I'm on a boat
A few weeks ago, rabbit1080 bought herself a wave-ski. Today rdmasters and leecetheartist took us out to Penguin Island. rabbit1080 kindly organised and collected a hire wave-ski for me from The River Gods for the occasion. (I'd have picked it up myself, but the Great Airconditioning Saga intervened. That story, however, is the a subject for another post).
I'd been a little trepidatious about going sea kayaking, as my only kayaking experience before this year had been an hour or two's taster course in the Tees River some years ago, in which we paddled around in the flat (upstream of the pollution barrier!) for a bit before we demonstrated to the instructors satisfaction that we could capsize ourselves without drowning, thus qualifying ourselves for hiring boats in a future that never eventuated.
But rabbit1080 spoke truth - in a quiet bay in carefully selected weather, it is indeed no choppier than a moderate day on the river. I'd tried out her Finn Gizmo Vision for ten minutes or so at South Cott a week or two back, and found it remarkably stable. The hire-beasty (a wonderfully violent green sit on top single that unclips into two parts for ease of transport) was equally usable today, and pretty cheap to hire at $30 a day.
leecetheartist and rabbit1080 each gave me some handy tips on paddling technique without drowning me in information, and we did the ~900m from Mersey Point (the south end of Shoalwater Bay) out to the island without too much effort. There'd been some talk of heading to one of the more northern islands first, but the water was a little too choppy off that way that early in the day.
rdmasters let me have a go on his MirageDrive pedal driven beasty - a lot of fun to power along with, though disconcertingly absent of brakes, then we met up with J's family, who happened to be having a picnic on Penguin Island that day for BiL's birthday.
After a quick stop in at the Penguin Experience (feeding! science! tragic penguin love triangles!), it was back into the boats to head north towards Shag Rock, about another 1100 meters away. That leg I started finding a little more challenging. While calmer in that direction than it had been before lunch, the sea was still choppier there than the crossing out had been. My back was getting a bit achy from the lack of support (the hire boat didn't have the little back rest the other three had), my shoulders were getting a little stiff, and my biceps were starting to feel a bit too. As I'd warned the others earlier, I've been a little remiss in terms of upper body exercise in recent years.
So from there, back to shore. By then my shoulders had decided they were suffering enough to drown out the complaints from the rest of my body, but we still made it back without me needing a tow, which I'm quite pleased about.
I suspect I'll be more than a little sore the next three or four days, but all in all, a fun day out. Thanks rdmasters and leecetheartist and rabbit1080 for organising it :)
I'd been a little trepidatious about going sea kayaking, as my only kayaking experience before this year had been an hour or two's taster course in the Tees River some years ago, in which we paddled around in the flat (upstream of the pollution barrier!) for a bit before we demonstrated to the instructors satisfaction that we could capsize ourselves without drowning, thus qualifying ourselves for hiring boats in a future that never eventuated.
But rabbit1080 spoke truth - in a quiet bay in carefully selected weather, it is indeed no choppier than a moderate day on the river. I'd tried out her Finn Gizmo Vision for ten minutes or so at South Cott a week or two back, and found it remarkably stable. The hire-beasty (a wonderfully violent green sit on top single that unclips into two parts for ease of transport) was equally usable today, and pretty cheap to hire at $30 a day.
leecetheartist and rabbit1080 each gave me some handy tips on paddling technique without drowning me in information, and we did the ~900m from Mersey Point (the south end of Shoalwater Bay) out to the island without too much effort. There'd been some talk of heading to one of the more northern islands first, but the water was a little too choppy off that way that early in the day.
rdmasters let me have a go on his MirageDrive pedal driven beasty - a lot of fun to power along with, though disconcertingly absent of brakes, then we met up with J's family, who happened to be having a picnic on Penguin Island that day for BiL's birthday.
After a quick stop in at the Penguin Experience (feeding! science! tragic penguin love triangles!), it was back into the boats to head north towards Shag Rock, about another 1100 meters away. That leg I started finding a little more challenging. While calmer in that direction than it had been before lunch, the sea was still choppier there than the crossing out had been. My back was getting a bit achy from the lack of support (the hire boat didn't have the little back rest the other three had), my shoulders were getting a little stiff, and my biceps were starting to feel a bit too. As I'd warned the others earlier, I've been a little remiss in terms of upper body exercise in recent years.
So from there, back to shore. By then my shoulders had decided they were suffering enough to drown out the complaints from the rest of my body, but we still made it back without me needing a tow, which I'm quite pleased about.
I suspect I'll be more than a little sore the next three or four days, but all in all, a fun day out. Thanks rdmasters and leecetheartist and rabbit1080 for organising it :)