I should start by saying that this trip report is being written by a complete sea kayaking novice who has paddled only once before upon The Salty Vastness. A 12Nm trip around a small island in the sheltered waters of the Solent sounded to me like an ideal introduction to sea paddling. (Richard B has already supplied all the technical data about the trip via group email.)
The omens weren’t particularly promising. Six or so hours before we were due to set off, the wind speed readout from the Chimet live weather buoy in the Solent was hitting F6+. Also, at eight in the morning going over a traffic-free Battersea Bridge the sky was grey and dreary.
But miraculously the sun was shining over Hayling Island. Also, according to our leader the wind had dropped to a manageable F4 and the plan A of a circumnavigation of the island was on.
After the helpful and reassuring briefing (what was that about meter high waves at the SE corner?) the eight members of CKC and three from Portsmouth Club set off from the beach near the Ferryboat Inn. Pete led off and we crept around close to the shore before turning East to proceed parallel with the South-facing sea front.
Pete was using a Greenland paddle that looked like a bed slat and yet with it he cruised calmly and majestically around the island with barely perceptible movements of just his forearms. The wind was from the North and as a result there was no swell and the conditions were calm(ish). There was a bit of skeg-adjusting to do to compensate for the wind blowing us gently out to sea all the time.
We progressed along this first side of a triangle around the island. Richard B had several times mentioned that at the end of this first leg, at the SE corner of the island, there might be some rough water and that some of us might need to walk around along the beach. You could see where the currents met and the approaching white crested waves. Richard shouted to us to go for it in twos and also suggested that the best way of getting through was to keep paddling firmly. Well, it worked for me! This little stretch of ‘bumpy’ water was easily the roughest stuff I had ever been in! (yes, it’s true) and it was great to get through to the calm at the other side and feel a sense of achievement and camaraderie at having conquered the mighty ocean together….well, ok, that’s how it felt to me! Richard (and maybe others, I don’t know) seemed a bit miffed that the conditions were just a little too benign and not challenging enough. But for someone at my level it was perfectly exhilarating.
We headed North against the wind up to the top of our triangular route and to our lunch stop. Lunch -including high end brownies from Jacqui- was quite a lengthy affair for various reasons (none havinganything remotely to do with the cosy fireside and foaming nut brown ales of The Royal Oak ). We waited for the turn of the tide and some of us it has to be said were looking forward to the easy ride back down the final side of the triangle…but what’s this? The 12 Nm triangle had somehow been stretched into a 13.4 Nm rectangle and we were led off around a bird sanctuary in Langstone Harbour. We finally joined the main channel a couple of miles North of our destination and the tide was speeding us along. We passed, amongst other things, the hulking ruins of a Mulberry Harbour that apparently never made it over the Channel.
This last leg with the out going tide was also a new experience for novice me. Feeling the tide and the waves churning underneath the boat was a bit unsettling at first. In fact most of the paddling I found a bit unsettling at first because the sea is always moving and you are constantly being shifted about. But one of the many things I learned on this trip was that these boats like being on the sea.
So it all turned out great! The planning and design of the trip seemed to me to have been really well thought through, and the preparations and general friendliness and support from everyone made it a really enjoyable and confidence-building trip. Was there a downside? Well maybe the burger at the Ferryboat Inn wasn’t quite up to Lots Road standards, but then again you could buy yourself a meal for two on Hayling Island for the price of a packet of them Chelsea crisps.
A big thank you to those who came along on Friday night and supported the joint Battersea Canoe Club / Chelsea Kayak Club Christmas party. I certainly enjoyed myself very much and there was a very nice atmosphere. In addition to the standard fare of music, drink and food (more than we could eat, indeed) we also had a lateral thinking quiz of boating terms thanks to Jacqui and a photo competition run by Katie and Manda. There was also a somewhat “formal” part of the evening with an address by BCC Chair Alasdair Pettigrew followed by a slide show of the Scilly Isles trip by Miranda.
