Pure Thought: Kayaking

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Kayaking

This is a very late post as we did kayaking couple of weeks ago, but hey better late than never, no?

I can swim but not on the ocean and I will freak out if I can not see the bottom, so when Sam told me that Emanuele & Nora invited us to do kayaking with them on Saturday I was excited but a little bit nervous at the same time. But Sam assured me that I will be fine and the kayak is safe.

So after we pack snack and lunch we head off to Coco Marina to meet Emanuele & Nora and rent the kayaks there. It was a bit windy and rough in Coco Marina so I was a bit scared but luckly I was wearing life jacket, in fact I was the only one who's wearing life jacket! Naughty kids!

Nora helped me get down into my kayak, and indeed it was a bit scary on that small kayak with rough water and high windy, and since it was my first time kayaking so I don't know what to do to make it turn right or left and I was freaking out when the wind and wave took me on the wrong direction but with Sam & Nora direction I managed to make it turn left and join Emanuele who's been on the water too.

Once you got the hang of it, it's pretty easy to do but still a hard work to paddle. And the view from the water is amazing.

We were leaving from Coco Marina, all the way through the main harbor until Sokehs bridge, until the entrance of the channel. The Germans used to dig channels through the mangroves in this region, for taking shortcuts while navigating through the islands. The one in Yap is large and well known, the one in Pohnpei is small, shallow and known by few. The best way to explore it is definitely using a kayak. From there, we passed between the main island and Sokehs, until reaching the next harbor, the one where Nihco marine park is. We finally landed on the beach of Nihco, 2 hours later and after lots of crashing into the mangrove.

It was fun but at the same time it was a good exercise as well since you paddle almost non stop for 2 hours. We didn't paddle back to Coco Marina, instead Emanuele pick up his truck from Coco Marina and pick us up at Nihco Marine Park, I guess 2 hours kayaking is not too bad for kayaking virgin like me hey?