Mucky

Robert from work lives in Portmuck. He used to be a commercial fisherman and he's full of stories of the sea, and of his many other exploits. We went paddling together last year in the USA on the river Kankakee, and since he's got a couple of sit-on-tops we always planned to get a paddle together a bit closer to home. After work tonight, we finally got it together.

I got the train to Larne where Evan, who did the coaching course with me and who's now doing the level two course, picked me up and we drove to Robert's house. When Robert finished work, he came home on his scooter and we met up with his girlfriend Maggie, carted the sit-on-tops down to the harbour and launched onto the glassy water of the Irish Sea. A leisurely paddle around Muck Island followed by a 'skills session' from Evan and a barbecue on the beach. perfect.

Eye Feel Good Route Blog

Here's the blog of the EyeFeelgood charity paddle from Antrim to Castlerock

Kit List

I came across this useful list of kit on the EyeFeelGood blog. They're organising a canoe trip next week from Antrim to Castlerock, the same journey as us, but probably a little bit further because we'll not be starting from Antrim... or will we?
It's way too late for me to get involved in their paddle this year, but it'll be interesting to see how they get on.

Now I can paddle

Ciara, my physio, phoned to say she's talked to Mr. Swain and i'm allowed to paddle gently on flat water. Just as well, because I already have, and I'm not very good at telling lies.

Paddling gently

Had a great afternoon paddling up and down the mouth of the sixmilewater in kayaks and canoes courtesy of MobileTeamAdventure. The two oldest kids were total naturals. we really have to get out as a family sometime.
Best of all, Mobile Team Adventure were assisted by Ricky Fee from EyeFeelGood. Ricky knows my wife Alex because she runs the local parent and toddler group in our church, and she's also been to a couple of Eye Feel Good fundraising events. He made it very clear that any time I want to borrow a canoe, I just have to ask.

I'd been starting to worry where we'd get hold of a boat for the trip. That's that problem solved.

In case you've never heard of Eye Feel Good, they're a charity which organises events to raise money to help people with cancer. Many of the events are outdoor activities.

obstacles

I've mentioned the surgery on my wrist more than once. I thought that by now it'd be practically healed and I'd be back to doing all the things I love doing. Well after one week in a backslab plaster, and four weeks in a cast, then another five weeks taking it easy, this is what my latest x-ray looks like.

It's an impressive x-ray, but there's still a gap between the two parts of the bone, and that's not good. "Non-Union", they call it and it's one of the risks of getting your bones surgically broken.

The plate is holding it in place so I'm allowed to do some cycling, though nothing too extreme, but my physio said I'm not allowed to paddle for a while yet.

Adventureland 2011

Northern Ireland Adventureland 2011. (Yep, that's one of the CAAN websites) The link probably won't work forever, but the idea is that you can try pretty much any outdoor activity in Northern Ireland for £10 this weekend. I think it's a great idea, the only problem is that it seems to be only people like me who're already into outdoor things that have heard about it. I've been telling everybody, and booked the family to go paddling on the sixmilewater on Saturday.