Last weekend Dean laid down the law. The put-in time was 9:30 not the meeting time. Reading between the lines one had better no be late. Someone hung the moniker of "Mean" Dean on him.
This Saturday I suggested a meeting time of 9:00 which would have meant lots of time to put-in by 9:30. Cathy mailed looking for verification that it was a meeting time and not a put-in time. Dean said yes meeting time.
Cathy, Gary, Neville and I arrived before 9:00. As 9:00 approached there was no sign of Dean. We milled about for a while when Cathy and Neville tried to contact Dean. The response "Crap, the alarm didn't go off". Too funny.
We told him we'd wait for him to arrive before setting out. We hung around testing the waves crashing on the rocks.
About 9:45 we were on our way with very little wind but a fair size open swell running in out of the north. I spent its energy in masses of foam on the rocks.
Looks are deceiving. What looks placid in a still was in reality ...
... really quite violent.
As we paddle south the wind began to pick up. We were paddling in a weather window with strong winds in the forecast that we were informed would gust to 70 kms in the afternoon. I wondered if the winds were arriving early so discussing with Dean we decided to turn around and paddle back catching the occasional surf ride.
Back at the put-in Cathy decided to try a roll. She's been working on it at the pool the last three weeks and has had some success. The roll can seem like a symphony of many parts when learning it. Sometimes the parts are all in tune, sometimes not so much. Cathy missed on this attempt and had to wet exit but kudos to her for giving it a go.
There was help close at hand. Neville was first to grab her kayak. For some unexplained reason her rear hatch cover came off spilling the contents and completely filling with water. I stabilized Neville as he pulled the kayak over his deck and rocked it back and forth to empty it. While Dean took Cathy on his ...
... back deck to get her out of the chilly water. When the kayak ready for occupancy again it was a ...
... communal effort to have her crawl over Gary's rear deck and back into hers. I contributed with evidence gathering *lol*
Only a short paddle of 10 kms but it was entertaining and it was on the water.
Dean has some more pic and commentary on his blog.
Excellent contribution to the rescue Tony! :)... Helpful learning video... I hope you can solve the case of the missing pogie!
ReplyDeleteThanks team for another great day!
p.s....I still think Mean Dean earned another kind of paddlin... but he got there, and that took huge effort!:)
Your roll will come. There's no support for the hip flick when the paddle takes a dive for the deep. A climbing leading edge will help. Awfully simple if you know and simply awful if you don't.
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