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.
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