Very nice trip with the club 🙂 We had a big group and the weather was surprisingly good, given the dismal forecast. We went from the harbour close along the shore up to Cable Rock, then went rock-hopping to Naylor’s Cove where we stopped for lunch. After that we headed back, doing some rescue practice on the way.
I didn’t bring the Greenland paddle and I was wearing my wetsuit for the first time in ages; both of which were due to the planned rescue practice. As a result I found the going a bit harder than I expected on the way out. I settled in after a while though. The rock-hopping was great fun as usual.
Rescue Practice
The rescue practice was great to do. I volunteered to get wet as it had been literal years since I’d done so (I’m pretty sure). That went fine, though I almost capsized when re-entering the cockpit and only barely managed to keep myself up and get my centre of balance back over the boat. This was partly due to the less stable COVID procedure, which has the boats facing the same way to avoid face-to-face proximity. It was also probably due to me not staying low enough to the deck when trying to turn over.
I had to paddle-swim out of a “gully” (as I wasn’t wearing my helmet I chose a more open section of the cliff) with my boat in tow. Having never paddle-swum before it went surprisingly smoothly, though it is tiring. Today I can feel some DOMS in my core and some strain on my left shoulder as well.
Gear
I used my new throw/tow system for towing and it went fine. One thing to note is that I should keep the line attached to the belt from the start of each trip; trying to locate and unhook it from the deck, then attach to the belt while in the water takes too much time and is too fiddly. In rough water it would be bad to have to do all that.
There certainly was not problem with the attachments system as it stands, though I should really get a proper tow carabiner for the boat end. It may be no harm to have the new, larger snaphook and weight-retainer as well, though I may replace the weight retainer with just a D-ring, as being able to move it easily around the belt is probably better than having two fixed attachment points (maybe).
Rescuing Others
I rescued one of the others then as practice. That went OK. One thing that bothered me about the casualty was that he took too much control himself. It didn’t give me as much opportunity to think the situation through for myself as I would have liked. Other things that didn’t go as well as they should included me having to rotate the boat after mistakenly trying to empty it backwards, as well as rolling it away from myself to empty instead of towards. I’d forgotten about that second one, assuming I was told before.
When emptying the boat I tried rolling myself laterally away from it as suggested by Jason. That went OK, but you really need to keep a firm grip on the other boat when doing so, as that is the only thing stopping you from capsizing yourself. I nearly capsized after the boat was empty due to my grip loosening. It would be a really good idea to just practise this manoeuvre by itself a few times.
Heading Back
On the way back we saw a seal pup on a tiny beach in a recess in the cliff, which was cool. It was cream-coloured and flopping around a bit as its mother patrolled the water off the shore. After that, I headed back early with three others while my rescue group did some more work. I should really have stayed; I wanted to get back for Alan’s party, but I was back in more than enough time and could have stayed out the last half-hour or so. No big deal though!
One thing I did on the return journey was focus a lot on staying vertical and not accidentally edging a small amount on each stroke while paddling. I think this is something I do somewhat badly, causing the boat to zig-zag a bit. I tried to make sure my off-side shoulder went fully forward and that I didn’t let my stroke-side blade stay in the water too far back, which usually causes me to edge a bit on that side. That practice seemed to pay off so I should bear that in mind from now on. I should also try to focus more on keeping my back straight.