Evening paddle

I happen to live in Kalmar by the Swedish east coast and of course you see people spending time on, by and in the water a lot. Sailing and motorboats are everywhere but Kalmar also have quite a lively Kajak and Canoe club where me and my kayak are members. 

I must say this year has been a particularly low point of me participating in the clubs activities due to a lot of different reasons but this evening the clubs wednesday activity coincided with nice weather and me having a free evening. The activity is that members who wants to come along, gathers at the clubhouse where the evenings leaders suggests a paddle tour of about 2-3 hours. This evening the goal was paddling around Kalmar castle, and on the way back, have a nice fika, coffee brake, by a beach in the middle of town. 

The weather was terrific and the paddling was slow because everyone enjoyed the trip. About ten km with a stop for coffee took us three hours. A lovely evening in the company of nice but quiet individualists sitting in their own boat paddling the same direction together, chatting with the neighbour paddler if you want to, or just share the experience in silence. Summer is clearly on its last leg but tonight felt like the first or maybe second really nice summer evenings this year. 

One of our leaders brought his dog along, a spaniel who has been a paddling companion since she was a puppy and seems to enjoy being in the boat waring a life jacket and are attached to the boat with a 5 meter lead. Feels really secure, actually. I've added an extra foto on the dog.