The paddling on Sunday the 24th was a lot of fun. I got up just before 4am, had breakfast, checked the weather, packed my gears, and was ready to launch by 0530. It was still dark when I left the house, and raining rather heavily, too. I slipped when I climbed down the hill in the dark, and ended up rolling down the hill with a paddle and a gigantic prijon drybag. ^_^;
There was no monsoon warning when I left, but I think it was at least a BF6 (East), if not more. I was a little discouraged by the headwind, I thought I was going to be late for sure.
Things got worse between Sze Tei and Nam Fung Kok. The starboard side beam wind pushed me into NF Wan; I leaned into the wind and pointed upwind a bit to compensate for the sideway drift, but apparently that wasn't enough. The dark sky did nothing to lighten my mood either, I seriously thought about ringing Ng Siu Ming by that time to call the whole training day off.
But I reasoned, I'll be near shore up till Hoi Ha, so why not give it a try? The worst that can happen is that I'll have to make an emergency landing and huddle under a space blanket until the weather improves.
Once I rounded the corner at Ocean Point (Kwun Choi Kok), the wind was behind me. That would have been a nightmare for a lot of paddlers, but that's what I live for. The wind and the waves squirted me forward like a bar of soap, and I picked up so much speed I thought I could have raced the police patrol boats :-)
But I'm only human, and had to work constantly to control the course, and failed repeatedly too. Which means I had to stop the boat, correct the course, and try to catch the next big push. The one nasty thing about paddling a following sea is that you can't have fun and choose your pace too. I had to work with the rhythm of the sea, so I couldn't slow down my cadence even though I was getting tired.
The police at the Tolo Barrier were used to seeing me by now, they confirmed that I was paddling alone, and I paddled on. As I squirted forward, one of the guys shouted, "but it's a following sea!!" (wai, so mei long lei goh wo!) I turned around, shouted back, "so it is!" He laughed, they waved behind me, and gave me a couple of thumb-ups. I thought that was really nice of them, and it lifted my spirit a little.
But my back was already sore by that time. I was nervous about capsizing and didn't want to lean out too much to correct course, so I ended up using the stern rudder a lot. The wind followed me all the way up until I got to the dam (Lo Fu Wat?), at which point it turned into a port side beam wind. That was rather punishing, I leaned on my paddle a little to rest, and a port side whitecap sneaked up to slap me in the face.
Then it suddenly started to rain heavily, and I sat in my boat, too tired to worry about a capsize anymore, and admired the rain that danced and flew across the water. I didn't realize how strong and fast the wind really was until I saw it with my own eyes. It looked like an army of faery flying at full speed in high spirit. It was supposed to be frightening, but I thought it was majestic and beautiful. It's one thing to watch a storm behind a picture window on Lamma or in Tofino, it's quite another thing to be in the thick of that storm, right on the surface of water where it rages, and be part of that powerfully-charged beauty. If I'm not careful about this, surely I can get addicted.
The rest of the journey was just mindless hard labour; all work and no fun, I tried not to think about the dull pain in my back. Once I rounded the corner at Pak Sa Tau Tsui into the shelter of the second dam, the water was relatively calm, and I felt safe enough to lay back on the stern deck and rest.
Made it to the WSC ahead of schedule, I was so worried about being late, but the wind answered my prayers. Sai Kuen and Ng Siu Ming both laughed their heads off when I got into the lobby, they thought I was "brave" to paddle in a monsoon, I tried to convince them that I was scared shitless, which was somewhat true, but don't think they believed me. Sai Kuen asked me whether I realize there was a monsoon and a thunderstorm raging outside, I thought that was a bit tactless of her, but I faked innocence and told her that the observatory hoisted no severe weather warning when I left my house. Siu Ming said he would trust his own judgement rather than that of the HK Observatory; well, that's what I did. I trusted myself to handle my kayak in a storm.
24 May 2009 (Sunday, KA training day 3, with NSM)
0533 Fred's (0km)
0544 Sze Tei
0603 Nam Fung Kok (3.2)
0623 Ocean Point (5.2)
0633 Flat Island (6.5)
0641 Heung Lo Kok
0651 - 0655 Tolo Barrier (8.5) -- stopped to bail water
0757 - Pak Sa Tau Chau (15.2)
0808 - PST Tsui (16)
0834 - Girl Guides Slipway
0900 - 1700: KA day 3 with Ng Siu Ming
(just lectures in the morning, because the WSC hoisted a red flag. In the afternoon, I managed to chain-roll over 10x under the instructions, and jests, of NSM)
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