I'm back home! Some dumper launching pics...

I made it safely back home again, quiet flights, no overweight money, low kayak shipping fees...lucky kid!


What a difference being back into the winter! Early darkness, cold, grey sky...but there is no time to be sad...

I joined already a buisiness meeting, checked on my shops, and am at home mostly busy answering e-mails, phoning friends, and editing all my hundreds pics !


The write-up of the trip is waiting, besides a pile of bills, newspapers, three month of accounting needs to be done...and so on...


And I do want to spend some quality time with my family, too!

Anyway, I've got now the full set of four pics of that exciting East Coast launching.

Pictures are taken by Mary Kirk-Anderson.

Martin Fraser (left) and John Kirk Anderson (with helmet and pfd), waiting as close as possible for the right time to launch me

They are not pushing yet...just dealing with the previous dumper...

A BIG push now, Martin lost his Teva sandal in the surge...the disaster is piling up already...

JKA looks like he is saying:"Come on Freya, I know you are in there somewhere!" - and I was!

John Kirk-Anderson's posting on Paddlewise:
"After she had a few days off while waiting for swells to decrease we took Freya out at dawn on Sunday, back to the place she had landed on Thursday.
The surf had decreased but was still dumping on the steep shingle beach with the larger sets over two metres, easily enough to smash boats and bodies.
We watched the surf for a while and Freya finally decided to launch with our help. After a bit of a battle with the surge we launched her into a low surf which she got through, with one high brace after being knocked half-over.
She lost her speed in the set and the next wave was one of the biggest of the morning.
I have no idea how she managed to get through it. Her kayak stood on end and the wave collapsed on top of her. Martin and I sprinted away from the area, expecting her smashed kayak to be flung out on top of us. After the carnage cleared she rose from the spray and calmly paddled away, stopping to give us a wave before continuing south.
We were left shaking and gob-smacked, while some watching fishermen were still clapping.
She made good progress and was met further south by another friend who camped with her before helping her launch again.
Last night I had a call from her, sitting in "A meadow in the middle of nowhere", as she put it. Another long day, she is in good spirits and making good progress.
She asked how big the surf was when she left, as she had her head down. She said it took her an hour to lose the adrenaline feeling from her legs!
Paul Caffyn is going to meet her for a few days, but the forecast is for gales, so her paddling may come to a halt again for a while."