First 40 of the New Year

Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. General George Patton.

I needed a rest day. Not my body this time but my mind. In the contest between two introverts and one extravert, the extravert wins. Every time. The house was blissfully quiet and I got all the little jobs that had added up over the week done.

Doug had done his long day for the week on Tuesday, it was Friday when I did mine. The winds were light all day with just a 10 knot easterly building later in the day. The swell was up; in the two to three metre range with some long period waves coming through. It was just after 6:30 am when I started paddling with no real idea where I was heading. I headed north to Snapper Island and then, because the tide was very high and it is a long time since I have done this, I went all the way up Cullendulla Creek. There were a lot of fish jumping.

East then, past the dumping surf on Long Beach, threading my way through a rock passage between Maloneys and Long Beaches, only possible at the highest tide. At Reef Point, the swell was breaking and I had to put on some power to spear over the bigger waves and into Maloneys Beach where I ate a rather nasty left over chicken burger (not recommended). Out past Three Isle Point and North Head and on towards Oakey Beach, but I was getting queasy; the sea had that oily, greasy, roiling greyness where sky and sea are indistinguishable so I turned about and headed south to the Tollgate Islands where I ate something slightly less disgusting but not actually good tasting (cottage cheese and banana) breaking my own rule to never become a sea kayaker who eats bananas.

South again to Black Rock and starting to feel I desperately needed a cup of tea. Circuit Beach had a spilling wave and not too many people so I landed there and enjoyed tea out of a plastic mug. On the move again after 10 minutes heading back north following the shore. Lots of swimmers and sun-bathers at Surf Beach, a few less at Denhams Beach, and then only three or four at Sunshine Cove. My watch was stubbornly one kilometre shy. Doug would stop, but I think the power of training is in not stopping when you desperately want to, so I thought about Steve Bechtel’s latest training article, and turned and paddled 500 metres out to sea, and then back again.