Now was the time to put into effect the practice runs back
home. I was not looking forward to my
first paddle in South Georgia with its cold water and wildlife but this was it.
We first had to get into our kayak from the ship, which was reached by climbing
down a rope ladder into a zodiac and then scrambling into the kayak.
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| Getting into kayak |
My trepidation and fear of falling in didn’t dissipate after
seeing one of my fellow kayakers nearly tipping over. And he wasn’t
inexperienced like me at all having owned his own kayak and paddling every
week. In fact all my fellow companions were all accomplished kayakers, with one
even been a New Zealand champion. I was hoping their confidence would rub off on me. I had been assured that we would be dry even if
we fell in on account of the dry suits we wore, but I was still scared "shitless". My heart was pounding and I was thinking "don't fall in, don't fall in".
Penguin video
After we had our kayak skirt and waterproof mitts on, we
headed towards the coastline. Luckily the sea was calm with a small
breeze. After about 10 minutes of
paddling around, my confidence grew – I was thinking this wasn’t so bad after all. The paddle got better as the day went on.
After kayaking for a couple of hours and many kilometres from our ship the wind
started to pick up. The sea went from calm to 1 metre swells within half an
hour so it was time to head back. After a long and hard one and a half hour paddle
against the wind we all made it back to the ship safely, exhausted and excited.
Brash ice video
Bird video
