Longshore Drift

Ring any bells already? It's from Sec. 3 Geography. How is it that I get crappy results when I can remember so much of the shit I learnt? (Read Comments) The system is wrong I tell you, most of the people with better results than me can't remember shit! Back to my point. Longshore drift, something I didn't really care 2 hoots about until yesterday, is the culprit behind my, currently, really really red skin.

We all know that mother nature is not someone to mess with, unless you're burning her bugs for leisure, so we all take measures to ensure our safety even when doing inane things like kayaking. I like kayaking, it's fun. What's not is when it's done in the middle of the day, the prime of Apollo himself, with clouds everywhere but above us and the fucking tide coming in! Then there's the blasted longshore drift I mentioned so many times. Resulting from the currents hitting the shore at an angle, it creates a false impression on us. Us as in Me, Kenneth, Grace and Terese.

We started at Costa Sands East Coast where Bedok Jetty is not far to our left. My rule of if-you-can't-see-it-it's-not-there didn't catch on fast enough for the rest, Kenneth actually, and so we went seeking for the pseudo kelong we went to many fucking years ago! Now that I have more time to recall, that was Costa Sands Pasir Ris for crying out loud!! So we paddled out to sea, the tide is still relatively low at this time, 12:15 PM, and we're still fresh from not much paddling. It didn't take long for someone, Terese, to start whining but we already paid for 2 hours and were determined to make the most out of our cash. Didn't take long for us to give up on the non-existing kelong too. So we stopped and just let the kayaks drift.

The water is littered with shit, garbage everywhere, the only one stupid enough to jump in was, well, Kenneth. He did not stay there for long. By this time, waves of nausea were hitting me like guys on Janice, or flies on troll for that matter. Advice, don't go kayaking during high tide without having eaten anything. I spent a good 10 to 15 minutes fighting the puke that's forcing their way up my gullet. I didn't puke in the end, so sad for the fishes else they'd get a treat or a threat.

Thanks to the waves, we're all feeling sick and decided it's time to start moving and getting back to shore. We have about an hour left which we'd gladly give up. This is when we all came to the consensus of where the fuck are we?! A hell lot closer to shore but where? We're close to the Big Splash based on land marks on the beach. While paddling in the general direction of our destination, I noticed that we passed Parkway, shit. Turns out we drifted a LOT! I mean A FUCKING LOT! It took use a good whole hour of almost non-stop paddling before we get back to Costa Sands.

The reason is simple, longshore drift, only this time, instead of drifting with it, we're paddling AGAINST it. Progress was slow and it's fucking tiring, not to forget the midday sun and the fucking clouds that seem to have developed a distaste for us considering that they formed a halo AROUND us, not very helpful if it's shelter we seek.

Me and Grace were roasted, Kenneth got frost-bite, only his nose was red, and Terese was, well, just Terese. Next time we're just going to Kenneth's place to swim.