One Of Two Spring Days

Heading into the weekend we knew that it was going to be a couple of great days of kayaking with the amazing spring forecast of warm sunshine and light winds. After not getting on the water during the month of January we were eager to take part in our first South Island Sea Kayaking Association (SISKA) Relaxed Paddle on Saturday. The group of 29 paddlers met up at Amherst Beach for a 09:30 briefing to discuss the plan for the day and identify the pace setter, port and starboard guides and our paddle leader Jennie following in behind to keep the group together while on the water. 

We were really impressed with the planning for the day and with such a large number of kayaks it was really important to keep together while crossing some of the potentially busy channels. This was done with VHF radios and so it was my first chance to try our ICOM IC-M72  radio and listen to the group leaders communicate to each other along the way.

This was also my first opportunity to try out my GoPro Hero 2 camera which I mounted on my deck bag for easy access and to view the pictures being captured. For this trip I set the camera to take a 11mp picture automatically every 5 seconds and let it do its thing while I focused on keeping pace with the group. Over all I took 1,075 pictures during the 4 hour trip stopping and starting the camera along the way to preserve battery and SD card space.

One of the many pictures taken by the GoPro Hero 2. Amazing quality for such a small camera!

After rounding the north end of Goudge Island we headed south through a small gap between Johnson and Fernie Islands and learned that this was a favourite transit of our group leader Jennie. So from this point on we will probably just call it "Jennie's Gap" when paddling through it.

Entering "Jennie's Gap"... a pretty special place to visit.

Stopping for lunch in Teaseum Harbour it was a pretty cool sight to see all of our rides beached while we enjoyed lunch in the sunshine. It was was great to meet so many people that have the same passion for kayaking.

Can you count all the kayaks?? 29 happy paddlers enjoying lunch

Here is a short video taken with the GoPro leaving the beach after lunch

It was a short transition back through the harbour past all the "blingy" yachts and to our starting point and all done in around 4 hours. A great first trip with the SISKA group and we look forward to participating in future paddles.

SISKA Feb 4th Relaxed Paddle Track