Simple Pleasures

It’s drizzling as I tow the kayak trolley down to our local beach and perhaps part of my brain begins to understand why only one other person was interested in paddling on my (semi) regular Sunday paddles. I don’t think, however, the rain is the whole story. Conditions are, rain and low cloud notwithstanding, pretty good; the winds are light, the swell perhaps 1 to 1.5 metres, the sea will be lumpy in parts, but there are dolphins swimming around in the bay. It’s not a good day for rock climbing, the crags will be slick and treacherous, and it’s never a good day to sit at home doing not much of anything physical. I’d much rather be out paddling than I would be doing almost anything else on such a day.

We head south. To the north and east the cloud is so low that even the Tollgate Islands, only three or four kilometres off-shore are obscured. If we go south, we’ll at least have things to look at. We cruise along comfortably, AD paddles with a stick (Greenland paddle) but he’s a strong lad and keeps the boat moving easily. Some of the stick paddlers are really slow and it can feel tempting, particularly at the end of the day as they get slower and slower to say “For the love of all that is holy, just get a regular paddle.” I’m neither patient nor tolerant of fools but I am more of both since I got older. We’ve all got our struggles which we keep invisible from all but our closest friends and even then things are hidden from spouses and partners.

I like being out when conditions are kind of grizzly because when you get back home and take off wet clothes, stand under a hot shower, eat a hot meal and have a hot coffee or tea, these simple pleasures that are so easy to take for granted feel like such a gift. It’s that way today. By the time we land after three hours paddling, I’m starving (I have not eaten since the night before), I’m wet, and chilled, and I walk home dragging the kayak trolley still dressed in spray skirt and life jacket because my hands are too clawed up from cold to be able to manage the zips.