26th of July
Charles & I have our first training paddle together. The day was not the best day for a paddle with a strong northerly wind blowing down the Derwent and out across Storm Bay. Or plan was to paddle across the bay to South Arm Beach and then head along the coastline to the Iron Pot Lighthouse.
We headed off at a pretty swift pass and despite the very rough waters we encountered in the middle, the trip across the bay didn't seem all that difficult (which was a relief). The wind speed and size of the waves was increasing and after taking a short break on South Arm Beach, we checked the time we had left and thought about the distance we would have to paddle back across the bay into a rather nasty wind. After some discussion it was decided to leave the paddle to the lighthouse until a better day, instead we followed the coast back around to Opossum Bay beach and then back across to our starting point at Blackmans Bay beach.
Wouldn't you know it when we were about a third of the way back across the bay the wind dropped right away and the last 5kms of the trip were on progressively calmer water.
2nd of August
Charles & Ben have their first training paddle together. Again the venue was Storm Bay and once again the weather was going to be a factor, as the guys faced wind gust from the north of up to 60 knots!
As we are yet to get our nice new Mirage 580's for the trip, so we are training on boats that in some cases are rather more suited to flat water. This was the case when Ben took his Time Bandit (Racing Kayak) out for a spin, while Charles had the rather more stable Pittarak Sea Kayak. The sea kayak showed why it is called a sea kayak by handling the conditions quiet well, and lets just say it is lucky Ben has very good balance or he would have been spending quiet a lot of time talking to the fish!
The two covered a reasonable distance in this their first paddle together, going from Blackmans Bay around to Kingston Beach and then have a much more sheltered paddle up to the top of Browns River.