We’ve had a marvellous first nine months of operations, getting access to the excellent facilities of Cremorne, including its boats and kayaking equipment and establishing a formal licensing arrangement with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which we hope will continue long into the future. We have had two successful grant applications, the first where RBKC have commissioned us to do a piece of work to bring kayaking to our neighbours in the Worlds End Estate, and the second from Sport England. This means that we now have our own fleet of boats – 9 in total – and all necessary ancillary equipment: paddles, buoyancy aids, a VHF radio, towlines, first aid equipment etc. This gives us the newest fleet of boats on the Thames and an unmatched selection of sea kayaks anywhere in Greater London. Our website is up and running successfully, acting as both a promotional tool and a means to organise trips. Trips have taken place in England, Scotland, Sweden and the Scilly Isles. Our weekly Thames sessions have doubled, with two sessions now going out each Thursday night. Our membership continues to expand, with current membership approximately 50 people. Many members have taken advantage of training opportunities in first aid, VHF radio use, coaching and leadership awards. Our committee has been augmented by the Chair of the Cremorne Users’ Group, joining us as Liaison Officer and a keen CKC paddler in her own right. Our profile is building, with an elegant logo, business cards, and a four page article in Canoe Kayak. As the club gets bigger we have split general members’ updates from the committee meetings, but we hope to remain very much in touch with and responsive to the needs of all the members and open to your suggestions and ideas.
Al made a couple of points and referred to the relationship between Chelsea Kayak Club and Battersea Canoe Club as a marriage – “two great clubs” but both very different. While marriage might be a bit hasty (!) I would certainly see that we have a symbiosis with CKC offering a branch of the sport that BCC do not, and vice versa. Many CKC members continue to be BCC members in good standing, and Friday night’s Christmas party was organised by three such examples: Jacqui, Katie and Manda. Long may this continue. What we all have in common is a love of going paddling and a desire to have some fun! Al also made a plea for members to get involved in making things happen, and I strongly endorse this. Both CKC and BCC are clubs with members, not businesses with clients; so if you want to see something happen, put your hand up to make it happen.
In this spirit I would like to publicly thank Jaqui, Katie and Manda for a job well done on Friday night; and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hard working CKC committee, Toons for his work on the web, John Mayne for his input into grant applications, Gavin McEachran, Richard Bate and Olwen Ross for their leading of sessions. Without all of these people we would not be the success story that we are.
Sub-zero temperatures and snow on the ground made for an interesting start to the evening. On the plus side, the snow on the ramp to the pontoon made it easy to get the boats to the water. Once on the water, paddling warmed us up a bit but no doubt about it was arctic conditions. A fact proved by the ice that formed on the hull of the boat and the buoyancy aid as we progressed downriver. We made it to the wheel and turned to get swept back to Cremorne with the rising tide.
Back to the Centre with the smug satisfaction of beating the elements and off to the Pub for a quick pint.
Last Saturday a hardy few braved the cold and went down towards Portsmouth. It meant meeting at Cremorne at 8 am, loading up the boats and then whizzing off down the A3 to meet up with Richard B and his mates Sprucey and Peter. Richard had done a fine job of planning and had kept us all in the loop beforehand Trip_Eastney_20101127
The good news about this is that traffic is surprisingly good at that hour. No bad news.
Richard, as the man with all the stars, all the experience and all the local knowledge was in charge of us and although we were a little later arriving than planned, he and his salty sea dog mates were waiting patiently. We only had to ring once for directions, I think that was because we had been given our location in some kind of incomprehensible degrees and minutes thing instead of with a nice handy TomTom friendly postcode.
The trip looked like this on paper:
and for those of you with an interest in and feeling for tabular data of weather conditions it felt like this:
In English, what this meant was that it was cold and windy. Windchill was an issue and for the first hour (until they stopped feeling anything) I was wondering if my whole trip would be defined by the pain in my hands. Note for self – sailing gloves are good for grip and better than nothing but are not all that great for warmth.
Warning – more technical detail below…thanks Richard B. Never before have I known so much about a paddle!
Average speed 2.5knots: good for the conditions – wind or tide against us in each direction.
Time 3.2hrs excluding stops
The wind direction was NE (045º) all day and was F4 (15Kts), and blew hardest just after lunch at 1:30pm – F5/20knots. Not normally a big deal but when it never got above 1.5ºc; so was really biting as our face sun/wind burn testifys. “Actually pretty exceptional paddling temperatures in case you think this is a typical experience” quoth Richard.
