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There is a a CKC blog somewhere else on this site about a trip around Hayling Island in February. Brrrrr…..
Six CKC members descended on The Ship Inn at Langstone on 19 July 2014 with a view to paddling around the island at a more sensible time of year ie summer!
Quite possibly we are experiencing a vintage summer, to be referred to in wistful tones in Julys to come as THE summer of 2014. For all of use gathered in the car park this day will provide an enduring memory of that summer.
First however we had to negotiate the mud. We had arrived at low tide. There was lots of mud to be seen and very little water. The public slip by Hayling Bridge was a step in the right direction. Out there was water. But first we had to get to it.
Some of us negotiated the mud more successfully than others. OK, let me rephrase that. Everyone managed to get down the creek and reach navigable water in short order except for me.
My trusty Crocs, generally so perfect for all types of boating activities, revealed a hitherto undiscovered characteristic: a strong propensity to suck themselves deep into the black Chichester ooze, from which they had to be dug out by hand.
Once on the water we scraped ourselves across the shallows, past Northney Marina, into the Emsworth Channel. Which way do we go, we thought, as we approached a bifurcation in the creek? To the right.
As far as the navigation goes, right is the mantra. Right, right and right. Right around the island.
The Emsworth Channel led us south down the eastern side of the island. Easy paddling against a weak incoming tide in a gentle crosswind.
During the week the forecast had varied widely. High pressure was breaking up with the chance of some quite nasty showers ie the possibility of squalls, lightening and golfball-sized hail.
Thankfully, whilst there was some serious shower activity in the UK that day, it all stayed a long way north of Hayling Island.
By the time we pulled out for lunch on a beautiful white sand beach at Hayling Island Sailing Club the sun was shining and it was hot.
The sensible, intelligent, experienced members of CKC ie everyone but me, had brought packed lunches. However HISC is very welcoming to anyone arriving by water and I was saved by their cornish pasty, chips and beans at a very reasonable cost.
We took the opportunity to visit loos, top up water bottles etc and then we were off into the briny blue. The sea. Not the estuary from where we had come. The element for which these boats are designed. When in the right hands.
A line of breakers stretched out to the west of the harbour entrance. Our next destination. Closer inspection revealed a relatively quiet patch and here we crossed one by one after our brave leader, Rob, had checked it out first.
There were some breaking waves which did not look particularly intimidating but I am sure that they would have been sufficient to tip me in. It was a relief to get past that bit and to set off west, along the seafront towards Langstone Harbour entrance.
The conditions were clearly a piece of cake for all the old hands in the party but I was having to concentrate on balancing the boat and even having to perform the occasional brace. This certainly was not the Thames.
The low point for me came when Philippa casually reached around to unscrew the lid off her day hatch and retrieve some kit. Without even using her paddle for balance! How could she do that, I thought. Clearly my sense of balance is so poor that I may as well give up all hope of sea kayaking on the sea. In other words pack it in altogether.
Fortunately it was at this point that Neil shared a few words of wisdom. Let your hips go with the waves, he said, like a pendulum. At first this sound a bit too zen for me. I was thinking through gritted teeth and relaxing was not high on the priority list. But after giving these pearls due consideration I tried to do what I thought he was suggesting. It was a revelation. Suddenly the stress disappeared; I could concentrate on paddling technique rather than survival; it became fun.
The Hayling Island seafront is comprised of a shingle beach with numerous groynes, beach huts, a fun fair, fishermen and families. It is quite charmingly old fashioned.
Out in the bay there was a fleet of small, high speed, foiling sailing dinghies with dark sails. The International Moth world championships were taking place. It was was quite a spectacle but we were not stopping to watch.
The water got a little more lumpy as we approached Langstone Harbour and I laughed contemptuously as waves thwacked the kayak from the side.
Pride comes before the fall but in this case I was saved from probable humiliation by another right hand turn into the tranquil waters of the Harbour
Close inside the entrance is a relic of World War II. A concrete Mulberry Harbour. Constructed in order to be sunk off the Normandy beaches. To provide protection and to allow the troops to be resupplied. Apparently this one broke its back when it was launched.
The tide was just right for a bit of rock hopping. Initiated by Rob. Closely followed by Neil and Philippe. If you don’t have a cave or reef at hand to practice your skills a convenient Mulberry Harbour offers a usable alternative.
