Santa Lucia paddling Dec 2012

Santa Lucia paddling Dec 2012

For the third time we were some paddlers who went out to honour Santa Lucia, the famous saint from Siracusa, Sicily. This year we had to undertake this paddling as early as 8 Dec due to different circumstances. It turned out to be a good idea since the weather was absolutely fantastic.

Myorcha on my Over-line Aretusa

Tahe and Over-line kayaks

  I had to take the trailer down to Killingsholmen this year where the participants were told to gather. There was no wind to talk about and even if the temperature was around 8 degrees below zero, I  assured everyone that they shouldn't be worried about getting cold today...

Grefab Marina, Killingsholmen

Martin about to launch

     Since there was ice at Billdalsbadet where I normally launch we had to go to Grefab Marina where they have hoses on the bottom which delays the ice.
We were now gathered and ready to go out. The plan was to paddle for approximately an hour, have a break for some coffee, glögg, ginger cookies, and singing!

Richard seems to enjoy it

Is this really true? Göran (Green kayak) is reflecting on Life when it is at its best?

               The snow that had fallen and managed to stay on the rocky islets, due to cold temperatures lately, created a rather surreal feeling for all of us. One of the paddlers had been in Svalbard this summer and got a dejà vú.  Now he was paddling outside Billdal with another Sval...Svalstrand :-)

Mats, Fredrik and Richard on their way

 After just a few minutes everyone felt nice and warm, even having thoughts about whether he shouldn't have out on that many layers of clothes. We aimed for Lilla Lövö.

                         

After having paddled for a while, stopping now and then just in order to say that "this is great", "beauuuutiful", "fantastic", and using all kinds of expressions to explain or feelings.

Myorcha guides and protects us

We let our paddles into the waters and I would say that at those particular moments when nothing else matters than the PRESENT we experience nature and its magnificience in overwhelming magnitudes of pure fascination and feelings of being ONE. Everything is connected.

Three paddlers

The Svalbard Man

Martin and Peter coming out from the "lagoon" at Stora Lövö

Mats passing between rocks

It's easy to forget about time when having such a great time together, but one aim of this trip is to have some glögg and sing a song. So, let's go on with some more paddling...

Göran B

East side, the sun doesn't reach us here

Time to land. We chose a good spot for that. We wanted to stay in the sun, otherwise it would get a bit nippy. It was easy to land. Once I had landed I could pull the other kayaks up on the ice and thin surface of snow/ice on the rocks. A new drink perhaps, Kayak on the Rocks, please!

Thanks again, Giuseppe, for the Aretusa

We all want our pictures

Had to hold the kayaks, Slippery when ice.

Well, we'd better prepare for this year's performance. Assume your positions. Clean your throats with some glögg and ginger cookies. Time is about to come.

"The Glögg was good, the fudge too"

Yes, that's me. Dressed for success. Thumbs up, Like (nowadays)...

The story about the singing is that we did it last year too. Then it was recognised by one of the leading magazines so then we thought that it could be nice to repeat it. The song is performed in Italian (at least we hope it sounds a bit like it). We do apologise if our pronunciation of certain words isn't 100% correct. We also took the liberty to change the lyrics from "Napoli" to "Billdal" and I hope we're excused for that. The link is as follows: https://www.youtube.com/link_gplus?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fmy_videos_upload
We have to admit that it might not win any awards...

Time to launch. It was possible to slide into the water

The sun is about to set

After a while without exercising too much you need to get warm again. We went for another hour of paddling before aiming back to the beginning. Some photos:

Torholmen

Martin in one of my Tahe Greenlands

Getting dark. Killingsholmen at 4PM

Göran and Fredrik have landed.

It had been a great time out there and for some of the paddlers this was a totally new experience. We all felt comfortable and happy with three hours out on the sea. This has now become a tradition.
"Natten går tunga.......Santa Lucia Saaaaaaantaaaaaaa Luuuuuucia".
Merry Christmas and do not complain about darkness, let there be light instead!
/Mikael, Sea Kayak Billdal