We all assembled at bottom of Hawes Pier for an in depth briefing of the day’s itinerary. Where Ken promptly whipped out his wooden model kayak, a handful of seaweed and a notepad representing Inchgarvie to help display the techniques required. We then proceeded to get on the water but as the end of the slipway was well above the waterline it proved interesting! With the wind getting up and the water quite choppy we paddled out to the middle pillars of rail bridge at end of Inchgarvie where Ken promptly had us doing figure of eights around the pillars. And then again but backwards! At this point we heard the workmen above us shouting at us to clear off as they were doing some scaffolding above us. As most of us ignored this out came the Man in the Boat to tell us to keep away. So we all moved to bottom end of Inchgarvie to wait for the incoming tide.
Once the tide turned we were manoeuvring in and out of the eddies and practicing ferry gliding across the main flow of water. And in and out of the rocks once they were partially submerged. After a couple of hours frantic paddling we all needed a rest and a quick snack so we headed round the north side of Inchgarvie out of the main current flow where cake, coffee and biscuits were unleashed!
Meanwhile Ken disappeared to our original location under rail bridge to check out water flow where he noticed the scaffolders had gone to lunch so we all headed back to where we originally started to practice moving around in fast flowing water and rescue techniques. It was at this point that someone (no names mentioned!) decided to try these new learned techniques upside down…just to add to the challenge. He was promptly attended to by 2 of us but when he finally decided to join us on the surface he managed to head butt a boat in the process, ouch!! After getting him back in the boat, with 2 of us bailing the boat out, and a third towing us into calmer water he seemed none the worse for his mishap despite all the claret.
At this point in the proceedings the scaffolders must have returned from their near 2hr lunch break (obviously some pre Brexit EU regulation) and must have called out our friendly Man in the Boat to give us another lecture. We were all thoroughly knackered by this time and as the tide had slowed down we decided to call it a day.
Many thanks to Sarah and Ken for an enjoyable and informative day!