Activity Sunday

I thought that Sundays were meant to be calm and relaxed days,with breakfast in bed brought by a hot man, Sunday papers and chilling out.  This is not the case round here.  Irrespective of the fact the only man in my life (the cat) can’t make tea, Sundays in my world seem to be filled by doing things.

Today was perhaps a bit too action packed and I am now slumped over my keyboard trying to muster the energy to type.

This morning I was keen to get out a paddle again as the weather was still calm and I need as much practice as I can for 4* assessment.  We had a lovely paddle yesterday, but today I wanted to get out in some 4* conditions.  I was keen for some rockhopping but Hairyaker (our only 4* leader) suggested the north channel of Eynhallow Sound on the spring flood.  Sounded good to me!  Much of the north channel is very shallow so the tide rips through at a fair pace and where it flows over the rocks and skerries, chutes and overfalls form, making it a fun playground.  The maximum rate of flow is probably about 8 knots in this channel as it reaches 7kns in the south channel, which is wider and less restricted.

We agreed to meet at the Evie toilet and launched from Evie Sands.  We knew we were in 4th hour of the flow so it was moving pretty niftily, about 4 or 5 knots we thought.  As we hit the current, we could see how fast it was moving and we had to adjust our ferry glide angle to pointing straight at Eynhallow.  After a bit of work and ferry gliding at 90 degrees to the channel, we reached the eddy behind the island and could make good progress towards it.

The tide flowing over the skerry in middle of the channel.  Midhowe Neolithic tomb is covered by the barn like building.

We made our way round to the North channel and discovered there was too much water in the channel and most of the rocks were covered.  Instead we played around in the flow and swell that was present, getting a feel for the very confused and very powerful water.  After a while, I foolishly suggested that we might circumnavigate the island, however, this proved easier said than done….  We waited and watched for a while and then paddled like mad to get to the back of the island, where, my theory was, there wouldn’t be too much flow because it would split to flow round either side of the obstruction.  My theory couldn’t be tested because I simply could not paddle against the current and it appeared all we had actually done was ferryglide across it.  After some more playing, Hairyaker wisely suggested a pit stop.  Which was ironic given that all he had with him was a packet of crisps!

Paddling up the flow

Rainbow over Eynhallow

Launching after lunch

After lunch, the bar at the south east of the island was seen to be covered and a few nice surf waves were breaking over it.  We paddled through them then had a peedie surf or two back the other way. Heading back to the vans, the rate of flow had decreased dramatically as high tide approached, I thought it wasn’t moving much at all but, although the water seemed calm, we seemed to make good time back to the shore.

Before we headed in, I wanted to do another wet session.  It was rubbish.  I couldn’t roll properly (I did in the end), my re-entry and roll failed the first 2 times and I could not self rescue at all….  I tried a wrong side roll for a laugh and that was perfect!  I was pretty frustrated but I went away telling myself that I did roll (on both sides) and I did re-enter and roll.  Which, considering this was at the end of my second paddle of the year, much of that had been spent paddling against a strong bit of tide and the water was freezing, wasn’t really so bad.

Going up…. 

I had barely got in the door when my friend came round to go to climbing.  I was knackered but was still keen to go!  My companion was as good as she ever is.  One of these people who are just natural climbers I think.  While I’ve fallen off seven times, she’s climbed 10 different routes.  We started off on a harder bit of wall and I managed a few routes but couldn’t master the ‘yellow’ move.  We moved around the wall, trying different things, with me falling off and her walking up them like it was the stairs…..  After about an hour and a half, I was shattered and it was time for my next appointment.

Dangling (as usual)

After climbing, having driven Phyllis back to Kirkwall on fumes, I spent half an hour or so trying to stay awake before it was time to go Mackayak’s for tea.  A friend advised me to call in food favours cos I couldn’t afford to eat, which would be fine if I had any friends for whom I had ever cooked dinner (It’s not that I don’t cook, I simply have no friends), however Mackayak and family treat me like an adoptive waif and stray so I am quite often fed by them.  The word roast didn’t have to be used twice…..

FOOOOOOOOOOODD!!!!

After dinner it was time for the last activity of the day, the kayak pool session.

