Confession time!

Which way is up?

Week 6 of the continuous paddle programme thingy that Hubby dear has been running has finally arrived and also coincides with our annual evening paddle.
At least this time the water was a bit flatter.
Our wee group met up at Silver Sands in Aberdour where we were given some map bearings to follow to find our eggs. Quite why I had to do this to find the eggs I bought in the first place is beyond me, but hey ho off we went.

Heading off to Edinburgh!

Niall and Young Trevor were in the yellow team (yellow drysuits!), whilst Sandy, Phil and myself were the blue team (blue drysuits!)
The yellow team set off first and it wasn't long before they started heading off in the direction of Edinburgh!
The blue team had the same bearings, but were heading along the coast or at least we were once Sandy realised the map was upside down!

The yellow team were radioed to let them know they were way off course and to meet us up by "egg 6" the west end of Inchcolm.
Hubby dear set off to round them up, whilst we made our way straight to "egg 6".
The yellow team eventually arrived having come along the south side of the island. We had come along the north side, passing our first Puffins of the year. We agreed to carry on in the directions we were paddling, meeting up on  the north side beach.

Getting ready for a quick sprint!

It was whilst paddling along into the wind I just so happened to mention we could take the short cut by landing on the south beach and making a run over the path to the North before everyone else arrived. I thought that Sandy and Phil would keep me going right round, but no, they were all for it! We jumped out of our boats and did a wee sprint (with kayaks) over the path and parked the boats on the beach to make it look like we had just landed. So yellow team and Hubby dear, now you know how we got there in so much time, even if we had paddled right round, I'm sure we would still have got there first!

Egg time

After our eggs and watching the sun go down, we got our party lights out, and headed back to Aberdour with a bit more of a swell.

Heading back.

Another great night out, with a Cadbury's crème egg to boot - lovely!

Inchcolm night paddle

Silver Sands

Well, it was that time of year again, the Easter night paddle. Hubby dear organises this and doesn't like to give up his eggs too easily, therefore sets us all up with various challenges.
This was the first time Jill had been out in the sea boats with us. This was the first time Stewart had been out in the sea, with anyone. Let's start off with a night paddle! He was really just excited at the thought of playing with his glow sticks! And Sarah T has been out before.
We met up at the boatshed, then made our way down to Silver Sands in Aberdour. We were all given three bits of paper. One had a skill, one a challenge and the other we had to find a point on the map with the bearings given to us. Luckily, they all pointed to Inchcolm, where the eggs would be dished out.

This sea kayaking is real relaxing

Look, no paddles!

Inchcolm abbey

Passing the Happy Warrior

 We set off, completing our challenges on the way, on a lovely still night. We rounded Hawkcraigs, past Aberdour to Braefoot, where we had a break before heading over to Inchcolm. We had our usual audience of seals on the way. By this time the sun was sitting quite low. We paddled round Inchcolm and into the little bay to wait til it was dark. This gave Hubby dear the chance to play with his good camera, writing our club name in the dark. It took a few shots to get the spelling correct! This also gave us time to devour our eggs.

Egg time

Hubby dear playing with his torch

Yeeha! Glow stick time!

Once it was dark, we donned our glow sticks and headed out past Car Craig and started back towards Mortimer's Deep. By now it was pitch dark and we could see the lights of a tug coming up from Braefoot. We would be OK as the boat was passing well in front of us. As we were carrying on, we were aware of the sound of waves, but in the dark all waves sound big. But these ones were big! Hubby dear gave the shout for us to raft up just in time for some rather large, fast waves to hit us. Stewart was between Hubby dear and Jill, whilst I had rafted up with Sarah T. A good few waves later and the water was calm enough to carry on. We rounded Hawkcraig and arrived back at Silver Sands. I'm saying Silver Sands, but the tide was exceptionally low, some ferries had been cancelled due to the tide level, that any further out and we would be walking from Burntisland! By the time we had lugged the boats back we must have well and truly worked off our eggs. Although we paddle that stretch regularly, it always seems almost magical paddling it at night. 

Chocolate eggs and sea monsters

Last Friday, three of us set off from Silver sands at the back of 7 in the evening for a short night paddle. The plan was to head out round Hawkcraig point, across the bay  to Braefoot, then cut across and round Inchcolm.The day had been fairly miserable up until then with thick haar which kept rolling in, in big, cold, damp clouds. England and Wales had been put on a smog alert as the air had been so still. We didn't seem to have had any wind either, so I  was expecting mill pond like conditions. Once we had rounded the point, we found that there was quite a swell with the occasional white horse. Lovely paddling conditions when we could see, but I admit to being a bit wary about these horses galloping up on us in the pitch dark! One good thing though, the haar had cleared and we had a beautiful sunny evening.



Honestly, I haven't had 1 too many choccy eggs

Ken approaching Inchcolm

 By the time we had a slow paddle round and across to the island, getting followed most of the way by the usual inquisitive seals, the sky was getting quite dark. We weren't going to have to stay on the island too long for the dark to come down. We stopped for a coffee and a Cadbury's cream egg, the things I do for chocolate.

Do you think the radiation is still a problem here

We put on our head torches and attached our glowsticks to our backs. We decided to aim back upstream a bit as the tide was going out and the flow can be quite strong at times and headed across towards Braefoot again. This was Bart's first evening paddle, so we wanted to keep him between the two of us.



Bart



Ken

Me

 We reached the shipping channel to find a boat approaching. We stayed put to allow it to pass us, only to find another one approaching. We allowed that one to pass as well. We may have right of way over the boats, but I'm not arguing with them. This one had spotted us, put their lights on us and asked if we were heading in to Aberdour. When we said we were, they shouted back, "That's OK, we'll not need to tell the others!"
As we were heading across the shipping channel after explaining to Bart, that once we start to cross, we have to really "gie it some welly " and clear the channel fast, I get a bit concerned when all stops for a photo shoot! I get even more concerned when I look to the right to see the most enormous sea monster which has appeared from nowhere. This tanker was huge and was sharing the same bit of water as us! I shouted at Bart to get a move on, this boat wouldn't even go bump as it flattened us! Another couple of paddle strokes and Bart decided to get another photo. I reckon he was trying for a close up without the zoom lens!!! Luckily, this boat was getting towed in to berth, but it could still shift. After a bit more yelling at Bart (he must by now think I'm a nag, could be right, but I like the thought of surviving my trips) we made it into Aberdour bay. The crossing itself had been surprisingly smooth. The waves seem to have been ironed out. As we approached the point to turn into Silver sands again, the chop got up again, but we didn't have far to go.
It's funny how in the dark the surf sounds huge. As we were approaching the beach, I was getting ready for my landing and was a bit surprised to find the "surf" was just a tiny ripple.