The sea breeze must have kicked in because the wind was from behind as we made our way northwards, up the harbour towards the bridge, and mudageddon where we had begun the day.
Sometimes in boats you experience an almost trance like state and for me this was one of those moments. A gentle breeze and tiny waves from behind. The kayak and paddles getting into a rhythm that was quite mesmerizing. A wonderful last leg to enjoy and savor.
Back to a waterfront that had been transformed by the tide. Not a patch of mud to be seen. No need to carry them – we could paddle our kayaks almost to the cars.
Anyone for wet exercises asked Neil? And soon there were rescues, rolls, towing, braces and all sorts being practiced on a perfect summer afternoon.
What more could make it perfect?
How about a drink at The Ship Inn to finish off the day.
Richard
  
On the last weekend in June, Izzy, Loz, Sue, Colin, Vern and Rob headed to Pembrokshire for two days of guiding / coaching with Martin Leonard assisted by Lou Luddington on the Saturday and her husband Tom on the Sunday.
We met at 9 on the Saturday to do the usual kit faff and to discuss what we wanted to get out of the weekend. The consensus was that the main objective was to get out to Skomer to see some puffins and hopefully do rough water paddling as a bonus. The wind on the first day was forecast to be NE force 3-4 rising to 5-6 later in the day, which coupled with the spring tides meant that getting to Skomer on the first day wasn’t going to be an option. A plan was therefore devised to launch at Abercastle and paddle down the coast to Abereddi which gave us the option of a couple of other get outs if the conditions deteriorated. We had a bit of a warm up in the bay while waiting for the drivers to shuttle the cars during which Lou pointed out some different species of jellyfish and we spotted a large male grey seal having a snooze on a small floating platform.
Heading out of the bay there was some swell but the wind hadn’t picked up too much. It was a lovely piece of coast with some great rock hopping opportunities which I enjoyed all the more for being in somebody else’s (plastic) boat! A few of the headlands had small tide races off them which were good for practising breaking in/out, ferry glides and using the waves to surf upstream in the race.
We stopped at Porthgain mid-afternoon for a break and discussed how whether or not to continue as the wind had been steadily increasing. By the time we returned to the boats though the wind was a steady F5 and there were regular breaking waves out in the bay. Carrying on the the intended finish would a committing 8km or so with a couple of tide races so wasn’t really viable in the conditions. We spent an hour or so doing some surfing in the bay entrance before getting out and heading back to the bunkhouse.
Sunday had a much lighter northerly wind which meant that getting to Skomer would be possible, although the strong tide meant that getting right round and back to the start point was not. We headed to Martin’s Haven, got onto the water and headed across Jack Sound to Skomer in a wide arc to avoid being taken down stream into the fast water. On landing we presented ourselves to the warden for the required introductory talk which included some information on the island’s wildlife, where we could and couldn’t go (basically stick to the paths) and relieved each of us or £10. We then had a couple of hours to wander round and explore the island. We saw large numbers of puffins and razorbills for which the island is famous. It is also famous for its Manx shearwaters; unfortunately the only examples of these we saw were numerous dead ones. The have burrows on the island and the parents take it in turns to spend the day at sea feeding, returning at night. When there is a full moon though they are easy targets for black back gulls, hence the large number of casualties we saw. The only way to see live shearwaters is to stay in the self catering accommodation on the island, something which would be good for a club trip in the future.
 
Returning to the boats, we paddled along the north coast to get a view of the island from the water, taking care to minimise our disturbance to the wildlife. Tom had played a key role in developing the Pembrokeshire Marine Code and was keen to stress to us the importance of minimising our impact both on this trip and in general. The website is well worth a look and contains lots of detailed specific information to different areas in Pembrokeshire as well as more general advice. We stopped just before the flow splits at Garland Rock to avoid being taken right past the island, and headed back across Jack Sound to Martin’s Haven where we loaded up the boats and started the long journey back to London.
