It’s 6am and I’ll finish my shift in a couple of hours…I’m flagging and I just want to go to sleep. Quite why I sit there, grinning like Beavis and Butthead, and come up with the idea to go out skating I don’t know! Still, that’s the decision and I allow another hour for Si to wake up before texting him. We’re off to Hopton in search of thornies. As long as I don’t decide to have a nap. “Man up, Mummy” comes the reply – it’s a running joke and you’re not being let in on it.
With my shift over I wander back to my house. Hmm, croissants, pain au chocolat and coffee I think. The oven goes on and I head upstairs to grab my camera, a couple more rigs and check the tides and wind. Looks pleasant enough and doable, a bit windy but not so bad.
As I move off I spy a text from Si. He has a seized reel – can he borrow one? I turn around and grab one from the house then head for his to help him load up as he’s free earlier than expected, as am I. It’s a beautiful morning, bright and blue and by the time we reach the launch site I’m feeling somewhat warm. This gets worse as we unload; it’s a real suntrap at the top of the cliff here.
With Si still getting sorted I trolley down the hill and launch, an easy launch today, and paddle out to the mark. I’ve actually taken the Humminbird out today so that I can get myself on the edge of the beds and check and store the location if I do find some thornies. Behind me are frozen blacks, unwashed squid and blueys and I’m rigged up with a 3 hook boom flapper and a wishbone rig, the latter for thornies or smuts and the former for cod, bass or whatever. I’m pretty hopeful.
Mind you, past the groynes it’s a bit bumpier. That winds pretty strong too. I’m not making great headway against the tide either; it’s slap bang mid-tide now anyway so that’s to be expected. Still, I push on and get past the mark and clip the warp through the carabiner and drop down, shuttling the trolley to the rear as it spools out.
Is it me or is Neptune a bit pissed off this morning? The sea has suddenly taken on a new shape as I’ve stopped moving and it’s not all that pleasant…I’m swinging, bouncing and the waves are coming in from all angles and quite large too. The wind’s playing havoc as well. Best I wait before I drop down and I leave the paddle on my lap ready to brace.
WOAH! That was close! A wave has snuck up on me, caught the paddle and pivoted it on my thigh, twisting my leg and damned near having me in! Only a hip flick and rapid lean has kept me from swimming; somehow I don’t think we’ll be fishing today after all. Si is afloat now and I call him up, tell him not to drop anchor but to come over and give me a hand. I’m not swinging around in this without help if I don’t need to but I’m not dicking around with ditching it for later retrieval either. He pulls up and with his added stability I spin the kayak around, he lets go and I start to haul anchor. It’s hard work, there’s a good 3 knots passing under me. I get it up and we head in for a boring landing because the beach is flat.
Now Si has only just got his Scupper and we don’t want to waste our morning so we de-rig and put things into the vehicles. It’s time for an ad-hoc self-rescue session and with the sea defences further up taking a battering we head for the rough water there to do some. There’s no real point in being able to do a re-entry on a flat calm piece of water if you’re going out regularly in worse (although it is a start I suppose). We paddle up and the temptation to play first is just too great. The swell is slamming in nicely and being reflected back into the oncoming waves, there’s foam and spray and dips and peaks and water everywhere. Looks like it might be a good morning after all; we get the cameras out and take it in turns to snap and film.
It’s quite demanding and after both of us have hit the sand at the one end we decide to do the intended self-rescues. I go first and then it’s Si’s turn. He starts off really well but this isn’t a Caper and he goes headfirst over the other side. Smugly, I crease up. Time and again it happens and though intensely embarrassing and humiliating because of the camera it’s not really the case of incompetent fumbling by an uncoordinated and inept buffoon. Look at that sea. Now figure that the kayak you’re on is totally different in length, width, seat depth, stability and layout. Nah, it was most definitely to be expected.
That done it was time to head back and off we went with just a couple of close calls for me when I went too close to the woodwork on large waves and hit the barely submerged groyne posts on the way past. What a classic example of a crap session becoming something memorable though eh?
It’s quite demanding and after both of us have hit the sand at the one end we decide to do the intended self-rescues. I go first and then it’s Si’s turn. He starts off really well but this isn’t a Caper and he goes headfirst over the other side. Smugly, I crease up. Time and again it happens and though intensely embarrassing and humiliating because of the camera it’s not really the case of incompetent fumbling by an uncoordinated and inept buffoon. Look at that sea. Now figure that the kayak you’re on is totally different in length, width, seat depth, stability and layout. Nah, it was most definitely to be expected.
That done it was time to head back and off we went with just a couple of close calls for me when I went too close to the woodwork on large waves and hit the barely submerged groyne posts on the way past. What a classic example of a crap session becoming something memorable though eh?
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