More Learning in Fabulous Surroundings

Arrived in Cumbria Friday evening ready to start Level Two Coach Training first thing Saturday morning. This was being held at Derwentwater Marine with Saun and Harry of Wild River Coaching. http://www.wildriver.co.uk
It was a fabulous weekend with plenty of interesting and constructive learning.

 

To top it off there was time for a pleasant paddle after the course on Saturday evening. It was a beautiful evening and for the first time ever I took the Ipod with me. I wouldn't normally consider it while paddling on the sea or with company. But what a fabulous experience.





With direct access to the water from the digs - Derwentwater Youth Hostel



A short drag back up the drive



And what a view from the hostel



Looking forward to days three and four of the course next weekend.

Loch Lomond Inchcailloch Island Hoping

My dear friend George had thought of a fantastic weekend, it entailed booking an island on Loch Lomond for our exclusive use. The time of year was right - April which meant few midges, the forecast was great...so we jumped at it. Met up with Tony (Trotter), his lad Sam, Stephen and Sophie the dog and of course George and myself. I brought my lad too, 5 year old Anthony, always a gamble, never camped before and quite new to boating....


We met up at Balmaha, loaded up, the guys were on kayaks, I took the open canoe so I could ship our lad and Sophie across. Within half an hour we were on the island and setting up camp and then time to relax



Well the adults could, the lads were given the task of collecting fire wood



and a bit more relaxing...



and a bit of food...



Tony kept us topped up with brews (when the beer wasn't about) and thanks to George we dined like kings...



and just a quick spot of fishing fro George....



Under the watchful eye of the lifeguard



Some just decided to play in the sand



A beautiful place to spend the weekend







Before we knew it, the daylight was nearly gone





and some others came and joined us...



Time to light the fire and just a bit more food





All lights out by 8.30..........honest.....

Up early and breakfast, duck eggs, bacon, sausage, beans and plenty of bread....

and coco-pops for others





Kit packed away, plan was to get it all packed away in the vehicles and then back out for some 'serious' fishing......



All stowed nicely



How does George get away with carrying so little???



Oh I see now.......





What a beautiful morning







Sam thoroughly enjoying himself..



Then to some fishing......plenty of fish showing down at the bottom of the loch but even after having several follows we were unable to hook into a fish.



Stephen fortunately did a little better on the fly





On the whole a lovely weekend, 700 miles, just home...and just so badly want to go back, the boy is fairly keen too, the best gamble i've ever taken. Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and paddling the open boat, it was made extra special by having my lad with me. this really is the start of something extra special.

1st Uptiding of the Year

I was so keen to get out and fish last Sunday, forecasts were borderline but do-able. Tried ringing friend Dave Saturday night but he was out galavanting around Scarborough town - them young uns. Couldn't sleep, was so keen to get out, up for 4.30am, I actually saw the sun come up over the fields, first time in a long time since I've seen that. As any good friend would do, I text Dave at 6am to let him know my intentions.

Launched from North Landing and headed towards Bempton, a little lumpy but quite ok. Got a call from Dave to say someone rudely awoke him so he got up and was now at the Landing car park . He decided to head towards Brail to do a bit of uptiding to begin with and we kept in touch on the phone and VHF.

Well it was hard work, I sat there uptiding with best baits....



In a fave area....



And the best I could manage was these....





Dave didn't fair much better, we met up a little later and tried several other techniques including jigging and shadding but the cod simply were not there...



But anyway, still a nice day on the water and its still very early season although this time last year we had already had some very productive days uptiding. Plenty of time for good fishing in the coming months though.....

Out Of The Comfort Zone

Weather was looking just a little borderline yesterday with fairly strong SW to W winds, forecast was for 4 occasionally 5, dropping to 3 later. We surmised that if we tucked right in under the North Yorkshire cliffs we would be able to achieve a nice A to B journey sheltered from the worst of the weather.

An afternoon launch from Robin Hoods Bay putting in at Boggle Hole was decided the best option to take advantage of the last few hours of the flood and hopefully find the blow dropping away. Our destination was Scarborough North Bay, a distance of just over 10Nm.

The wind was whipping over the trees and out into the bay. We hand railed it right around the bay towards Ravenscar cliffs, it soon became apparent that the wind was funnelling through the bay and so a close break in around the corner would be necessary to prevent being pushed out to sea.



The small wavelets soon began building into surf able waves. We rounded the corner expecting shelter but found the wind was somehow cycloning around the huge cliffs buffeting us with unpredictable gusts that whipped the water off the surface and into huge spray columns raising 50 feet into the air. I wasn't happy, Dave is a competent sea kayaker but my fear was for one of us to end up swimming in these conditions.



A rescue would have been difficult and we would be well out to sea once successfully completed. I was thinking about get outs but the first place along this piece of coastline is Hayburn Wyke, still a long way off.

Fortunately as we surfed/blow further along the coast the winds became more predictable and settled with just the odd bit of nasty buffeting, we made good and fast progress down passed Staintondale.



As we reached Hayburn Wyke we were both smiling again and happy to continue our journey down to Scarborough. First past Cloughton Wyke, then Long Nab.





I decided to have a play at the odd little bit of rock hopping here but soon embarrassed myself timing a certain gap wrong and ending up perched on a small outcrop, the next wave soon had me afloat again.

Before we knew it we were edging around Scalby Ness Rocks watching for the breaking surf and into North Bay Scarborough. I small and unexciting surf onto the beach and within ten minutes we were sitting drinking coffee on the front awaiting our lift. I still shudder at the unpredictability of that piece of headland in those conditions, the shear power of the wind as it hit us was immense, fortunately mainly from behind and to the side but we coped and another good learning experience - this was always going to be a one way journey....

View map of Cloughton, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, YO13 0 on Multimap.com
Get directions to or from Cloughton, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, YO13 0

Dad & Lad Pike Fishing in the Canoe

Having managed to persuade the lad to put the Wii remote down I dragged him down to a local lake that we have rights to paddle. Basic pike gear thrown in the van too to give a little more purpose to the day.

Chief fish spotter and head gilly doing his job



A quick chance to play in the mud while dad trys to tempt Mr Pike to take his softbait lure





No fish but great fun, for sure they will start showing as the temperatures rise