René Seindal

We took our beagle Jamil paddling one day in Venice, just to try it. He sat in the rear hatch of my Rockpool Menai 18, with his own little canine PFD on. There are a few photos below.

Beagles aren’t usually fond of water, but he was calm enough for a short paddle. After about half an hour he got more restless, and after an hour we called it a day. I don’t think it was the water that bothered him, but rather the cramped space in the hatch, which didn’t allow him to change sitting position easily. The next time I’ll take one of the doubles to give him more room.

Tim Shuff has an editorial titled “Apologies to Everyone I’ve Ever Left in my Wake” in the summer 2008 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine, where he discusses the problem of mock waiting when paddling, based in part on my account of the things that went wrong in Sardinia in October last year between Wendy Killoran and myself.

Thanks to Alison Dyer for bring this to my attention.

Our visit on Elba is over, and we’re on our way home to Venice now.

I went for a short paddle yesterday, at Cavoli on the south coast of Elba, in the largest of my new kayaks for Venice Kayak. I just went a few kilometres down the rocky coast, explored a small marine cave, passed another small beach and rounded a cape before I turned around and paddled back to the beach of Cavoli, all with a fantastic view of the Island of Montecristo on the horizon.

We had a bit of maestrale of maybe force 4-5, spotting the sea with white capped waves. The wind made it rather chilly at Marciana Marina, at least for the season, so we went to the south coast for a day on the beach.

The wind didn’t make itself felt as long as I paddled close to the coast, but it got a lot windier as I rounded the little cape, and when I turned around to return to Cavoli, it became a headwind and I had to work a little bit.

The Sea Kayak Design 526 is a very nice kayak, and well made. It reacts well to edging and sweep strokes, doesn’t weathercock excessively, and its very easy to roll. It is a medium volume kayak, suitable for small to medium sized paddlers. The foredeck is rather low, making it a tight fit for paddlers with well developed thighs or large feet. Also, the seat is clearly made for paddlers with narrower hips than me, because the seat started to hurt after less then an hour’s paddle.

We have one of each of the three Sea Kayak Design models at Venice Kayak, for use with our tours.

On our way back to Marciana Marina we took the road across the island. It passes Monte Perone, and there is a some point in the middle a place where you can see the sea both to the south and to the north. We also passed an ancient tower an the ruins of a medieval church.

Elba is a fantastic place of mountain and sea, and I’m definitely coming back to paddle some more there.

We’re on the island of Elba now. Venice Kayak had three kayaks from Sea Kayak Design delivered there quite some time ago, with the intent of picking them up there some time ago, but nothing went as planned and we only managed to get here now.

The kayaks have been in care of Gaudenzio Coltelli who runs Sea Kayak Italy on Elba for well over ten years. Gaudenzio and his partner, Anna Paula, have been so kind to house us, even with our beagle Jamil who is with us on this journey.

We arrived yesterday to Portoferraio and drove to Marciana Marina along some very curvy mountain roads. Elba looks like a handful of small mountains dropped in the sea, so there’s no plains at all here, just mountains and the sea.

Today we drove from Marciana Marina along the western coast of Elba to the little village of Cavoli, where we’re just hanging out on the very crowded beach. We were very surprised to discover that you can see Corsica from Elba. The distance is only around 50km, and since both islands are mountainous, you can see one from the other.

From the beach bar where I’m sitting right now I can see the Isola Piana some 12km away, and the fabled Island of Montecristo about 50km south.

We took one of the Sea Kayak Design boats with us, and I’m going to take it for a spin around here in an hour’s time, when the sun is less scorching. There should be a marine cave not far from here.

We went to see the fireworks in Venice on Saturday evening, for the Redentore Feast. I have never seen the city so crowded, and Venice is often crowded, but the fireworks were simply spectacular. It was absolutely the greatest firework display I have ever seen, and it went on for well over half an hour. Most Venetians stay in boats in the St. Mark’s basin for the celebrations. After the fireworks we had a walk through the city by night, stopping on the Accademia Bridge to watch all the boats leave St. Mark’s basin through the Canal Grande. Only around two the crowd started to thin out so you could move more easily.

Here’s a few photos from the evening.

Tonight is the night of the Redentore feast here in Venice. We’ll take the bus to the city, where we’ll meet my friend Marco and some of his friends on a sail boat to watch the fireworks.

We’ve never seen the Redentore feast before, so its probably going to be quite interesting. It is one of the really big annual celebrations here in Venice.

There’s little chance of ever witnessing this feast from a kayak, as the boat traffic in the area is intense and highly regulated. Tradition dictates that you take part in the feast in a boat if at all possible.

Tomorrow afternoon the Redentore regatta is held, but I’m not sure we’ll be here for that. We will probably be on our way to Elba then.

So, the miracle has happened. The parcel sent from Barisardo in Sardinia in October last year has finally been delivered to my in-laws in Palermo, after over eight months in postal limbo. From what I hear, the content was rather smelly, so the washing machine has been working in overdrive since the parcel’s arrival. It’ll be interesting to see the state of the garments when I get down there the next time.