The island was a pretty place to wake up – fresh ocean breeze, a grey-tinged cloudy sky with patches of sun, and boats everywhere. After a surprisingly hearty breakfast (beans, ham, eggs, and toast), we took a coach right out to the water. Well, actually we had to climb down a rather steep Oceanside cliff, lined by zigzagging steps to get down to the sandy, chilly beach. We had to suffer the indignity and extreme cold of wetsuits and water shoes (not my favorite outfit, personally). Though I had horrible visions of turning blue as soon as a dipped a toe into the English Channel, it was marginally tolerable. I couldn’t feel my hands and feet, but that’s happening as we speak in Arizona winter.
After some mostly embarrassing but fun exercises on a six-foot yellow and blue surfboard and an eight-foot white, plastic kayak, we high-tailed it out of the water and changed into less rubbery and drier clothing.
The exercises themselves consisted of drills for the surfboard: paddling, board run; and drills for the kayak: relays, and on-hull sumo wrestling. Though most of the instructors were nice, one demanded of me if I absolutely needed my glasses in the churning water – Like I would really wear them for fashion effect.
After we had changed and dried a little, I spent some time looking at the other beach goers and the small boats out in the sea. Down the beach as far as one could see was an endless row of small shed-type wooden buildings, with double doors opening towards the sea. Some of the small buildings were opened by the their owners – they contained swimming, fishing, and sailing gear. A few even had someone sunbathing on the little porch. One or two couples were walking down the beach with various sizes and breeds of dogs in tow. I had never seen so many people out on beach getting exercise, with or without their dogs, seems more British than American. It was nice to be able to study the locals in their natural habitat, so to speak.
Besides people watching, I spent time looking at the huge number of yachts out on the water in the distance. There was a rather large race happening that day, the three-day, if I remember what the UKSA instructors were saying correctly. A few of the instructors were even checking positions of the different boats throughout the day – one of the girls had a relation on one of the racing yachts.
One thing I didn’t mention in the last post is the walk from the boat to the actual academy when we got off on the Isle. The town the Academy is located in is very quaint and beautiful, with narrow streets and little cottages. UKSA only had so many vehicles that could fit on the steep streets, so our luggage rode while all of us walked around the town. We saw children playing, many cats wandering around the island.
After our beach jaunt we stopped back on the top of the cliff for a cold lunch of chips and sandwiches. There were some very strange flavors of chips, including seafood. I wasn’t brave enough to try them.
Lunch came to an end and back on the coach we went, for a bumpy and nausea-inducing ride into the wooded area of the Isle. We were supposed to participate in orienteering, breaking into teams and using a topographical map and compass, find certain markers in the forest. Whoever found a certain number in the fastest time would win the competition. The area we were in was designed by engineers especially for the purpose of orienteering. From the combination of a lunch that did not settle well and the bus ride, I was too sick to my stomach to participate.
I kept thinking while I was on the Isle that my dad and grandpa would love to see all the sailboats – they were quite literally stacked everywhere.
While I was sitting in the grass trying to salvage any bit of my stomach feeling normal, I learned a bit about the young instructors working with the UKSA. Some worked at the Academy only in the summer and went to a university during the school year. Some of the students were pursuing a water-related degree and ultimately career.
We came back to the Academy building for the rest of the evening, with some students going to watch movies of get on the computer. I decided to stay in the room, writing some of the journal entries I’m now transcribing and talking to some of the girls I became close to on the trip.
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