Friday, April 27, 2007

Another post from Jake

Once again at the Royal Bar with the surfers, spread out in the corner table as usual, with a couple pints of Guiness and a ginger beer. I think I could get used to this kind of life.

Sticking to my quest to experience the local culture, I ordered ham and eggs with french fries for dinner. That's not at all what the meal was called on the menu but that IS what they brought me. Ham, eggs, and french-fries individually - not exotic - but together one one plate for dinner - now that's culture.

Our Stroma island circumnavigation yesterday was amazing. In one day we saw warm sunshine, glassy smooth water, sea caves, a pleasant nap on an island, abundant sea life, ocean swell crashing headlong into sheer cliffs, fast moving tidal currents, and boat flipping whirlpools (thank god my roll works in the North Atlantic too). It all combined to create one of the best days of paddling I've ever had. Most definitely a day I won't soon forget.

Today we had a short but fantastic day on the water as we took Thom out to let him get acquainted with his kayak and get a taste of the local waters. We were only out for two hours or so but around here that's all you need to have an unforgettable paddle. We launched again by Ronnie's house at Skirza and headed north to Duncansby Head exploring the lofty sea caves and "slot canyons" along the way. The tide race by "The Knee" as going strong when we arrived and we had a great time getting long rides on the smooth face of the front wave of the race. The play time ended too soon for me, but we had a lot to get done before the first day of the assessment tomorrow so we finally turned and ran with the tide over to Thom's waiting car at John O' Groats Hotel. I was reluctant to get off the water on such a beautiful day but the promise of a long hot shower at the B&B sounded great to me.

Only hours remaining until the beginning of the assessment and Jen seems ready, I think she's going to do great.

See you later,

Jake

1 comment:

Axel said...

Thom, my understanding of a memory card "going sideways" might not be correct. But if the card is "unreadable", than there are computer programmes that can recover photo's from it. One of them is "PC Inspector Smart Recovery". It is freeware and it worked for me. So if there are important pictures on the card, then do not use the card until you have tried the programme. Have fun on the water!