We headed off in the general direction of the Sound. There were no thoughts of surfing the race as we didn't have spring tides. But we stumbled upon a tidal race at full speed and in all its glory. We still have much to learn about what makes a race work. Sometimes we venture down to the Sound, with 5 metre plus tides predicted and we are often disappointed. Today's 4.6 metre tide was souped up by residual swell from yesterdays storms, plus a healthy dose of wind against tide.
Chicken Rock is a scary place. At the same time I love it out there. Our usual play spots lay dormant and so Jess and I paddled on to the Chicken Rock Lighthouse. Looking at the photos above you can see why this place is so dangerous to the unwary. In the first picture Jess and I paddle through the blue, flat, sun drenched sea off the Calf of Man, on an idyllic Summers day. As we always do, a couple of practice roles are required. In the time it takes for me to submerge and re-emerge from the sea, a respectable tidal race appears. If you look carefully in the second photograph you can just about see the upper part of Jess on the horizon, which helps to put the wave size into perspective. But this was no friendly playful race. I chased promising surf spots from point to point. As soon as I cornered some nice looking surf waves they would vanish, only to reappear 50 or 100 metres away. If I did manage to chase them down, once aligned they would change direction, and break over me from the side forcing a hard fought high brace. We gave up and battled the ferocious currents and further races to reach the calm, peaceful tranquility of the Sound, which is our usual tidal race surf spot!
To be honest, some of our recent missions to the Sound of Man in search of excitement have proved a little dull. It can be massive in the tidal races there, but it hasn't been. When it is it's great! But when its massive its usually gnarly. It lacks the glassy, smooth, consistent waves we crave. And so it was off to the far side of the Calf of Man to check out a new tidal race at the Stack.
At last the latest version of KAYAK.im is up. It's a work in progress with still quite allot of content to add in. The new layout was necessary to allow this to happen, as well as a need to rewrite it in php.
Spring tides last Sunday promised some exciting paddling down at the Calf Sound tidal races. This did not materialize as fast flows were not converted to surfable standing waves by that essential, but absent bit of wind. Instead, Jess retired early through boredom, and Ian decided to go fishing. On the way back to Port Erin we encountered one of the biggest fish in the World. This lone basking shark kept us entertained for a while before we returned to Port Erin for ice cream. We may have outgrown this race and plan to explore an all together more lethal alternative this weekend. Perhaps we need to raise our weather threshold or maybe some combination of the two is required.
After my recent solo paddle, Saturday's outing was at the other extreme. Steve Watt of Manx Paddle Sports organised a "mass" paddle from Port Soderick to Gansey Beach, with 17 kayakers. It was great to see so many people and so many different kayaks on display. It has to be said that at times the conditions were advanced, particularly around the headlands. However, Steve has obviously coached them well as apart from a few tows due to strong winds, there were not many problems.
I paddled alone for the first time in a long while yesterday. I enjoy paddling with my usual paddling partners, but there is something special about the solitude you can experience under inaccessible cliffs, like those between Port Erin and Fleshwick. People in the UK and beyond may feel that the Isle of Man is remote. But compared to Orkney and the Western Isles, both of which I know well, this is a busy little place. Like the photo above, the lack of any visible or audible evidence of humanity can make you look at things from a different angle. Or maybe it is all the free time I have now and being in control of when and if I work. Certainly being back in control of my life has made me allot happier. Unfortunately, further stories emanating from my former work place greatly sadden me.