It is over six weeks since the
Bittangabee weekend, the last time I did any significant paddling,
and finally my elbow felt well enough to get back in the kayak. On
Friday we went down to Tuross where the usual paddle around Tuross
Inlet was subverted by a "bubble and struggle" session,
although half the group eschewed the dunking and paddled the regular
loop. If you only ever paddle on lakes and calm rivers there
probably is not much incentive to learn to eskimo roll.
Bubble and Struggle
Afterwards, we took our 20 plus year
old Feathercraft up to John's place and spent a couple of hours in
the sun trying to remember how to put it together. Pretty much every
stage was accompanied by a statement in the vein of "Oh yeah,
this bit is a tad tricky," and a minor domestic dispute between
Doug and I as to what piece we should install next. Luckily, Peter
arrived before we had gone too far as he had the all important flow
chart which quickly revealed that neither Doug nor I was correct
about the construction order. Once the whole boat was together it
did look a bit sad, not wearing it's 20 years well, with the cockpit
coamings a bit crooked, the ribs askew, and the entire boat faded and
no longer really waterproof. John was trying to look positive but I
suspect that Mrs Wilde will be less than impressed.
The feathercraft on a circuit of the Palua Islands
Saturday a subgroup of the
usual sausage contingent left from Mossy Point for a return trip to
Guerilla Bay and I went along with the idea that if my elbow got too
bad, I would come back early. We had an easy exit from the bar at
Mossy Point on a very high tide and then headed directly for
Burrewarra Point into a light easterly wind. I found that as long as
I kept my elbows in and my scapulae engaged I had no pain paddling
thus blowing apart any reductionistic theories about my elbow
tendonitis being an overuse injury propagated by the conventional
medical establishment.
Heading for Burrewarra Point
When I tell people I have been going to a
chiropractor who sensibly takes a systems approach and has been
working my strength and mobility upstream (shoulders, neck and
thoracic spine) and downstream (wrists and forearms) of the problem
they look at me like I have a death wish, just the way I look at them
when they admit following conventional medical advice. I guess we do
have something in common after all.
Morning at Mossy Point
A solo kayaker caught up
with us about half an hour after leaving Mossy Point and travelled
with us for most of the rest of the day. Of course, the paddler was
the holder of yet another sausage. Women are severely
under-represented in the Aussie sea kayaking scene. We had a short
break on the beach at Guerilla Bay and then headed back. The
haystacks off Burrewarra Point were quite fun to bounce around in and
there was a good following sea on the way back. A better kayaker
could catch solid rides all the way to Mossy Point but I was fixated
on keeping my shoulders engaged not catching rides.
Guerilla Bay
The bar at Mossy Point
looked a bit terrifying from the back with big swells rising up, but
Mark had safely got in so I think we all figured it couldn't be too
bad. I followed John in and only had to paddle hard for about 30
seconds. Mark had got out of his boat and was dashing along the rock
reef trying to secure some astonishing video footage but, of course,
on playback it all looked like nothing much at all.
Now here's a guy who knows about tupperware
We repaired to the local
cafe where Doug and I had our usual black tea/coffee, and Mark, in
between frothing about paddling backwards over the biggest wave of
his entire sea kayaking career let slip that our tupperware lunch
containers drive him insane, which, is pretty much the story of our
life. Being odd. Sometimes, you've just got to embrace it.
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