Brian Kirk contacted the club a few months ago saying he was coming over from Washington state ( Puget sound, Deception Pass etc) to visit his student daughter here and could he join any club paddles?…..I volunteered to take him out and on Wednesday the 6 of us eyed the truly awful forecast and wondered how to get anything worthwhile from it. All credit to Stephen Darling ( the trailer tugger who makes pool sessions possible), Dave Towsey ( who knows a bit about paddling the NW American coast), Ritchie Diaper ( fresh back from the states), Richard Hope (the phantom roller of Portobello) for turning out with me on this forlorn hope. Ritchie commented drily- ‘looks like you’ve chosen the worst 6 hours of weather in the entire fortnight to take this poor soul out in’- nothing hurts quite as much as the truth…..but Americans have v little holiday and pack their schedules so it was Wed or nix…worth a try?
Brian was interested and interesting- formerly a senior officer in the US Navy on a huge aircraft carrier, and now managing civilian maritime anti pollution teams and vessel inspections in Washington state. He could also paddle and we all had a very amiable time paddling from Aberdour keeping our noses tucked in, and avoiding the temptation to stray out to Inchcolm and subject the mariner to some heritage.( I found out later from Michael Wilkinson that the maid of the Forth had set off and turned back). I knew there was wind coming and the trick was to scuttle along the bays with it behind us and make it to the haven of NQ before the forecast F6+ arrived. The wind gradually built up and we had an exciting romp in rising seas to get spat out under the rail bridge ( “on the comfortable side of exciting”)and then an easy landing on the slip at NQ. The main challenge then was keeping Stephen Darling from ransacking our lunchboxes, and so to home where the incoming surf at Portobello looked absolutely mental. Right call, right shore, and right team- all looked cool, calm and content- thank you!
Brian had a great time and assures us of a warm welcome over in Washington state- I warned him that we would shamelessly take him up on it. A grand day out.
