Stanford Again…10.04.2011

Saturday began on the beach and ended on the piss. It was Liam’s 42nd birthday so he threw a barbecue (one of my three barbies of the weekend) and we ended on the single malt. Of course he asked if I was paddling on Sunday so I invited him along and offered the loan of my Chatham. Of course he’d like to use it. Now, Liam taught me the rudiments of paddling and we go out together from time to time with him usually in one of an assortment of the wrecks he has or in one of my yaks so he is more than capable of giving my new toy a proper paddle. The plan was hatched and regretted at sunrise.



I was doing some more filming of course and had the ATC9K in a different position this time:



It was quite lumpy on the way out with far more wind than the day before and at times I wondered if I’d be able to anchor. Both the Chatham and my Scupper took it in their stride of course and for once I got some nice pictures of me ;D



We reached the buoy after a while and I dropped anchor. The wind and swell had dropped and I baited up and cast in while Liam tried to stay awake and upright!



First up was a small whiting, one of 3





While Liam looked on with barely concealed excitement.



A couple of dabs and a doggie followed and after a hoot and a wave from yesterday’s charter boat I up anchored and we headed back for breakfast. Another beautiful morning. Sadly the sea had flattened off a lot now so it was a bit boring so I decided to jump in and have a swim about a mile out. This wasn’t filmed as my battery had unknowingly died – I’d filmed into the sun all the way out and was hoping to get better stuff on the way back with it behind me but it was not to be. A pity really as I was moving myself into loads of positions to capture the Necky from different angles. Oh well. At least I took a snap of the Marie Celeste:



So much for my deepwater re-entry, as I got ready to jump back up I touched bottom; I drifted onto a bank and was standing in under 5ft of water. This bank is the annoying one that has built up over the last 18 months and absorbs some of the really good waves that roll in when we have the yakboards out.



Here’s the camera mount from the water: