Fresh air is good for you

I immediately began to regret when I decided to join Tommy and go paddling today. The party of yesterday wedding of a friend lasted into the early hours of the day and I've to say I've had better days. A lot better days.

Oh well, I can't bail out now. Fresh air is good for you!


I met Tommy and his friend Susanne in Fidjekilen at 7pm and we soon got going. The weater was gray, rainy and the winds were straight in our faces, but Tommy promised sun at 9pm, at least the forecast.

At a good pace we decided to paddle over to Stokken and through Skippergata, an iconic narrow channel that split the island in half. We soon faced strong winds and rougher sea at the crossing over to Stokken, but paddling against the weather was at least controllable with speed. Soon we were in the protective shelter of Randøya and had a nice paddle up Skippergata. The wind was getting even stronger and we decided to head back the same way, dropping our initial plans of paddling through Nåløyet and around the island, which would have exposed us to open sea.

It was a fun ride back through the channel, the southernly wind pushing us in the back and little effort made with the paddle, but both Susanne and I were worried if we would make it over the crossing again as the wind was up to 30knots with unpredictible burst and the sea going white with big waves (for a kayak at least).

Paddling through "Skippergata" - an idyllic natural channel

With conditions way above our experience level, Susanne and I didn't want to push our luck, especially when we haven't trained for capsizing and made the only correct choice to abort the trip and paddle to safety at a nearby pier, which was tricky enough with heavy side winds and creepy waves. Tommy, more experienced, paddled all the way back and picked us up with his car after cold 30 minutes.

Tommy picked us up after paddling all the way back through rough seas.

Tommy has written his own blog post with more photos. Susanne logged the trip with her GPS.

That warm shower was extra good today and I'm glad we all made it back safe and made some good judgement. I'm 100% I would have capsized after hearing Tommy describe the crossing back, which was even hard (but fun) for him.

And best of all, my hungover is gone!