Best fun I’ve had in a while. On my own in a boat.

I bought two kayaks at the weekend – I’d been thinking about it since we moved to Redwood Shores. We’ve got the lagoon over the road and it’s connected through some channels to two other lagoons so there’s plenty of scope for paddling around. The people with houses that back onto the water mostly have wooden jetties and boats upside down on the top of them – well faded in the sun and with the look that they probably haven’t been sailed for many years.

We looked around the local boating shops at the weekend and picked the Streak from West Marine. I didn’t want a sit-on fishing kayak as most of my experience was on the river – these seem stable and you can get a spray skirt if we take on some rougher water.

Just looking at the kit in the shop brought back fond memories of paddling down the Dane River in Congleton in the freezing cold, rain lashing down – but you know that the more rain you get the wilder the water will be. I remember James telling me he’d just discovered a new way to keep warm inside his wetsuit. Nice.

At the weekend perhaps we’ll walk them over to the Bay and paddle around the Slough – if you’re going to live near the sea you should take advantage of it when you can..

Anyone else into kayaking?