Kayak – 3rd try and success
It’s less the temperature than the wind who makes the sea ice on the Baltic Sea vanish. Although we had -10 °C this morning the sea was more or less open. Time for a slightly longer kayak tour in the afternoon under a blue sky enjoying the calm weather.
But still there is some ice shield attached to the coast. As the days before I push myself forward using ice spikes.
First the ice holds then I crash through. It takes me 10 minutes to cross 100 metres of ice until I reach open water. Yay!
I decide to paddle round the islands Obbolstenarna. There is hardly any ice left on the way there but at the eastern shore it still looks pretty wintry.
The western part of Obbolstenarna however looks like another season. Is winter over now? Anyhow, time to kayak home.
If you look carefully at the photo with the red bow of my kayak you see that the water is very smooth but with some crystal like structures. Let’s take a close look:
Despite of the sun air temperature is still below zero. Not only the sea water on the kayak freezes but new ice is also formed on the water surface. It is thin and fragile but so soft, that the smooth waves do not break it. An even closer photo (heavily edited):
Through this smooth though icy water I paddle back until I reach the ice edge again. I choose another place, take a run-up and paddle onto the ice. I’m lucky. This ice is more stable and I do not break through. I slide back to the shore. Meanwhile the sun is already low. I was slower than planned, because it took some time to take all these photos.
