There was that pesky frozen sand again! The sea has washed quite a lot of it away lately and there are more stones about than usual but as predicted the sea was alright so I stowed the C-Tug in the front hatch, wired up the finder and set course for a mark half a mile offshore in the Lowestoft South Road. It was a beautiful morning!
As I launched I took a reasonable wave over the bow and this soaked my BeardHead which was tucked into my PFD for the paddle -unfortunate really as I could do with it today in this temperature. Never mind, the wind wasn’t blowing yet.
Getting near the mark I got ready to drop anchor as soon as the depth changed. I wasn’t far from the banks and I could see some rather interesting lumps and crests as the swell beat against them...I wasn’t that far and changed course so I was inside of them by about 100 yards. I found my spot and dropped my anchor down. Boy was that current running hard again! As the anchor caught and the stretch came out of the warp I seemed to move backwards at a decent lick! This wouldn’t have been a problem if it hadn’t been for the fact I was suddenly yawing all over the place. Quite why I don’t know but it was rather disconcerting, especially as it was rather pronounced. As I swung the warp around to the front to up-anchor, however, the wind started to pick up as did the sea...and then came the snow!
I pulled my line in (tangling it into a nest in the footwells) and ran for shore. There was no telling how long this would last and the visibility was dropping as rapidly as the sea was getting up. I’ve not been caught on open sea by a blizzard before but have been caught in a rain storm and it is not fun. Were I already fishing and running straight at anchor it might have been different but I needed to untangle the warp now anyway.
I came into a dumping bit of beach almost sideways – the current was ripping through, the swell was up and the wind had picked up quite dramatically. It was all rather exciting. I landed easily and hopped out, dragging the yak up the beach. I was below Steve’s office and phoned through an order for a coffee – he answered with ‘What’s it like out there?’...someone had phoned through to ask ‘is there a nutter called Steve on the water? I’d have laughed even more if it had been over a freshly poured hot cuppa but alas he didn’t take the hint!
The snow was really coming down now and about half an inch fell in the quarter of an hour I was on the beach.
As it moved through the wind and sea eased off a bit and I decided to paddle back home (against the current) and call it a day. There were a few nice sets coming through here and there, not big but surfable, and I made a mental note of where they were forming the best waves in order to come and play next time the sea came up.
Back at the launch point I unloaded the kayak and went back out to play in the waves for a while before slithering my way back home...perhaps at some point this year I may catch a second fish!
Just been down the beach for a look and the surf is UP! Hmmm...
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