As you may have read I have been kayaking every day to help out with the coaches assessment days for various levels. Been guinea pig supreme.
Well the dramatic non rescue on Monday was funny enough, but today beats all (and nobody had a camera)
We'd been practicing various rescue techniques in the middle of the voe and gently drifting with the wind and tide while I showed a chap how to make a 15m tow line into a 10m tow line, just as we'd drifted away from a spot in the middle of the voe a MASSIVE sea creature leaped out of the water and breeched. I nearly leapt out the water too Kayak and all. Then a few seconds later it breeched again and I got a better look at it. My kayak is 17 feet long, and this thing dwarfed the boats. It was dark on top with a speckled underside and leaped clean out of the water, It had to be 25 feet long.if not bigger. At the third leap we all had time to make better observations. By the second leap I was wondering if it was a basking shark as the fins were all on at the wrong angle for a whale and the wrong colour. That and the fact we were not alerted to its presence by blowing, that's usually the first thing that alerts you to whales and dolphins, There were seals popping about so it was not an Orca. Anyway, it was a sight to behold and made our day, and the visiting examiners were chuffed to have seen it up so close. Silly grin
Well the dramatic non rescue on Monday was funny enough, but today beats all (and nobody had a camera)
We'd been practicing various rescue techniques in the middle of the voe and gently drifting with the wind and tide while I showed a chap how to make a 15m tow line into a 10m tow line, just as we'd drifted away from a spot in the middle of the voe a MASSIVE sea creature leaped out of the water and breeched. I nearly leapt out the water too Kayak and all. Then a few seconds later it breeched again and I got a better look at it. My kayak is 17 feet long, and this thing dwarfed the boats. It was dark on top with a speckled underside and leaped clean out of the water, It had to be 25 feet long.if not bigger. At the third leap we all had time to make better observations. By the second leap I was wondering if it was a basking shark as the fins were all on at the wrong angle for a whale and the wrong colour. That and the fact we were not alerted to its presence by blowing, that's usually the first thing that alerts you to whales and dolphins, There were seals popping about so it was not an Orca. Anyway, it was a sight to behold and made our day, and the visiting examiners were chuffed to have seen it up so close. Silly grin
