After donning buoyancy aid and other bits and a quick bite I dragged the boat across the bog to the put-in point on Goldrill Beck. As I was getting sorted at the river bank the bloke ahead of me tried to slide in forwards off the bank, got the tail stuck on the grass, promptly rolled over, failed to right himself and got rather trapped on bank, river bottom and tree roots. I jumped into the waist deep water and pulled the boat upright, whereupon he cheerfully paddled off without so much as a nod leaving me stood soaking in cold muddy water. The lack of courtesy once again hugely irritated me as I performed a slightly more controlled entry and headed off on the fast flowing river to the lake. After only a small boat/tree interface I was out onto the lake and following the line of dots ahead of me up the lake. Again there didn't seem any particularly still regions so I followed the racing line trying to avoid getting blown off course after yesterdays problem where I couldn't go against the wind to correct.
The first third of the lake was OK and largely sheltered, but once past the first headland the wind really picked up and soon enough there were waves of a couple of feet sweeping up the lake from behind me. I battled on trying to put the training into effect but was a few unpleasant moments as the wind turned the boat of my control (kayaks try to turn into the wind) leaving me pointing in the wrong direction and side-on to the waves. In following waves the theory is to accelerate as the waves lifts the back of the boat so that you surf down the face of the wave. The trouble with this being that you need the confidence to paddle hard and not get unnerved as the front of the long boat buries itself in the wave ahead. The other problem is that as the wave moves past you you end up balanced on the peak of the wave with little steering and not a lot of balance.
I battled on but was starting to wonder if heading for the shoreline and a longer but flatter would be sensible. Liam came past at around this time and shouted a few helpful pointers across to me which gave a good confidence boost that I was doing the right thing, and watching him was also handy in seeing the "right" way of handling the conditions.
Committing to the task at hand things rapidly improved and it was amazing the difference in the boat's handling. I wasn't exactly at ease but was no longer quite so concerned and didn't have any more 'moments'.
The rest of the lake passed by in a blur of paddle strokes as the wind and waves came and went. Finally I spotted the exit river and was gratefully swept along to the get-oiut point by the flow. I beached the kayak and hopped out glad to be rid of thing.
The stage had taken nearly 2 hours meaning I'd been on the go for about 7 hours and I still faced another 2 hours of cycling to get to Kirkby Stephen. Although hard work, paddling is all about the trunk and upper body so when I hopped on the bike my legs felt pretty fresh.
I'm glad to have done the kayaking and it should definitely be part of 'proper' adventure races but it's not a sport for me. There's no way my schedule can support yet another sport, and also I just live in the wrong part of the country. The sea is at least an hour and a half away and so I'd be stuck paddling up and down rivers on the short lengths between locks, which seems about as much fun as working out in a gym. I'll keep my hand in so I don't get excluded from races, but the kayak is up for sale (as-new Prijon SeaYak if anyone fancies it).
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