When doing nothing never happens!

A clutter of canoes!

The big weekend for the MWE OC had finally arrived. The thought of a paddle free weekend was something I was really looking forward to. Whilst Hubby dear was sitting his assessment, I planned to spend the day doing absolutely nothing!
Well, that would be after doing the usual exciting things such as washing, ironing, paying invoices, putting in orders for work, oh I could hardly wait!
So when word came through that more mock students were needed and Hubby dear had put my name down, in my excitement,  I soon forgot about my day off doing nothing!

Keeking up to the bottom of The Soldier's Leap

 

Graeme looking pleased his first session is over!

 

 

The assessor, Claire, the three assesses and the 4 students all met up in Killiecrankie at 9.30 on the Sunday morning to paddle the Garry. I've never paddled this part of the Garry before, just walked down the side. The extremely long humph down the hill to the water also passed as our warm up, for once I was sweltering!

Concentrating going round in circles!

 

We put on the water just below The Soldiers Leap where Graeme started off his session with a really good lesson on inside and outside turns using the current to help us. His second lesson was ferry gliding, another good lesson. After lunch we carried on down the river a bit using the ferry gliding to jump from one side to the other with a few pirouettes thrown in for good measure.
Our third session was just passed the bungee bridge and came from Nick. His theme was going to be breaking in and out the eddies. However after giving us a demo, he decided the eddy wasn't defined enough to carry on with that plan. Off he toddled for a wee look at the other side of the river before coming back to say he'd changed his mind. Then came the words I was dreading, we're going to do poling instead! Aargh - me, poling, Argosy! they don't go together particularly well! However Claire allowed me to use her boat instead, it was a bit wider and more stable and in the end I really enjoyed another lesson and had a good laugh to boot!

Lunch time, we haven't come far!



Grabbing eddies

Hubby dear was coaching the other group of mock students, who carried on talking about their lesson the rest of the way down the river - surely a good sign!
After that it was a nice wee paddle down the rest of the river with the sun brightly bouncing off the water.

Back at the car, the results were in. 3 well deserved passes, well done guys.
This is the second time I've been a mock student for a MWE OC and I have to say if you get the chance of this, it's well worth it. You're helping the guys sit their assessment, you get free coaching, but best of all, it's another great day out.
So with Hubby dear's assessment out of the way, does this mean a bit of a breather for me? Oh no! We're only part way through his AWE Sea trial sessions, I've still got lots more Soggy Scenarios to get through!

Garry 3, Kerrara 1, Ice cream 2

Last Monday, I got a frantic phone call from Cathy at Sea Kayak Oban, to say the 4 kayaks that were ordered for FCAG were on their way back up north and that Stuart could meet up with us at Stirling services at 7.00pm that evening. After a few phone calls to rearrange my evening, we headed over to Stirling to collect two of the kayaks, brand new North Shore AtlanticLV, still in their polybags. We would collect the other two at the weekend.
On Saturday, Kevin had arranged a river trip up to the Garry, a bit north of Fort William. A long way off meant an early rise (I'm not very good at them), but Kevin, Kris, Craig, Bill, Liam Ken and myself all met up at the boatshed for 7.30.

We arrived at the river at about 11.00 and once we had dropped the cars off at the bottom, we had a walk up the side of the river. As I was the only one never to have paddled this river before, Kevin was pointing out the different drops and what lines to take, not that I remember any of this once I'm on the water. We put in just below the dam, next to the huge tunnel, hoping they didn't decide to release through here all of a sudden.

Bill

Kris

Where's Kris

Craig

Kevin

Still Bill

 We had a wee play around up at the top, before starting to head down. It wasn't too long before I found out I could still roll! Down to the next bit with a lovely wave, good for side surfing, (well it is for some folks). At the last drop, I followed Kevin's line and survived it all. A nice, short trip, but really good. We got out for a quick bite to eat, when Bill decided he was finished paddling for the day.We loaded the boats into the back of his van and walked up the left hand side of the river, jumped in just below the wave and swam to the opposite bank and up a bit to get the boats again.For some paddlers this is the only way they swim in a river, but not me!

Is this on the swim count Kevin

Sarah getting more water logged

Another one for the swim count

Back up the top, another play, then down to the wave again, this time I managed a good surf before coming out upside down again. Back to the last drop where I followed Ken's line this time. I never got far before I was upside down with the paddles ripped out of my hands, I was in for a bumpy swim back down to the bottom. Boats back in Bill's van, back up the left hand side of the river again (Kevin was determined to get more wild Blaeberries), back in for another swim across the river and back in our boats for a quick last run. All was going well until the last drop. I followed Kevin again, but no luck. I was suffering from deja vu. Upside down, paddles ripped out of hands again, bump, bump, bump down to the bottom. Despite having 2 intentional swims and also 2 unintentional swims, I had a great time, what's more, I think it must be the first river I've paddled down without letting slip a wee sweary - must have been good.

Craig

Sarah

Ken

The others all headed back down the road while Ken and I headed down to Inchree to the Glendevin B & B. Next day the weather had turned a bit windy and miserable as we headed down to Oban to collect the other 2 new sea kayaks for the club. We got changed, picked up the kayaks and had a wee stroll down to the slipway, stopping the traffic as we went to get across the street.

Shiny new boats

Ken posing

 Ken was paddling the Atlantic LV, while I was paddling the regular Atlantic, both with new paddles. We headed up round the top of Kerrera and down the other side, stopping off in Slatrach Bay for eats.

Cuddles are hard to get with 2 B.A's

Grandma at Gamhna island



Ken in his lively LV

  The regular Atlantic is a very comfy, nice boat to paddle. As we were coming round the south end of the island, the wind and tides were kicking up some decent waves, but my boat still handled it easily. The LV was a bit more lively at this point. We turned into the Sound of Kerrera where we swapped boats so that we could try each one out.

Lots of yachts



Sarah



Ken heading home

 We were sharing the Sound with approximately 100 yachts as they finished a race. Back in Oban, we stopped the traffic again as we took the boats back up to the car. Once they were tied on, it was off for an icecream (of course), a  double (of course), Bailies and Ferrero Rocher, I'm sure it was the low calorie version.
What a great weekend.