Monday 6th May
I was up in Whitby visiting an old friend, with also the cheeky intension of getting a sea paddle in. Having looked at the forecast before setting off, I decided to take my surf boat along, as well as Tiderace Pace Tour 17, AKA "the Carrot", just in case the conditions were more suitable for surfing, than a solo paddle. In the event, on reaching Whitby on Monday evening, conditions at sea were pretty horrible. There was a huge swell coming into shore, which was exceedingly messy, along with a strong onshore wind.
Having said that from the top of the cliffs it didn't look too bad. I changed into my dry suit and carried my surf boat down the cliffs to the shoreline. On the beach, I sat with my bum in the seat of my kayak on the sand, my legs on the outside and studied the sea. The waves were not at all great. Very messy. By now there were also several paraglider's flying above me in the lift being generated by the cliffs. It was pleasant enough watching the sea and the paragliders. I love watching the sea, but there was no way I was going to risk paddling out into that. The sea was just too dangerous. There will always be another day. Oh well, I decided to bury my pride and treat it as good exercise, carrying the boat down to the beach and back up the cliffs.
Tuesday 7th May
Having spent a pleasant evening with my friend, I once again headed into Whitby, as the surf forecast was supposed to have improved. It hadn't. The improvement was obviously going to be later than originally forecast. I looked at the swell forecasts online and came up with a plan to head for Saltburn. Things were forecast to improve earlier up there, than in Whitby. Plus with about 40 minute travel time, I'd be hitting Saltburn at about the "right time", possibly...
As I arrived in Saltburn, and having just paid £10 to park, I received a phone call from my wife. There was a house which had just come on the market, in Scotland, where we are looking to move to. It looked perfect. We have been looking at various properties in Scotland for a while now. From our experience, if you don't go and view a property immediately, then you will have missed your chance. You just cannot wait. So, after little deliberation, I rang the estate agent and booked a viewing for Wednesday morning. I also then booked a campsite for Tuesday night in Scotland. I now had time for a little surf play in my surf boat, before doing the long drive to Scotland.
In the event, not having paddled the surf boat for several years, I didn't have the greatest session. I hit a few waves and got trashed about a fair bit. The surf was better in Saltburn, but still messy. And every five minutes or so a big set of waves would arrive, and white-out carnage would ensue. I headed back to the van, changed, packed up. Only to find the van wouldn't start! Cutting a long and somewhat frustrating story short, my dry bag wasn't quite so dry as I thought, and my van ignition key had got wet. The immobiliser on the van had kicked in. Eventually after trying many different things, I disassembled the key and squirted the keys "inners" with some WD40. I then dried the key off and... hey presto, the van started up first time and was running again. With the van now running , I almost immediately had a call from the breakdown service, whom I had called earlier, asking which car park I was parked in. I apologised - "the van is now fixed, thanks". Only now, I had around two hours less time to get to the campsite in Scotland before they shut the barriers for the night. In the event, I arrived at the campsite with about 30 minutes to spare. Albeit a little tired.
Wednesday 8th May
I viewed the house in the morning with my wife on Messenger, so she could also see ('ish) what I was seeing. Doing this via messenger isn't that good, but sort of worked, even if my camera work wasn't brilliant. It was all too easy to get distracted, whilst talking to the owners and looking around. Anyway, we rather quite liked the house. It is about 100 meters from the sea shore, of Gare Loch, with stunning views.
Viewing over, I headed back into Helensburgh, and parked up at the now shut, £22 million leisure centre. Famous now for its roof blowing off in Storm Eowyn. Conditions today though were lovely. I decided to paddle the Carrot across to the Rosneath peninsular without too much thought about where I'd head after that. On reaching the peninsular I turned right, for no particular reason other than I'd be paddling into the light wind and consequently would have the light wind and tide with me on my return. I headed up into Gare Loch following the coast. I think it wasn't until I had passed through Rhu Narrows, that I hatched a plan to go and view the house from the sea.
Distance 9.8 miles Time 2.5 hours
Friday 9th May
I then drove home on Friday (320 miles, in 5.5 hours with one micro stop), only to face a million and one questions about the house from my wife and subsequently many discussions: Should we buy it or not?
Sunday 11th May
The only way to be sure, was to drive back up to Scotland on Sunday , for another viewing on the Monday 12th May. At least this time when travelling back up we wouldn't be in the van, loaded up with kayaks and kit. Besides it is quicker and a more comfortable journey by car.
Tuesday 13th May
We drove back home again, and heard that due lots of interest in the property from other potential buyers, a closing date of Thursday 12 noon had been set by the sellers. We instructed our Scottish solicitor to put an offer in for the house (as you do in Scotland), and all we could do was sit and wait and hope our offer beat the other buyers at the Thursday 12 noon deadline.
Thursday 15th
After 48 hours or so of us being on tenterhooks, I received a phone call on Thursday afternoon to say our offer had been accepted! Whoohoo! It looks like we will be moving soon, and finally away from land locked East Midlands 🙂
GPS track
