Day 12 - Skim boarding gone bad at Bastendorf Beach

The day started like all days here do...breakfast at 7am.  We had class at 9am, and the today's topic was restoration ecology done at South Slough National Estuary Research Reserve.  After class a couple of groups headed off to South Cove, Cape Arago, to collect specimens and set up some field research.

While we were loading gear and people to head to South Cove I ran into a group of our guys (Dallas, Daniel, Ty, and Blake) who were dressed in swimming suits and t-shirts.  When I asked what they were up to, they said that they were going skim boarding at Bastendorf Beach (around 1-1.5 miles away).  One of them bought a skim board in town and wanted to try it out.  Dallas drove.

So off my group went, and off they went...little did those guys know at the time, but they were on their way to a memorable misadventure.

The trip to South Cove was fantastic - sunny skies, low tide, and calm sea state conditions. I didn't want to leave, but it was creeping up on lunchtime and the Dining Hall at OIMB serves meals for only 30 mins.

Part way through lunch the skim boarders came dragging in, looking a lot like kicked dogs.

"What happened?"  The most important thing is that no one was hurt.  But, they did have a great time...right up until they realized that they couldn't find Dallas' car key.  Somehow somewhere along the line of dropping their stuff, and then moving it up the shore to keep it from getting wet, the key disappeared.

They looked and looked, but couldn't find it, and to make things even more interesting they couldn't get anyone on the phone, so they trudged all they way back to the lab on foot...sandy swim suits and all.  Luckily they arrived in time to catch the serving window at the Dining Hall.  They felt pretty silly, but happy to be back.

Dallas had to get his car towed back to OIMB, and to make things worse the other guys who were on the trip all had things locked in his car...their wallets, keys, etc.  Normally this would be only an inconvenience, but at least a couple of the guys had keys to their lockers in their rooms in the car, so they couldn't get whatever is in there...cameras, notebooks, clothes...

The closest car dealership that could cut a new key is in a town over two hours away, so a new key is being express shipped out, and should arrive in a few days.  Those guys will, in the meantime, soldier on.

That's the lead story for today...