"Gekkenwerk" - just crazy!

Picture by Roel Pierik: break at the beach of Rockanje, near the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall.

Update February, 8th: René posted a personal impression of this trip on his weblog. According to the graphic of windfinder.com the wind peaked up to 8 Bft. when we paddled back. No wonder it was quit a struggle!

I announced a winter trip for advanced seakayakers in the Voordelta today. 5 fit paddlers took the challenge and signed in for the trip. Wind was blowing 6-7 Bft S-SE (during the whole day according to the forecasts). I warned this would become a heavy trip. It turned out to be one. First we sailed North with the wind in the back on following waves for fantastic surf-rides. We paddled 8 kilometres in 45 minutes. After a short break (seeking shelter for the wind sitting in the kayaks at the beach) we changed direction to paddle along the sand banks back to the starting point. The next 10 kilometres took us 3 hours of full power paddling. We struggled to make progress against the strong head wind: just a second not paddling and you were blown 3-4 km/h backwards!
The group performed outstanding and enjoyed the heavy work-out - I doubt if I had myself a bad day, or if the group-members were so strong, anyway: this time I had a hard job to keep up with the paddlers in my group!

OK: It's a weird idea to plan a trip that finishes with head wind force 6 during 10 km's. I wouldn't do such a crazy thing with every group! But today it was just perfect. A unique experience for all of us.