I knew to expect thunderstorms this weekend, and I was prepared to cancel TPC on saturday and do near shore rolling practices if it comes to that. But now, we are expecting thunderstorm on both Saturday and Sunday, and on top of it, a monsoon warning.
I've never capsized in a sea trip before, but on a training day during a monsoon, I once sat in my Europa with my paddle laying idle on my cockpit coaming, waiting for my friends to catch up. The monsoon gust caught me off guard, blew my paddle away, I tried to snatch the paddle back, which, along with the gust that pushed at my hull, threw my center of gravity out of the boat and left me with no workable blade to brace for support. It quickly deteriorate into an ugly wet exit that resulted in my kayak being blown away at a speed far faster than I can swim.
That's a long way to say, I'm a bit anxious about paddling solo during a monsoon. It's just like me to open up a can of worm and have to eat it too. Didn't I say I was committed to practice hard, everyday, despite mundane excuses like a T8 typhoon warnings?
I'm just hoping the monsoon / thunderstorm warning drops by Sunday, because I'm paddling to TMT to train with NSM. And yes, I'm still going to get down to the water to roll today. Last time I trained with NSM (winter 2007), I ended up learning some pretty bomb-proof sculling skills. This time, I'm hoping to rub off a bit of his brilliant rolling as well. So the pirate mustn't sleep!
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