Up a Creek with a Paddle - 7/18

Today was a day of a lot of paddling. Having recovered from our sea legs, we were ready to hit some waves again - at least some smaller waves that find their way to the shores. So, we started by renting a 2-man kayak. Tonya jumped in as the bowman (person in front) and I was the muscle in back, the sternman. Having this new title, I found the urge to bark out orders like, "hard left now". But, the conditions really didn't warrant my "sternman voice." The waves were rather mild, so we just cruised along checking out one of Lembogan's largest crop, seaweed. Perhaps I'm easily interested, but I actually found the seaweed farms rather amazing. The seaweed covered the floor of the ocean in the shallow waters in very straight organized rows - complete with stakes and twine marking the rows. It was as straight and organized as an Indiana cornfield, but all underwater. So, me and my bowman just rowed up and down the rows of seaweed for about an hour.

A little later we decided to give paddle boarding a try. I marched our big boards down to the beach feeling a little like Potsie, from "Family Days" who tries to use an ironing board in place of a surfboard. This is a surfing town, with some real waves and some real surfers. So, let's just say that you make yourself known as a tourist when staggering to the beach with an overgrown board and a paddle to the portion of the beach with no whitecaps. But, I quickly got over feeling a little nerdy (I have lots of experience) and jumped on my giant board with the safety strap wrapped around my ankle. I wasn't sure what to expect. My first impression was that it was easier than expected. I balanced on the board and dipped my paddle from left to right. I was obviously a natural, born a gifted paddle boarder destined to set new recor..... Splash. That's pretty well how it went. One minute I was thinking how easy it was and the next minute I was underwater. Unfortunately for me, I was in the area they refer to as Laceration Point (!!) which I quickly learned probably has the name because of all the large rocks on the ocean's floor. The water was only probably waist high where I fell, so my foot instinctively must have sprang outward trying to gracefully manage my dismount. But, my foot quickly pounded into one of the big rocks. There was no real damage, other than a very sore, and probably bruised bottom of my foot. But, even after paddling around for a couple hours, I realized that it might be some time before I set those new paddle board records.
After catching the residual colors of another gorgeous sunset, we walked the beach and went back to the Pondok Baruna Warung (restaurant), the same place we ate last night, for the best fish curry I've had.
We went to bed with the sound of some large critter scurrying just above the ceiling in our cottage, but I had my ears focused on the sounds of the waves pounding the shore just a few steps from our cottage door and drifted off to sleep.
Another good day.

Don't we look like naturals?