OC-3

Yesterday, Kam got in touch with her contact, Leon, at the HK Island Paddling Club and organized a small boat paddle from Deep Water Bay to Lamma Island.  I didn't go because I didn't want to interfere with my off-season and I was glad I didn't because it was really rainy, windy and stormy.  There was even a lightning storm in the afternoon!!  Leah and Rebecca went and I was really relieved that they got back in one piece, although I found out this morning that they agreed to hide the fact that Rebecca hulied on the way back from Lamma Island in order to convince me to go out and paddle today.

In the evening, Leah, Kam, Jamie and I went out for dinner with members from the HK Island Paddling Club where we socialized over delicious Peking food.  Yumm!!  Kam, Leah and Jamie dragged me out to go paddling this morning with them in OC-3 despite my protests.

Leah, Jamie and I  met up with Leon, Matt, Eva, Elke at 9:30 AM this morning at the Pacific Coffee Company coffee shop in Stanley.  Kam was already there because she was out coaching at 6:30 AM.  The weather was much better today - it was cloudy with sunny breaks and no rain clouds in sight.  After grabbing coffee and breakfast, we walked over to Leon's house, dropped off our stuff and then headed over to the Sea School where the OC-3s were kept.

We spent at least half-an-hour bailing out the OC-3s because they were filled with water in the hull and both bulkheads.  Then, we needed to find new rubbers to tie down the amas because the existing ones were worn out by the sun.  Finally, about an hour later, we were ready to head out.  I was in a boat with Leah and Elke (who steered) and Eva, Jamie and Kam (steered) were in another boat.  Leon was in an OC-1 and Matt was in a surfski. 

We paddled from the beach at Stanley across to some rock island, around it and then to Po Toi.  The water was choppy with waves coming from every possible direction and our ama popped a few times.  Elke also had trouble steering the boat because it always tended to point right even though she was working so hard to keep it pointing left.  We had to stop a few times to bail the boat because the gunwhale sat lower in the water than an OC-6 so we had some waves come into our boat.

After an hour and 10 minutes of paddling, we reached Po Toi.  We beached our boat, washed up and went to the only restaurant at the beachfront of the island.  We had a delicious lunch of fresh clams, prawns, deep fried squid, and bok choi with white rice.  After our appetites were satisfied and we were rested up, we slathered on some sunblock that Eva had brought (I forgot mine in the hotel...BIG MISTAKE) and headed back out.  Leon shuffled the crews around and I went back with Matt and Elke (steering) while Leah returned with Leon and Eva.  Kam took back the surfski and Jamie paddled the OC-1.  When we got into our OC-3 at Po Toi and started paddling, Leon began yelling at us to jump out of the boat because we were heading towards the rock embankment.  I had one foot out of the boat and ready to jump out when Matt told me to just draw right to bring the boat over and ignore Leon because he is just crazy.  Matt was right and after a few draw strokes, we were able to point the boat in the right direction and off we went.

The water on the way back to Stanley was less choppy than on the way to Po Toi (more my type of water!)  We raced a bit to a point on an island through a channel and then continued our paddle back home.  Half way, Matt decided he wanted to give steering a try so he and Elke switched places.  The paddle back got really hard because we were facing into a head wind.  Every stroke was a lot of effort and it felt like we weren't moving anywhere!  But, the return trip from Po Toi to Stanley was fast - I think we got back in 50 minutes.  In total, we paddled for about 2 hours and 20 km.

When we reached the beach, I had to admit to the fact that eating Chinese food and paddling was not a great combination because I felt sort of sick to my stomach.  Jamie said that he thought he had some heat exhaustion because he started getting lethargic on the water (I made him drink some water because he was also dehydrated).  We put the boats away and rinsed the sea water off of us with a hose.  At that point, I realized how ineffective Eva's sunblock was (or maybe I didn't apply enough) because my arms and legs were pretty lobster red.  I think I'm going to be in trouble with Candice because I've got a pretty bad farmer's tan (my arms are white and red, it looks really awful) and I have to wear a sleeveless dress for her wedding!!  Oh dear...I hope she won't be too mad at me.

We went back to Leon's place to change and grab our stuff.  On the way to the bus stop, we went to Wellcome to buy water and snacks and then headed back to town where we showered, napped and rested up.  We met up with Kam and Jamie for dinner and compared sun burns.  Kam has a pretty nasty burn on her back with her racer back tank top clearly defined in contrast to her red lats.  She also has streaks of paleness on her chest, shoulders and arms clearly highlighting the areas where she did apply sunblock and areas where she forgot.  Jamie is pretty sore and has some mild sun burn and the color of Leah's arms is nowhere close to the color of her stomach (her arms look like they belong to a different body).  After dinner, I bought some aloe vera gel to ease the pain of the burns and we went in search of a mango cheesecake to celebrate but to no avail.  Instead, we ran into Rebecca and her high school friend and went back to the dessert place in the lobby of our hotel...yumm!!

Lesson of the day: don't forget to wear your sun block when you go paddling and make sure you apply it equally all over...the aftermath of not doing so is not pleasant at all!