Paddling the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and the Small Isles with CKC, June 2014
Kilchoan
Five Chelsea Kayak Club paddlers made their way North from London, through beautiful Scottish scenery, to join Geoff and Sandra in Kilchoan. The Argyll scenery is stunning, and Kilchoan is in a particularly beautiful part, nestled on the South Coast of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, with views stretching out across the Sound of Mull. Alex, Philippe and Dan, who had left London at 0430 in the morning in order to be on the water for 1830, made it in time to paddle out into the Sound of Mull for some pre-dinner rockhopping. Kenneth and I raced through the countryside and made it in time to join everyone for a gourmet Saturday night dinner courtesy of Geoff and Sandra, including fresh local lobster and gorgeous pavolva. Conditions for the week ahead seemed favourable, with force 4-5 winds forecast for the first couple of days, dropping off after that with sun poking through at the end of the week.
McLean’s Nose
Geoff, Philippe, Dan, Alex, Kenneth and I collected at the jetty in Kilchoan on a slightly overcast Sunday morning for our first day’s paddling.
Just before getting on the water, a slight heartsink for me – the skeg on my Scorpio LV was not working – a pain as the wind that had been forecast was just starting to make itself known, reminding me that a kit check at home prior to leaving for a long trip is always helpful…
We launched at the jetty, and set out for a shortish paddle along the South Coast of Ardnamurchan, east from Kilchoan to McLean’s nose, stopping near Rubha Ruadh for lunch. Afterwards, the tide still out, the six of us wandered along the shingle beach, lined with hardy oak trees, and stopped to inspect the flotsam and jetsam.
On the way back we kept up a brisk pace, despite our unaccustomed paddling muscles (some more than others!), and arrived home in time for a chilled evening at the ranch. Alex carried out some boat maintenance. Over our first hard-earned dinner of mushroom risotto we planned the next day’s paddling.
Fresh Mussels
I got up a couple of hours early on Monday morning to fix my skeg, and was welcomed by grey skies and a light drizzle. And a few midges. As it turned out, 2 hours was just enough time – I had to try three fixes on the “kink-free” rope and bungee skeg system before it decided to spring into action – only after I’d realigned the elastic bungee on the cog that levers the skeg down, changed the cog orientation, and retied the knot to shorten the bungee, which had become overstretched.
After breakfast and haring round Chris’s Ranch in the usual pre-paddle chaos, we had breakfast and set out in convoy to Loch Sunart for a lovely day’s paddling. Dan’s wire skeg had also malfunctioned due to a kink in the skeg wire which Geoff fixed before we headed out.
Paddling conditions were gentle and calm. We paddled under ethereal, bright, milk-white skies, the light diffusing gently through the thin veil of cloud overhead.
After heading down the beautiful Loch Teacuis, and stopped for lunch on Morven, where the CKC group had camped 2 years before.
Alex cooked up some delicious freshly collected mussels for us all, and then we set off round Carna Island back towards Kilchoan.
We made it back in time for Geoff to take us on a trip to Tobermory in the RIB, and hit MacGoghan’s for a delicious seafood dinner – delicious local fish and chips, fish pie, scallops with garlic, scallops with pea sauce, battered scallops…
White Sandy Beaches
We made an early(ish) start and headed for Portuairk, where we set out to recce the conditions for a possible crossing to the Small Isles. After about half an hour, bouncing around in the clapotic waves along the shore, it became apparent that the weather was just too severe – the further out towards Muck we headed, the bigger the waves became.
We turned back nearer shore and headed East along the North Coast of Ardnamurchan, waves still enjoyably bouncy, for a chilled afternoon paddle in the sun. We stopped at Glendrian, (in the same bay we’d stopped at on the way back from our crossing from Eigg, the previous year), for lunch, and just a little bit of disco dancing in the sun, before launching into the diagonal surf (expertly of course under Geoff’s expert tutelage) and carrying on towards Fascadale.
After a short break for a cup of coffee, some dried fruit courtesy of Philippe, and a quick navigation check, we completed our journey to Port Ban for our first night of wild camping.
Despite the low lying cloud that had been with us all day, we pitched our tents in the beautiful warm glow of the evening sunshine, to the (happily quite vague) interest of a few passing cows. After dinner, as the sun went down we were treated to a stunning light show as the low fluffy clouds were lit up in dazzling shades of pink, pale blue, orange, peach, turquoise and rose by the setting sun.