Having made such a mess of my wet practice earlier, I was really keen to get in the pool and try again.  I decided I needed to lose the goggles as I don’t have them on in the sea.  I was quite tempted to wear my drysuit but I was restrained before I was thought completely mad. 

My rolls on the left were fine, perfect almost and my head was doing what it should.  I have no idea what was wrong outside, other than it’s cold.  I re-entered and rolled no problem and managed a few self rescues.  My right side rolls were clunky again but I did manage a few.  I even did three rolls with Mackayak on the back deck!  At one point, Dennis’ boat floated past so I jumped in that and self-rescued, rolled and re-entered with no problems.  I think I need a heated sea….

After all that, I am completely shattered.  There were some successes and some failures throughout the day, but overall, it was a lot of fun!

  Mackayak experiments with the coathanger roll

 Mackayak boat-balancing

Indoor fun

Ever wondered what happens at a kayak pool session?  Well here’s your answer……

Outside action

Finally!  Weather and circumstances combined to let me get outside.  It certainly has been a while. 

Discussions during the week suggested a trip to the east coast of South Ronaldsay, in the hope that a nice swell might be running.  This is my favourite bit of coastline in Orkney and I love it there whatever the conditions.  Having found some money in the house and having been given a fiver for boat transportation, I was able to fuel up Phyllis and off we went to the Sooth Parish.

There was indeed a bit of a swell running when we arrived at the kirk, although the bathymetry of the bay meant that the waves had lost all their oomph by the time they reached the beach.  Having clambered over the (apparently) smelly seaweed and launched in to some noisy, splashy but utterly harmless surf, off we set across the bay to what I think is one of the best 3km of coastline anywhere.

The Windwick coastline

Keen eyed observers will note that this photo has been taken very far away from the cliff (and therefore the whitewater).  This was because my companion is not a danger monkey and had no wish to crash into rocks.  As she was not coming to rescue me, I was duly banned from playing!  The smudges on the camera lens are my tears…..

Despite there being no danger of death, rockhopping, cliff  crashing or boat flipping, this is still a beautiful bit of coastline to look at. At times the swell was pretty sizable, up to 2m in places, but with no wind, it was lovely to be in.  There was enough clapotis around to make you stay alert, giving us a great paddle down to Windwick.

Heading for Windwick 

Given that I had found enough food in my house to cobble together a packed lunch (peanut butter and lettuce pieces!), there was no way I wasn’t eating it.  The surf was breaking on the Windwick beach and, because the tide was so far in, only the steepest portion was visible. We picked our spot and then I landed before catching my companion.  All was fine until the water went over her wellies (eugh!).  As we ate lunch some sizable sets came through but as high tide neared, the waves began to drop away.  The beach was covered in heaps of manky seaweed which meant a fun seal-launch over it and down the beach.  Seal launching a fibreglass boat is probably not the best plan but it leaks already….

Surf at Windwick

There was noticeably less swell on the return journey but the wind was now in our faces.  As we neared the beach and crossed the underlying skerries, the swell really picked up again but was harmless enough. 

Once we were close into shore, it was time for some wet practice.  I wanted to try everything I have been doing the pool while wearing 10 times more clothes.  I rolled, re-entered and rolled and self-rescued.  Then I was cold.

Roll

Ready to re-enter (those are cat’s ears on my hood)

Self rescue

Although we didn’t paddle far at all, we had a lovely few hours out and it was a suitably fine first proper paddle of the year.

Shortages

I am experiencing a number of shortages at the moment. I have a shortage of money and a definite shortage of time.  This is all the fault of a terrible addiction.  Over  the last four years I have spent all my wages and all my savings on kayaks, canoes, paddles and equipment.  Now I can’t afford to eat.

Although, even if starving, I can always still paddle, I have observed a number of issues with this plan. Firstly, if I can’t put diesel in the van, then I can’t get to the water and if I can’t get to the water, I can’t go paddling.  If I can’t afford any food, I can’t make my pieces and that means I’m going to get really cranky half way round a paddle. No one needs that.  Obviously at this time of the year, things are happening indoors, but they too are costly.  Right now I should be at canoe polo but I only have 87p…. (to last until Wednesday!).

