08 May 2012

Catching up

Hello to everyone at the Anglesey Sea Symposium at the weekend, I hope the weather was kind and I hope you enjoyed Marcus' presentation.
Anyone tell me how the Ravenglass Seaquest went? I was rather disappointed not to be there this year, but such is life.
Glad to see that Joe Leach is now well under way with his attempt; good luck Joe, be safe and I hope you have a fair wind whichever heading you are on!
Same wishes to the MidLife Kayak boys too, enjoy!

2 comments:

Jim said...

I guess you don't want the full seaquest results list?

6 people/boats scored full points (360).
Italics means prize winner
Mens:
1st Alastair Hornsby (K1) 360 2:29,
2nd John Bunyan (Epic 18x) 360 2:29,
3rd Rob Jones (Inuk) 360 2:31,
4th Chris Hope (Surf Ski) 360 2:52
5th Me (Taran) 350 2:57
Just a note David Blake was 7th (Taran) 340 3:00 but he couldn't find a checkpoint and wasted time searching or he would have had me properly beat, possibly even Chris on the Ski.
Mens double
1st JohnKavannagh, Ned Price 360 2:27
Ladies is confusing:
1st Pair Nicola and Claire Davies 350 2:29
1st Solo Debra Shepherd 327 3:09
There are then hundreds of mixed, team and family categories but I guess the ones of note are:
1st Kayak mixed pair Sally and John Soady 350 2:54
1st Team - Stone paddlers 360 2:37

The day started overcast and cool but started to warm up just before the start. The wind was quite light but variable in direction and strength through the event.
The start was 10:45 for a 12:00 high tide, strategies were slit again with the top 3 heading up the Irt first whilst the rest of us thought we would use the flood tide to push us up the Esk. At some point on my way upstream I realised that this plan entailed turning around before the tide turned, I got to the penultimate control on the Esk right on my cut off time for heading up to the top control (a bridge too far?) and as the tide was still going up I decided to go with it, and found I was still fighting it over half the way back down, but at least I had all the controls so the lad who was pacing me eventually lost ground when he had to dive off for some controls. The mite was good this year with a control further upstream that I ventured on my Saturday paddle - as soon as I saw it on the map I was concerned about turning so far upstream but as it turned out the tide was higher and I was nearer the peak so there was plenty of space, but for goodness sake follow the river on the map not on the ground, cutting those corners doesn't work! As I turned across the bay to head up to the Irt the wind slowed me, but I had already decided the furthest control was out of range. I was pleasantly surprised when I reached my penultimate contol to see others still upstream because I knew I was going to be close - Chris on the Ski got the control just before me (having been to the top) and didn't appear to be a full 5 minutes ahead of me heading to our last control, I think in part that is down to the ease of leaping off the ski compared to levering my hulk out of the Taran. Ironically this final checkpoint for us was the one Dave in the black glittery Taran (+ 2 others) couldn't find, I'll admit the tape wasn't easy to see from the water when I got there but it was right where it was marked/described. Such a shame because he was well ahead of me at the turn around on the Esk, mind you he hadn't got as many controls on his way up.

A great day, a few new faces even though some old ones were missing, and Joe and Al from Copeland CC seem to know what they need to do for next year - although they may vary the format in subtle ways.

Anonymous said...

JB 3rd
RJ 2nd in JW old boat