Somewhere along the False Bay coastline in the middle of the night I’d paddle out in a dark green kayak with a naval attack dive buddy and head towards the naval base at Simon’s Town. In an exercise to keep the submarine base on its toes, we’d tie our kayak alongside the harbour wall in the pitch black dark, slide overboard with our rebreathers not emitting a bubble, we’d swim underwater beneath the submarines. We’d place mines on the hulls of the submarines near the engines and then slip away in the night back along the coastline.
A few years ago just after Christmas day I went leisure kayaking with a good friend off Kommetjie. This time it was in an orange kayak with two crayfish nets placed on the bow of the kayak. We dropped our baited nets in the kelp beds and after an hour we had our quota of crayfish to take home for supper.
These kayaks were made from opaque plastic that prevented us from seeing the ocean and the reefs below us as we paddled across the water. Continue reading “See the wonder of the ocean as you paddle”
