Kayaking Brunnsviken

What A beautiful day to Kayak. Last weekend I kayaked for 3 hours (resulting in 3 ibuprofen every four hours for 2 days). I rented from Point 65 North kayaks at the Pampas Marina. The weekend before that both J and I rented from Svima Sports, not far from Point 65 North. Both of those trips were on Lake Mälaren. So today we thought we'd try kayaking in the Baltic. (You really can't tell much difference.)

Last weekend, I saw several topless gals out sunning. Today, I suppose because my wife was present, we saw two completely naked old guys. It reinforces my feeling that nobody over 40 should ever be seen naked.

The real memory of this little 2 hour jaunt was us coming back through a little channel. Going through the first time we followed several other motor boats. Coming back we waited for it to be clear and we just started paddling through. Then two large boats started approaching - coming at us head on. The channel was narrow and J scraped one of the boats which caused her to veer into the path of the second boat. The second boat, although only going maybe 5 kph, slowed even more and the driver said something rather loudly to us in Swedish. We apologized in English and he said, we were supposed to wait on a green light. "Where's the light?" I said. "Over the sign." he said. Then we saw it: traffic lights, just like at an intersection.



After the kayaking we rested in the sun and people watched. Two young guys rented kayaks and it was obvious they'd never kayaked before. They took their boats to the dock and set them in the water. One of them took a phone call on the dock. The other, apparently remembering his phone upon seeing his buddy with his, got his phone out of the waterproof kayak compartment and put it in his jeans pocket. Then he stepped into his boat. In an instant he was in the water and the bottom of the boat was getting some sun. There was some thrashing around for a few seconds before he was able to pull himself up and get back on the dock.

Once out, he pulls out his cell phone and is trying to sling the water off. We left maybe 45 minutes later and he was still trying to dry it out. My guess is it won't be receiving any calls for a long time.

The rental guy switched the two kayaks for a single wide canoe.

The walk to the kayak club, Brunnsviken Kanotklubb, was about 2 miles (3.3 kilometers). So we decided to take the T-Bana back. To do that we walked to the Stockholm University campus where there was a music festival going on. It was free so we sat in the grass and listened to music for a little while.

A good day. You can see some photos on flickr by clicking here.