretty friendly didn't seem to mind us snooping around.
Next morning was pretty crappy out- tide was really low and fog was thick. We checked a few spots, but ended up going back to where we surfed the afternoon before. This time we decided to hike our gear down instead of putting on our wet suits up top. I went with my dry backup suit and ended up forgetting my hood and leash in my other bag. When we got down to the beach the surf was smaller then Thursday, but the tide was just starting to come in. Within 20 minutes signs of swell were starting to show. Trav was a little preoccupied with getting a fire started, I was in my suit and headed out to take advantage of an empty lineup and glassy conditions before he even noticed the sets starting to roll in. By the time he made it out the surf had already gone from knee high curlers to easily head high walls. A few overhead sets came through and I realized I had no business being out there without a leash, but I wasn't about to go back all the way to the parking lot while the surf was as good as it was. Not long after that the wind became on shore and seemed to knock the surf down quite a bit. On our way out a few other guys were just showing up and asked how the surf was. I wanted to tell them they just missed out on some amazing waves, but I didn't want to ruin their session.