Castle and Seals

Today we had another private lesson, this time with Barry who we found through our local canoe club. We launched from Roa Island, once more received feedback on out techniques and then headed off on a trip. Throughout the day Barry introduced more new skills and helped up improve the ones we have gathered so far. We went out past Piel Island and around below the ruined castle. To get to Piel we had to cross the shipping channel out of Barrow, this seemed extremely busy today (nice weather and a Bank Holiday). The tidal flow was quite strong and was going against the wind making it a bit bumpy for us beginners, well for me anyway, Tina seemed to be at lot happier with the crossing. We then crossed over from Piel to the south of Walney Island, again the crossing seemed a little bumpy to me. This time it was not caused by the tidal stream but just the wind. I think with more experience in the kayak and once I have improved my skills, so that I can trust them, I’ll be happier. Anyway any discomfort on my part quickly disappeared once we were across to Walney, as well as sheltered water we were joined by the local seal population.

Some of the seals checking me out

These grey seals were extremely inquisitive and playful. At one stage I had three of them following me in my wake. Tina said it just looked like I was taking dogs for a walk. They got that close you would be paddling a long and then you felt a bump as they gave you a push from behind. I watched one of them keep contact with the stern of Tina’s kayak for a number of seconds, I’m sure I saw her kayak accelerate from the push. So to have the confidence and skills to come out here on our own and visit the seals is our first goal. This colony is about 4 miles from our house, why would we not want to be able to do this on a regular basis. South Walney (like North Walney) is a nature reserve and before heading back we also saw a number of Terns diving in the water catching fish or sand eels.

Whilst crossing back to Piel Barry showed us how to do a contact tow and a longer tow on a tow line. For the long tow Tina acted as the casualty and I supported her and her kayak whilst Barry towed us both. This time we came around the west side of Piel, the shipping lane was still busy,  once back on the other side we continued to practiced our skills and had a really good chat with Barry about the extra equipment we should carry. He also pointed out some modification I should make to our tow line.