Sunday afternoon saw him arriving at the office where we’d arranged to meet and after a coffee and chat we loaded up the van with our demo Ultra which I’d spent a couple of days rigging with a Humminbird Side Imaging unit and a Pacific Action 1 metre sail. The original intention had been to have a play around at Gorleston before scanning the wreck of the White Swan further down then sailing down to Hopton for a bit of spring codding. Sadly the Force 4-5 north-easterly with it’s attendant wind over tide 3-5ft waves put paid to this plan so we instead opted just to launch, paddle, land and sail our way south with me sailing along on the Scupper Pro.
With the rods removed and everything stowed we got ourselves dressed up and with me filming and snapping Andy was the first onto the water doing the old Hawaii Five-0 thing as there was a bit of movement on the surface. After all, there’s no point having someone do a boat test on flat water, is there ;D
With him safely launched, I followed and the two of us paddled down to the wreck of the Swan, intending to scan it with the side imaging unit but as we had a 2-3ft sea at this point, a very strong wind and the current was starting to pick up we couldn’t get close enough for a proper scan. Instead we did the next best thing and, having briefly had my sail up, put ashore for me to do some running modifications to it. I did well on choosing the landing spot – I couldn’t have picked a worse one! The waves were dumping messily, about 4ft, and the 20mph wind was making it tricky to turn the long kayaks. I made a mental note to ship the sail properly next time too as it flicked up as I was running in; I needed to keep my hands on the paddle at this point but no matter, the surf practice in the Scupper stood me in good stead and I slid, upright, onto the beach to await Andy’s landing.
Oh dear! We needed to try this again ;D The wind and dumping surf made control of the Ultra quite hard and coupled with being in a strange boat Andy made a less than graceful exit before he reached the shoreline…and I missed the shot! Oh well, I gave him the camera and had a go, the first time I’d been on the water in an Ultra. Out I went into a lively sea and headed uptide a bit to run in away from the groyne. I picked my moment badly (for the intended test) and came in between a couple of smaller waves as opposed to the larger ones I had hoped to try and surf in which would have proved more testing. No matter. We went back out to continue our trip. Little did we know, but we were being followed ;)
Asking Andy if he was happy to try the sail he responded positively even though he’d never sailed before. A quick briefing on how to control it with the lines and it was up and at ‘em! Off we steamed, across the wind and through broadsiding waves at speeds between 5 and 7mph. We were up and down like my ex’s knickers! I somehow got the feeling that Andy was enjoying this new method of propulsion and between videos and taking pics on his camera I snapped a few on my own.
The cocky bugger even overtook me at one point…
…but it wasn’t going to be for long…
We leapfrogged back and forth down to Hopton, a couple of metres apart and chatting, with the combined efforts of wind and wave (and going over the debris field from one of the inshore wrecks) giving Andy an early bath at one point which allowed him to test the Ultra for deepwater re-entries. Having practiced them only last week he was unperturbed about being in the water (one of the main reasons for doing them regularly) even though it was the biggest sea he’d been out in. Once he’d got past the effects of the sail in countering the upturning of the hull he flipped it back over and clambered on neatly with ease. We then set sail again.
We reached Hopton where I’d originally planned to beach and, as we were having so much fun, carried on south to Dogger (Gunton) a few miles further. Knowing that we had some rougher water between us and our destination and that landing wasn’t a possibility for at least a mile I put in a call to the Coastguard just to let them know we were heading down with an estimate of our transit time. This had the added benefit of being a radio check in that area at the time we were going through. We were still being watched…by someone who would shortly be reversing a 3.5 ton curtain sided van all the way back up Beach Road ;D
We blasted down a bit and then shipped the sails once the rebounds came from the sea wall. Attention has to be paid in this area as it can be quite tricky and so we paddled it, with the sea now running at an average of 4ft with some larger moments. It was exciting and good fun too, easily within the limits of the kayaks, and we made about 4mph on this leg before opening up the Pacific Actions again once we reached Tramps Alley at Corton for the final mile down to Dogger.
Spotting the landing site I told Andy to hang back so that I could land first and be on hand to grab him as he came in. I noticed Okreally standing on the beach, camera in hand, and figured that his bloody camera was all I needed in this sea!!! It was large and dumping with a strong wind and I knew he’d be hoping for me to land on my arse ;D Fortunately I did the business, braked when needed and paddled when needed and got in, dragging the Scupper up and calling Andy in. He had no problems this time even though the sea was worse than at Gorleston and slid in nicely, having covered five and a half miles in an unfamiliar boat, a force 5 crosswind and a 3-5ft running sea with paddle and sail. He was smiling hugely from both the adrenalin and achievement.
My smile came next. We’d been observed by a couple of beach anglers just walking up to their mark. I do like to wind them up and when one cheekily asked where the rods were I avoided the question and answered with:
“Here, have a look at this” as I pulled out a 5lb cod which we’d taken down to illustrate the fish box at its best.
“Wow! What did you get that on?”
“Double black lug”
“How far out?”
“About 400 yards”
“Further than I can cast then”
“Yep, that’s why I’ve got one of these”
I neglected to mention that it was caught off Felixstowe in a flat calm sea the morning before ;D
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