High water at near enough 13:00 to make no odds meant that Duncan had plenty of time to get over for an 11:30 meet at Roa Island. The plan was to paddle out past Walney and give Duncan a chance to do some rescue practice in the overfalls that start to rip just after high water.
"Men plan, God mocks" is the saying though and as I drove through Barrow in 20 metres visibility, I had the feeling that the fog might just present us with something to think about...
Barrow RNLI Station at the end of the causeway!
As it turned out we used it as an excuse to get in some very useful navigation practice. Tidal flows at Springs between Roa and Walney can get up to 4 knots and we were well out of sight of anything (navigationally) useful for plenty of time, but still hit Sheep Island right on the nose!
By this time the fog was thining and the sun starting to break through; time forb lunch on the NE point of Walney before heading back. The ebb was starting to give it large as we left Walney, and even more so at Piel Spit which, when it combined with the bow wave from one of the windfarm crewboats, gave us a good metre high standing wave to surf fron Piel to the Spit buoy! Great fun, but just too much fun to warrant getting the camera out!
Duncan cranks across a Walney eddyline
A grand end to a grand day
No comments:
Post a Comment