Ahoy Jim Lad!
This weekend was our 1st Sea Kayaking trip, we rock hopped our way from sitting in our boats at the campsite to a full on sea voyage.
On arrival at camp (eventually after passing Robert & Richard down a dead end road, lost like us, we set up tent alongside Dave’s circus tent with wardrobe/bedside table & rug. Itching to see the sea Nikki guided us down to the bay where a bit of paddle boarding was done by Maxine, the night was spent with introductions and we shared some lovely passing smells from local Lamb Henry, we discussed the plans of the weekend but with an early Saturday start we took to our tents.
Saturday – Day 1 With a very organised collection of hire boats and boat trolley wheels we all gathered on the local beach. 11 HCC paddlers, mostly new to sea kayaking, where then given an impressive briefing & safety talk from Martin which also came with drawings in the sand. We then took to our boats and started to practice our strokes with lots of help from our leaders Martin, Nikki & assistant Leader Richard, after about 20 mins our adventure started with us leaving the bay and rock hopping along the coast. We were guided through area’s which were safe to explore and soon we where all keen to adventure, Cheryl took quickly to the reversing into the crevasses with a big smile, Phil’s shouts of ‘Yeah Baby’ where heard across the bay, we all took turns, there was something for everyone and some more challenging bits for those who felt braver. We all tried out a section which generated some great surf though some of us caught more impressive waves then others like Dave, we paddled into quiet coves and took in the beautiful surroundings & with the waters so clear spotting jelly fish became a popular interest with us all.
We then headed on towards Silver Bay for a much deserved ice cream & cool down swim, the sun was shinning the beach was beautiful and the company entertaining, we now know why Phil got ‘Perv of the Year Award’ (twice we’ve been told), poor Martin was only trying to fix my footrest, not a good position to be in with a Phil around.. me & Maxine along with Abi, Dave, & Robert took to the sea for a quick dip. Lunch break over it was then a sea crossing paddle back on a slightly choppier sea, with Russell taking to speaking in the good old Pirates language. We all returned safely to our beach where some of us then paddled out to a local island which was rightfully claimed for HCC by Phil & Abi to a raucous applause of the sea birds who did not approve, this also gave us our first seal sighting.
We then returned to camp for a much deserved re-charging of our bodies & a lovely campfire supplied by Martin & Nikki, we chatted the night away with the odd large bat flying above us courtesy of Dave while looking over photos taken of the day.
Sunday – Day 2 Maps, Charts, VHF Radios, GPS & Coast Guard notified – RED PYRANHA was off again on their next adventure! This time we paddled out of the bay and to right along the coast line, not long in we came upon our first large cave, myself & Rob watched the first of our group explore it, our view of their helmets disappearing and then re-appearing each time the wave lifted or dropped them was captivating. We ventured into bays, rock hopped with a few of us myself (Sally) included mastering the balance of sitting on a rock technique till Martin rescued me, Phil did an impressive sea-saw technique on a rock when trying to paddle over a difficult section and managed not to swim, Rob also recovered well from a rock which just appeared within a passage, we then had our 2nd sighting of seals, not sure who was watching who and for our lunch stop we paddled under an arch into another bay. All fed & watered we continued taking in more amazing crevasses & rock hopping. On our last bend Dave & Abi decided to tackle a wave which gave Abi chance to show us her brace deck grab move, it was impressive. All sad to be paddling back towards the final bay, Maxine tested out her 1st successful roll in a sea kayak much to the disappointment of myself who was looking forward to doing my 1st boat rescue in a sea kayak. Then to our delight Martin gave us an extra 40 mins to go back out for a final paddle, we paddled over a large wave section and past the ‘Scooby Doo’ house. Lots of us shouting ‘Nikki is this any good’ was heard, though if it was really tight we’d always of course let the leader Nikki demonstrate & wow could she get down some tight gaps. It was time to return loaned boats, tents down & travel home, what a brilliant weekend with no swimmers and I’m sure we say this from all Red Pyranha paddlers that Martins & Nikki’s knowledge and experience made us feel in very safe hands, we hope they enjoyed this trip as much as we did, all to be said now is ‘when we going again??’
Sally & Maxine
Pictures to follow 🙂