Loaded up, we headed down the ramp to the beach and watched the shore dump. Always comforting ;D A quick pointer on waiting for the flat spot and then Don was ready to go. I’m sure there was a faint whiff of faeces around his new Palm drysuit ;D I gave him a hand, holding the stern and giving it a shove when it was time to go and he made it through beautifully, his 4.3 shooting up over a couple of waves without problem, held nice and straight. He didn’t look the religious type to me but I guess there must be a God for him! Si caught it on film:
Si and Mike followed, on film, and again made it through without problems. Satisfied that it was safe I followed and we headed north to the mark. We sort of anchored on it…I’ll explain in a moment. With Don safely down and the other two dropping I positioned myself as well and down went the anchor. Straight off! The spring has gone in my carabiner and I was left bollocksed as my anchor trolley fell apart on me. I thought I might give uptiding a try but was being blown into Don’s way so hauled it up and got Mike to re-attach it before dropping down again. Now, I said we were sort of on the mark. We would have been bang on had the wind not been so strong and even though it was mid-flow we sat across the tide, the westerly putting our bows towards Holland. I reckon my PA sail would have got me there in an hour or so if I’d rigged it! Still, it felt pleasant enough, the current wasn’t really noticeable at all and the reasonable but gentle swell just rolled under us.
Then a shout. Don’s first kayak-caught fish! A whiting that went straight back. Then he had a double shot. I’d been faffing around a bit, experimenting today as my freezer is totally chokka now with half a lamb, a roe and a muntjac, a hare, some pheasant and partridge, a tray crammed with fish and a bunch of more normal contents so the idea was to stick large baits out.
First I rigged the KP with a circle hook, a black lug and a squid. The lug had been left in damp salt all week – would it work?
The other rod had a pennel, same bait and some beads with blades.
I got a bite and got a whiting up to the bow before it fell off.
I waited ages before the next bite, which I duly missed, waited some more and landed a keeper. That’s my lunch sorted then.
Si, with a newly re-rigged anchor system drifted far slower than normal and ended up over a shoal of whelks ;D He up-anchored after a while and came to be sociable for once and there we all sat in the wind and waves.
Dual-watch on 16 and 8 gave me notice that High Flyer was on its way out and, once it was close I gave Jon a call to remind him about the promise of a coffee. Dunno why but for some reason I was receiving nothing on 8 all day and he didn’t hear me either (also tried to call me but I didn’t receive that). 16 was working fine though, transmitting and receiving, but I decided against calling him a third time. Not long after another charter steamed past, also off to Corton (Lead Us?) and then a third boat. Hopefully those on board would have better luck than me today. Or maybe match Don whose beginners luck had a codling in the air now. Followed by a dab – the three expected species all caught. Bugger was outfishing me in numbers, species and tastiness ;D
Come 09:45 it was time to head in and off we went straight into a strong headwind. The coastguard had just put out a Securite for imminent gales so it may have seemed to onlookers as though we were as cowardly as the gang of teenagers I started to go after last night but in fact I was far more scared of my wife than I was of the gales. Hmm, the beach looked bumpy. Si was wondering around having sort of landed before us and filmed me coming in. I picked my moment of course, he had the camera out and I wasn’t fannying around with a flat spot ;D Spotted me a wave and rode it in, bongoing up the beach sideways…Mike followed suit also upright and then I got ready to grad Don who was bound to end up getting a soaking his first time out off Hopton. I was disappointed as he came in on the smoothest bit we’d seen all morning and showed us his codling.
Well that was it. We were in and ready to go home. I was reasonably close to getting home on time too. It was just that the waves looked so nice…
Kit dumped, yaks out, wait for a decent dumper and go through it, turn and start surfing them in – what better way to get squid off a kayak than that? The Scupper was shooting along beautifully and we all had a few rides, and got turfed out on occasion, in front of around twenty onlookers from the holiday camp. I swapped with Si and grabbed his Caper – shorter, wider and with more of a sitting room and I shot in; it was lovely and controllable. I dunno, maybe it was the second ride in when I got the thought; I could stand in this. I reckoned I could catch a wave and get to my feet…was I stupid enough to try?
Of course.
I grabbed a wave, got to my feet and stayed up briefly before losing my balance enough to jump off. That worked…let’s try again! Second time around and it felt like I was riding it for a couple of seconds (probably nowhere near) and then as it got close to breaking I jumped off voluntarily in full view of Si's camera, sadly rolling late!
Brilliant. That’s a new trick to develop ;D
One last ride and then up to the top, onto the cars and away…I wonder what tomorrow will be?
Si's take on things:
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