Isle of Muck
I woke at 0723. For a moment I was at a music festival, crowds of people clomping past my tent. I re-oriented to my rugged Ardnamurchan home, and before venturing out of the tent, I remembered the passing thought I’d had as I drifted off to sleep – I bet the cows head down to the beach first thing in the morning for a salty breakfast, and we have pitched our tents right in their paths. I poked my head out. They did, and we had.
We all stumbled sleepily out of our tents to see what was going on and saw an extremely hefty bull standing down on the beach between our kayaks and the water’s edge. “Daddy” remained stubbornly in his seaside spot for ages. Finally the farmer came down and gave him a friendly slap and a nudge. He trundled after the rest of the herd to his breakfast on the hill in the next field.
We set off from Port Ban, the sea like a millpond. Geoff pointed out that after our early morning wakeup call, we were in good time for another attempt on the crossing to Muck, with plenty of time to return in the afternoon if needed. Everyone was keen. We listened to the Stornaway Coastguard’s 1010 weather forecast, which was excellent, and plumped for the crossing. Despite the forecast deterioration in the weather “later”, we hoped it would hold long enough for us to camp for the night on Muck and return to Sanna in the morning.
We set off again at 1030, and when we reached Fascadale, we took a bearing of 320o towards Port Mor on Muck. Conditions were perfect, with a broad gentle swell and a light Southerly wind. We stopped for a water break every 40 minutes or so, and completed the 11km crossing in just over two and a half hours.
We arrived on Muck just after high tide, rafting up at the harbour entrance for the 1310 weather forecast on the VHF. After paddling the last half a Km into the harbour, we pulled our boats up onto the rocky shore, and meandered up the road to the tea shop, past two small lambs with matte black coats like coal. We ate our lunch lounging in the brilliant Muck sunshine – Cullen Skink with chunks of homemade brown bread, toasties with home-roast ham, pots and pots of tea, and delicious fruit cake and carrot cake. No holds were barred with the carb consumption as we now had another 3 hour crossing ahead of us – the weather forecast had banished hopes for a night’s stopover on Muck, as the wind looked to be up again within a few hours.
We set off again at 1530 and headed out into the bay. The wind picked up. It made for interesting swell on our return journey to Portuairk. Initially conditions were helpful enough, windy but with a following sea. As we paddled on, the swell grew taller, and more clapotic. After about half an hour of bouncing around, I noticed that the rest of the group was disappearing regularly into the troughs of the waves, (putting the Sea State at 4, or “Moderate”) which were coming at us from behind and to the side. Despite the stability from the fully loaded boats, we were all being thrown around quite a bit in the swell, and paddling now required concentration and frequent brace strokes. A trailing low brace came in handy on the most clapotic waves, but for the most part we stayed stable by keeping momentum up and powering forward, placing blades firmly into the front of the waves as they came at us from the side. We arrived in Sanna Bay at 1800, exhilarated from the trying conditions, all of us on a high, after three hours of paddling absolutely in the moment without a thought for anything extraneous.
A wee dram was in order, and we toasted Geoff as a thanks for a great day’s kayaking. The tide was well on its way in as we lugged boats up the beach and loaded cars. As we had paddled up the cove on our way in, we’d noticed a sheep stranded on a low rock and despite the day’s efforts, Alex still had enough oomph to rescue it and send it scampering on its way.
Wild Camping and Fine Dining
Restored by Kenneth’s hearty dinner of bean and vegetable stew and toasted bagels on Wednesday night, followed by cheeses, oatcakes and a couple of glasses of wine, we were more than ready for another day’s kayaking on Thursday morning. Eventually. We made it out of the ranch at about 2pm, headed for Loch Moidart, loaded up with firewood and some good food for that night’s campfire meal.
The drive to Loch Moidart was stunning, through breathtaking scenery, and on the way we stopped at the shop in Salen. We bought Nutella and fresh rolls for the next day, stocked up on Whisky and had a little sit-down for coffee and cake (as it was still only 3pm…) Then we made our way to the get-in and loaded the food and whisky into the boats, along with plenty(!) of firewood. After our chilled, meandering day, we set off at 1700 for our paddle through the Loch. No-one was in a hurry, and it was low tide as we made our way past the Casteal Tioram ruins, down the South Channel and out past Eilean Shona to the open sea.