Earlier in the week, before I withdrew my last £10 from the bank, I attended the Tuesday night KKC pool session.  Mackayak was banked based but had been dragged along for observation and chit chat.  After Watkeys asked what could be done with the coathanger, rubber duck and Playmobil Vikings on Sunday, it seemed only right to find out.  Duly I packed my bag and headed for the pool.

Toys

In truth when I say I had set out to find out what could be done with the coathanger, duck and Vikings, what I actually mean was that I set out to find out what Mackayak could do with said items.  As she was not in the water and I have the technical ability of a mouldy flannel, I was a bit stuck.  She suggested the coathanger be used for the ‘arms behind the back, one holding the top of the norsaq and the other holding the bottom’ roll but this would have resulted in my drowning so it wasn’t attempted.  We have another (pre-paid) pool session on Sunday, I shall get her yet…..

As KKC night is always busy, it was some time before I managed to get in a boat and when I did, I was only in for a short time.  I crammed in as much as I could, concentrating on rolling and self-rescues. 

I am still unhappy with my right side roll, it is working OK but just does not feel as smooth or efficient as the roll on the left.  A left side roll is what I automatically do, so I have to make a conscious effort to roll on the right.  Lately when I have rolled in anger, be in on the sea, in a river or out in the surf, I have always come up on the left.

Once again I tried the ‘release the towline and roll up’ manoeuvre which was no more interesting than it had been on Sunday.  My re-entry and rolls were successful and my self rescues seem to be getting smoother.  My new BA has a buckle bit at the top of the zip which is handy for attaching the spraydeck loop to and this certainly made getting up the boat easier.

My butterfly roll eluded me as ever, the first was OK, but the next few attempts were 90% ers.  If I could get any video editing software to work on my computer, I’d post a video for feedback.  However, at the moment I can’t. 

While I was practising in my sea boat, a veteran had arrived at the pool.  Discovered in an attic and apparently on the way to the tip, it had been paddled (and sunk) by at least two of my fellow coaches when they were just peedie lads….

Bat boat is resurrected

Warm water antics

Rolling in the pool is boring (unless you are Mackayak and can do it 20 ways).  Granted, my rolling is still pretty rubbish, but practising over and over and over again just makes me feel giddy.  I need new challenges. 

  Toys to challenge us

This year I have been working on my self rescues and my re-entry and rolls and I think they are coming on OK.  Each week, Mackayak and I think up something new to work on and try.  With talk of 4* in the air, this week we thought we’d try the infamous ‘capsize, release towline, roll up’ manoeuvre which has apparently been causing some consternation amongst 4* candidates.  We thought this must be REALLY HARD, perhaps even impossible.  We came up with a plan as towing in the swimming pool is not really possible.  I got my towline on and handed the end to Mackayak who sat on the pool side simulating a capsized boat (that tug you feel just as you think you’re about to clear the tiderace….).  I paddled off, the tow line went tight, I capsized…..dum dum dum……I pulled the toggle on my towline, released it, threw it out of the way and rolled up.  This was a bit of an issue because by this point there was still an hour and 20 minutes of the session remaining.  We needed another challenge.

As mentioned previously, the other day, my friend with gills was doing re-entry and rolls by putting on his spraydeck before coming up.  I thought this could only result in drowning for mortals without gills but was curious about the physics of the exercise.  I wanted to see whether by putting on the deck under the water, more water was kept out of the cockpit than by rolling up with it off.  I tried the standard way and made a mental note of the volume of water present once righted.  I tried again and this time put on the deck first.  I had a number of thoughts about this.  1) If you make an arse of getting your deck on, you’re liable to start running out of air.  2) If you start running out of air, you are likely to do a crap roll because you are rushing 3) To put the spraydeck on you have to let go of the paddle, this could end in tears.  Anyway, I rolled up and checked my water volume.  I think it was possibly marginally less than with deck off but not enough to make a blind bit of difference.

Doing my best to recreate outside conditions

I spent the rest of the session doing more self rescues and attempting butterfly rolls.  These were annoying me.  Last week they were clunky but worked, today they were 95% rolls.  Mackayak says this is because I have not be practising my static brace!  After a few more goes, watching the video and using the GP paddle, I still couldn’t get it so I decided to quit before I got knackered and frustrated.  Butterfly rolls will just have to be my challenge for the next session…..

I will post some video once I have edited it.