When the opportunity presented itself on Facebook - Keirron Tastagh of the above named company was selling off some of his older stock, we spent a few days deliberating.
The main fear was spending quite a lot of money and wondering if we'd ever actually use them but the dream of the freedom to just go at any time, meandering offshore surrounded by bird life, spotting seals, dolphins and sharks won the day and the purchase was made.
Good man that he is, Keirron took us out for a couple of expeditions to make sure we were competent, one off Fenella Beach down past Contrary Head, followed by seals and the other at 7am one cold but beautiful Sunday morning from Port Erin and around Bradda Head.
When that was over, we took the kayaks home and they were ours and the dream became reality.
Reality of course, then started to bite us firmly on the backside as the weather turned rubbish, the wind blew and the boats remained on our roof garden untouched for three weeks.
Finally, the day came. Sunshine. No work. Small breeze.
Time for our maiden voyage!
The difficult part that we anticipated would be bringing them back down from the roof. I'm not sure of their exact size but I'm guessing about three metres and especially as we have quite a twisty staircase but we accomplished this quite quickly with hardly a cross word.
It was then that that infernal reality thing bared its fangs again and sunk them deep.
When we had loaded our kayaks in Port Erin with Keirron's direction and assistance, it had seemed so easy.....Well over an hour later with tempers wearing thin, we finally thought we had them secured and we were at last ready to depart!
However, it had taken so long that our initial plan of travelling to Fleshwick in the deep South West, away from the mild easterly wind was now out of the question, so we opted for Port Soderick, just a few miles South of Douglas.
As our short journey progressed, the excitement mounted and then as we drove down Kewaigue Hill, one of the kayaks appeared at the driver side window! Fortunately, it didn't come off totally! But the scale of what could have gone wrong, caused by my incompetence was huge and certainly didn't improve our faltering confidence in our adventure!
Taking still more time, we limped towards our destination, stopping every couple of hundred yards to make sure the boats weren't about go anywhere without us.
We made it! By now however, the breeze had increased a little (though hardly a gale) and Irene who has paddled out through the Pacific surf decided it was too choppy! And she needed the toilet! And there isn't a public loo at Port Soderick.
Of course, I was fuming (though of course I didn't mention the fact that I, too was desperate for relief! Of course it's easier for us chaps ;) )
Besides, there was absolutely no way I was putting in all these hours of effort not to go kayaking!
After a brief er... discussion, we headed for the public facilities at Battery Pier, Douglas.
What I haven't mentioned was that when we finally had success holding the boats in place, the roof rack straps doing said job had started to vibrate against the top of the car, so we were driving along accompanied by the most tuneless string and wind orchestra in history, barely able to hear ourselves think.
Could our great kayak caper get any worse? We had to stop the vehicle so that Irene could answer a phone call without the sawing buzz and it was our daughter Lucy, wanting us to mind Harry while she went shopping. That gave us 45 minutes!
After our mad dash to the loo, which typically for us was hampered by the fact that Irene had left her bag in the car and I hadn't mentioned that I was just as desperate as she was (Think Laurel & Hardy or Crackerjack's Peter Glazier & Don McLean and we'd have looked three times more foolish,) we headed for the Douglas Yacht Club slipway and at long last, we were afloat!
There wasn't really much that we could do though because my envisaged trip up along the marina, looking enviously at posh people's yachts had to be cancelled due to the flap being up (Douglas marina is kept flooded at all times) so it was a matter of a couple of trips around the harbour.
If there's one thing more difficult than securing a couple of kayaks to a roof rack, it's securing a couple of kayaks to a roof rack on a steep slope in the presence of our five year old grandson!
All in all, when we arrived home, our twenty five minute paddle had taken us just short of five hours.
Buy a couple of kayaks? What a wonderful idea! I now realise what we have paid all the money for in the past to others for taking us out.
The happy ending (well interim anyway) is that last Sunday, we nailed the loading and had a lovely couple of hours below Marine Drive. Hopefully, the ratio of endurance to enjoyment will alter favourably with practice.