We pootled up the coast to our second wild campsite, going quietly as we passed a group of seals resting on the rocks, and arrived in time to set up camp before sunset. Alex donned his rubber suit and headed back in the water to perfect his already not-too shabby offside roll. I pitched my tent, on a hillock above the beach, as a sea-otter fished for its supper in the bay beyond. There was a lowered sandy plateau on the beach below our campsite, with a lovely echo – perfect for Dan and Kenneth to have a little percussion jam session with the firewood. Then Geoff lit a perfect cooking fire for our evening meal, (the usual paddle nosh but also baked sweet potatoes, carrots and shallots warmed in foil in the fire). We ate on the sand, enjoying just being, under the sky and by the sea, as the sun set over the Sound of Arisaig.
Sun and double scallops
Day 7 dawned sunny and lovely. We left our beautiful campsite, and paddled our way through turquoise waters, in the blazing sunshine back to Loch Moidart.
We made our way through the North Channel, stopping to explore on the way. We beached at Casteal Tioran, our lunch stop and climbed up to the Castle ruins for a wander. Passing walkers and kayakers were friendly and had come from all around. We chatted to an older couple from Cheshire, out walking their gorgeous collie, (who wasn’t allowed any leftover salami due to his special diet) and two other sets of sea-kayakers enjoying a beautiful sunny day paddling round the peaceful waters of Lock Moidart.
We had a pretty epic lunch, finishing off all the left over provisions, topped off with coffee and delicious maple waffles drenched in Nutella (thanks Kenneth!) We meandered back to the get-in, stopping before we got out for some skills practice (who could resist in the beautiful warm sun), Geoff demonstrating a beautifully poised balance brace, Kenneth slickly executing a roll, and Alex practicing leaning backwards into a low scull. I went for a long, cool swim in the Loch – my first wild swim of the season – and then we unpacked the boats, loaded them on the cars and headed back to Kilchoan. We just about managed to unload and rinse the kit in time to get in the RIB and head back across to Mull – spotting a porpoise on the way out, heading toward Tobermory lighthouse. We celebrated our last night in style at MacGochan’s – there was a good old Scottish jam session in full swing when we arrived. Two accordions, bagpipes and a frenzied percussionist playing sticks on the table top belted out reels, jigs and a traditional medley of Marie’s Wedding and Scotland the Brave. Brilliant. Then a round of double scallops and dark ale before heading back to Kilchoan across the dark and quiet Sound of Mull.
Miranda
Photos courtesy of Miranda, Alex Hester, Kenneth Tharp
Bognor Regis Winter Paddle, 24th November 2013
On a beautiful crisp winter morning 5 intrepid CKC members (Neil, Dan, Rob H, Miranda and Jac) headed to the south coast.
There was a lovely shingle beach –
(not so gently sloping in places) and free easy parking – perfectly selected.
We had a lovely paddle, using the reverse eddies in our favour up to Little Hampton and back (even though the Coastguard didn’t think we would make it).
We paddled along bathed in the pinkly ethereal light, until the spell was broken by four noisy jet skis – we then took this opportunity to start heading into shore for lunch.
As it was the first super cold paddle of the season lunch consisted of discussing the pros and cons of various thermos and concluded with Neil’s £4.95 Morrison’s version being the best of the lot.
Heading back Jac thought Neil needed to challenge his last reserves of stamina – so without much convincing he hooked his towline to her boat, allowing Jac the opportunity to perform the role of trip photographer.
Dan found some cosy couches by the fire for a cheeky drink before the drive home.
Gorgeous day, and we all made it down to Cremorne bright and early for a paddle out west. High tide was at 1130am so we had the tide with us for a good chunk of the first leg.
Before we knew it we were at Kew, in fact we were there by 1145 so some time to kill before lunch. We found the shingle beach, and couldn’t resist “lunch from a shingle beach”
The pubs of Richmond beckoned, but consensus wagered a seat would be hard to find, so we went for a mosey up the Grand Union Canal instead. Interesting. A little too interesting as it turned out…
The Thames Lock was fun on the way in, my first lock and going up to a whole new water level was fun. On the way back after lunch, however, the water levels were less amenable to changing. In that the lockeeper was nowhere to be seen. So we considered our options. Shooting the weir was discarded as we couldn’t really see where the route went after the weir. Yelling out for the lockeeper got a bit boring after a while. We phoned him but that didn’t work either.
