With the school holidays upon us and my children here this year instead of France it had been difficult to get away. Abigail, my youngest, was a bit perturbed at not having been able to go to a competition like Eloise had a couple of years back so we decided to arrange one of our own; nothing serious but a bit of fun all the same and an excuse to get to the beach. Hopefully we’d find a few mackerel or sandeel, perhaps even a bass or two between us...
...Except the wind was looking pretty strong. Nothing we couldn’t handle ourselves but the children might struggle. Beautiful sunny weather though. A bit warm to drag four kayaks over Mount Steve but I was lucky to have help from some of the bunch that joined us; usual faces and various offspring even Martin’s wife.
Within minutes my girls were in the water enjoying the shore dump with some of the others, just playing in the waves at first while I chatted. Entry fee was sweets and I’d ran around trying to find some on a sunday morning, not the easiest thing while the shops were still shut and so we’d all ended up with larger bags than originally intended. Except it didn’t look like the kids could compete.
Andy landed then, had been out all morning with Ian and Gilly was out there somewhere as well. Reports were conclusive, there weren’t any bass playing. I had a quick troll to see if I could find anything and see how it was for the girls but the tide and wind were too much for the little folk out on the reefs. With that ascertained I decided to get mine on the water to see how they could cope if we drifted with feathers.
Abigail took her rigged Kea, Eloise my Tempo while I hopped into the Midway. Off we went and they were beaming. Alex and his daughter were on the water, Martin with his son in the tankwell and others here and there. We were soon downtide and downwind and paddling back, the odd seal popping up nearby.
With Abigail back on the beach Eloise wanted to practice re-entries and have a go on the Midway. She’s outgrown the Kea now and the Tetra isn’t the right boat for her so I was pleased she was coping alright with the Tempo. Kev was trialling his too and practising his own self-rescues so a race was proposed! Kev was quickest to get up and on but going straight back over the other side lost him the lead and Eloise was declared the winner! So pleased was she she jumped off and had a few more goes before we swapped kayaks.
Now, I tend to say that the Midway is a kayak for the more advanced paddler but it would appear that this isn’t quite accurate. Advanced paddlers and little girls. She had no problem whatsoever and both paddling and re-entries were easy enough. She even surfed it in on a straighter line than me on the Tempo!
Well, we tried fishing a few more times but it wasn’t suitable so the kids all played, we got some meat barbecuing, my cousin pitched up with her kids and eventually the sweets got shared out before we all headed back home after a long, hot and sunny day on the beach chilling out. Marvellous it was, even if we didn’t do any fishing.
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