First Paddle of the Year

The weather was set to be cold but dry and calm, so it sounded like an ideal day to try out our dry suits and to be able to work out what layers we need underneath. A check of the tide tables showed that high tide was early in the morning and would be on the ebb at a reasonable time when we would be able to set off. Living near the mouth of Morecambe bay means that the tidal range is very high and setting off after high tide would give us very little paddling time. So it was off to our regular haunt, Coniston Water.

We have not been paddling properly since October and it showed in our stamina, well at least now having the dry suits we will be able to get out throughout the winter and keep our stamina up all year round. We kept dry and warm in the suits, although it must be said we did not test them fully with a dip, and so far we are really happy with them.

We recently added graphics to our Kayaks, this is so we can name them and record the details on the Maritime & Coastguard Agency GC66 form. The graphics were created and produced by Art and Sea

Kayaks with their new graphics

Rafted up for a selfie

Tina looking snug and warm in her dry suit

Looking towards the Coniston fells with just a light dusting of snow

Not a lot of action

Well it's been a while since we last went kayaking, but we have been brushing up on our skills and purchasing some new kit which should allow us to get out all year round.

One thing I did do a while ago, in fact you can see it in the photos of the last blog when Tina was towing me, was to modify our tow line. When the manufacture puts a tow line together they do it in the quickest way they can.

Unmodified Tow 

 I have been told that this is not how you want the line set-up. With big knots and the float near the carabiner, the knot and float can become fouled up on the deck lines of the person been towed if they try to release the tow. If it gets stuck on the deck lines out of reach then there is no way they can release themselves.

Modified Tow

I modified our tow by moving the float down the line and by stitching the rope to hold the carabiner in place without a knot. Hopefully now if the person been towed wants to escape from the tow, the line will move freely under the deck lines.

Although we have not been out with the kayaks since October, we have had two pool sessions with them at one of the local leisure centres. We got together with a few others and hired the pool for two hours for each session. The others were interested in learning to roll, I don't think we are quite at that stage so we used the time to become more confident in turning the kayaks over and practising both peer and self rescues. I still struggle with the self rescue which Tina appears to have mastered. Our peer rescues are getting much slicker.

We have recently been gear fondling again and have brought a dry suit each (Christmas presents), so we should at least me able to get out in the coming months without having to wait for the summer. This also means that since we will be wearing several layers of socks to keep warm we needed to buy some "new underwater shoes" in a bigger size.

Dry suits and "new underwater shoes"