So portage was the only option. We took it in turns to clamber up the wall, and hauled the boats out with towlines. The get-in on the other side of the lock was even more fun. Vern immediately sprung into action and organised a team lowering the boats down the 15 foot wall with a pulley system of towlines, and Gieve went down first to help people make the leap from the ladder into their boats.
Jacqueline, Neil and David did a slightly longer portage and lauched off a jetty round the corner and we all met up to cruise back out on to the Thames and navigate with the ebb tide back down to Cremorne under Dave Tuttle’s expert navigation guidance.
Great day, thanks all!
Miranda
Done some work on the site.
- Optimised the google and bing trawling, they were killing us with requests
- Database optimisation work
- Upgraded the server, now twice as much memory as before.
- Done some additional page caching work
What does this mean? Hopefully the website will be faster. If you notice any problems since the upgrade give me a shout.
The skinny middle aged runner we encountered in the carpark of The Ship pub was the first to speak.
“Ah someone more mad than me,” he said, having spent 90 minutes jogging in sub zero icy and snowy conditions.
He was vacillating between sheer admiration of our chutzpah to circumnavigate Hayling Island and the ludicrousness of doing so in such extreme weather. Such thinking was of course, not lost on Andy, Jay, Kate, Miranda and me. Surely snuggling up and enjoying a Sunday morning sleep in was preferable to de-icing the skegs and foot rests while fingers were painfully cold?
 Getting the boats out
Well, at the time maybe, but once we started out, the microclimate in the kayaks ensured a comfy paddle, especially so with the wind initially behind our backs and we were riding a fast tide. We had a relatively calm sea and a bit of fun riding small waves at the bar on the South East corner of Hayling. And early in the paddle we encountered some some friends Richard and Steve heading in the opposite direction.
The next observers were some yachties cleaning their boats while we sheltered from the constant snow under the verandah of the club for a fuel stop. (The planned lunch spot in the protected bowels of the club was closed). “Didn’t you check the weather forecast?”was the incredulous question.
We had of course, and were well prepared. Jay’s hot chocolate, Miranda’s spare fleece and some bacon sandwiches made from breakfast leftovers helped keep the shivering to a minimum. But there wasn’t any luxuriating. It was back on the water, enjoying the sea with a couple of spectacular MOTHS and an old fashioned rowing boat as quickly as possible.The rowers, surprisingly, given they were out in the same conditions, were heard to loudly mutter “are they f….king kidding?”
 Paddling in the snow
The wind was still blowing, but this time in our faces, the snow still falling, this time landing on cheeks and eyelashes, and the tide that was meant to be giving us a nice sleigh ride home was non existent. Still, Kate amused us with a planned roll, executed perfectly and Jay had given us some paddling technique tips to work on. By the time of our mid afternoon return to the pub the boats were hoisted on roof racks in record time and we adjourned, with enormous enthusiasm to the roaring log fire and warming coffee (ok, a couple of us had a beer).
 Loaded in record time
 View from the pub
I suspect that while many people had done little on this particular Sunday, we had a memorable and most enjoyable time and have notched up a rare experience: paddling around Hayling in the snow.
Jacquelin Magnay
Thursday night and time to head down to Cremorne for some respite from London’s pre-Christmas bustle.
Late as usual after a hectic day but Olwen Jac and Christoph waited patiently with all the kit ready, and their patience was rewarded with… Flashing Christmas hats!
Lowering the boats off the pontoon (wearing our flashing Christmas hats), we saw that the choppy waters spotted from the pier had calmed, and as we pottered west alongside the riverbank the relentless clicking and whirring of London life melted away. There was hardly any traffic, the open stretch of water was dark, cool and quiet, and for a couple of hours life was just the river, the rhythm of paddling, and pleasant conversation.
Our course weaved between the pontoon posts, headed past Wandsworth bridge then Putney bridge, and splooshed quietly past Bishop’s Park with not a jeering stone lobbing yob in sight. Gazing up at the riverbank, and imagining frenzied London working, shopping and partying, the quiet was hard to believe, but welcome.
A little pause at Craven Cottage to hang with Michael Jackson, and take in the view of not much except river stretching up to sky, then we remembered the mulled wine Olwen had brought and headed back. Rounding the bend after Putney, and instead of choppy water and a brisk breeze we were met with a still river and a beautiful serene view – along the riverbank the water shimmered in green, purple, red and gold, and Albert Bridge’s festoon of lights danced and glimmered downriver. We glanced up to look at the clear crescent of the waxing moon, and saw Orion’s Belt glinting through the darkness.
The sights stayed with us as we crossed back to Cremorne and celebrated with wine and pies and warmth, and the stars and the stillness stayed even longer. All serving to remind me that Thursday winter paddling is a weekly must to stay relaxed and sane in hectic London, over Christmas, New Year and beyond…
Miranda
As training sessions go, this one seemed to skip along happily like a kayaker in the wake of a Thames party boat. The three newbies, Dan, Dave and Nick figured a beautiful autumnal day along the quiet Shepperton river banks lined with post rehab rocker villas would be like chicken soup for their busy London lives. Little did they know that ‘wet work’ isn’t another term for drinking on the job. By the end of the day, they learnt just how fast you can spin around your bum in icy water wearing wetsuit tutus.
The day started out with a couple of ripples and grumbles from various leaders. It’s always interesting to see who can come up with the best excuses to be late. As Geoff single handedly loaded all eight kayaks down at Cremorne, various texts arrived on his phone.
Phil and Jaqui – “Our hamster got stuck in the chandelier!”
Judes – “Sam Neill is stalking me!”
Once down at Shepperton, under Phil’s direction the main training got underway and the newbies trailed up and down, zig zagging along as Judes kept calling out “Rudder to the left of them, rudder to the right of them, rudder in front of them, Volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell!” A little sense of drama never hurt a paddler, especially when a leader is trying to get that stern rudder steering into your head before you manoeuvre around on the Thames. In the end Geoff and Jacqui even managed to get Slow Dane to paddle backwards blindfolded and singing ‘God Save the Queen’ while hitting her head with one paddle and taking out a couple of signets with the other.
As the day finished off, the group rounded Desborough island and slalomed around a couple of near sighted rowers. Once back on land the three boys earned their BCU 1 Star + status, slow Dane narrowly escaped flushing herself down the seventies Sci-Fi toilet and we finished off the day with a well-deserved drink on dry land.
Solvej (aka the Slow Dane)
We had a very interesting visit to the Port of London Authority (PLA) Operations at Woolwich yesterday. Seven of us were met on a bitterly cold morning by Tom Southall, the Deputy Manager of VTS. The PLA ops and London Coastguard are based in the same building just beside the Thames Barrier (which is independently physically operated and maintained by the Environment Agency.)
Tom was very welcoming and encourages these sort of visits where users of the river get to understand more about the operations and the variety of craft they encounter. He firstly gave us a presentation explaining everything from where they fit in and relate to different agencies and stakeholders, such as IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authority), MCA, (Maritime and Coastguard Agency and IMO (International Maritime Organisation), training and background, their geographic reach and what services they provide and information systems they use.
We then got taken upstairs to the Control Room, where we met the two VTS guys on duty ,who explained the various screens and equipment they were using. It was fascinating to see all the radar and visual images of traffic moving on the Thames, views from their various CCTV cameras on bridges over the river and real time tidal and wind information being monitored. It was a blustery morning and the anemometer was veering around all over the place.
Next we met Sam who was the Coastguard Officer on duty. This is the only place in the UK where the Coastguard and VTS are co-located in the same building. Tom reckons this undoubtedly saves many more lives as they can share information instantaneously when incidents occur and Search and Rescue operations are easier to coordinate. Sam also gave a quick overview of the Coastguard operations and it was reassuring to hear that all information has a back up with dual control from another Coastguard for when Sam goes for lunch. (Usually Thames). They work 12 hours shifts, which must be pretty stressful at times.
View of the Barrier from the Control Room
The Team with London Coastguard
It was a great morning and everyone enjoyed themselves. The time flew past and it was very generous of Tom to give up so much of his personal time. We greatly appreciated it. We are hoping to plan another trip for those who couldn’t make it this weekend and we’ve also invited the VTS and Coastguard guys to come kayaking with us to see the Thames from water level! Maybe they will take us up on this.
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