On the less technical side, we went off to a point where there was no water as the tide was not in, we saw a seal, we pretty much ran aground in the shallow water, we caught a few waves, and we got to look at a ruined Mulberry Harbour which had been built for the D Day landings but never made it. Very interesting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour
The siren song of the lunch time pub visit was ignored, and while T and Richard and Fiona stopped for lunch, Andy, Geoff and Salty Peter nosed out into the Solent. Nice and lumpy conditions, just enough to make you feel alive! There’s a proper overfall just at the entrance where the tide rushes in over a pipe and it’s real white water. Marvellous.
Coming back we had the tide with us but the wind had picked up against us so it was something of a slog, but at least there was plenty of water to float the boats and no danger of running aground. For the final couple of hundred metres we had tide against us too; as we were paddling off the west side of an island there is a point where the tide floods in from the north having come all around from the east side.
Made it however and we got a picture soon after landing which was kindly taken by Salty Peter.
Then we were spoilt for choice with two nice pubs right beside us: real ale, open fires, the works. Only for the painful necessity of driving back we might have stayed for the evening, but as it was we had the one for the road and then left.
Thanks to all – especially Richard and Peter. Well done Geoff for starting the ball rolling, and to Fiona and T for braving the cold conditions.
Simon Willis is a British journalist who has been doing Podcasting interviews with Sea Kayakers about expeditions, favourite routes and issues of interest at SeaKayakRoutes.com andSeaKayakPodcasts.com since 2006.
He popped down for a paddle with Cremorne Riverside recently – check out his blog at:
The December 2010 edition of Canoe and Kayak Magazine is just out and CKC is this months Club Scene feature.
The feature gives a great overview of what the Club is about and includes a view from the Chair (Andy), a good selection of photos, and quotes from a few current members and Harry Whelan (the manager of Cremorne Riverside).
An unusual paddle last night, for many reasons. For a start, we had only 4 people for the later paddle, with slightly more than that showing up for the early one. Great that Geoff’s idea is working well. Mind you, already you can see the rivalry emerging between the early ones (yeah We’re definitely Chelsea A, quoth an unnamed member with a shock of curly blond hair) and the original timers. Good to see that the Minimal Group Paradigm is alive and well. Google it.
But I digress. I am a great believer in making CKC good neighbours – so we take part in the Cardboard Canoe Race at Cremorne, we instigate an outreach programme to our neighbours in Worlds End, we work hard to remain friends with other canoeing and kayaking clubs in London.
Last night we made another outreach gesture, of a different sort. Having paddled against the end of the ebb up as far as the Barn Elms Boathouse, avoided the rowers and turned back downriver, Kate spoke again of her friends at Hurlingham Yacht Club. Well, I’d heard that song before, so there was no escape this time. “Lead on” I cried. “But we haven’t any money” she replied. “Not to worry – let’s make a courtesy call“… and so we found ourselves beaching our boats and walking up the steps to say hello.
Hurlingham Yacht Club has been around since 1924, and is one of the most, if not the most, unpretentious yacht clubs I have ever seen. Proud of its tradition, but not bound by it, a bunch of mostly older men were playing pool and having a few pints. They welcomed us warmly, so warmly in fact, that we decided to stay for one. Phil was summoned from his pondering and Kate borrowed £20 from her mate Alex. And pints were had by all, at the pleasing rate of £2.50 each.
We’d have stayed for more (apparently the club only really gets going after 10) but the flood tide was now building against us so we left it at one and promised to return.
The Isles of Scilly have been on my “must do” list for ages so when Miranda suggested a Club trip / reccie out there it was something that could not be turned down. After all this was just the sort of trip the Club was set up to do!
It was a very small group from CKC – five – who headed out by different modes – road, rail, sea and air. All slightly concerned about the absolutely rubbish weather forecast for the weekend!
Geoff, Miranda, Debs and Toons opted for a hellishly early start and drove down to Lands End from London (or in Geoff’s case Scotland!) and then a short hop by plane to St Mary’s and arrived on the Thursday afternoon. True to form, I went with the low carbon option and took the sleeper to Penzance on Thursday night and the Scillonian III ferry on Friday morning. I also had the benefit of having no luggage restrictions so I got to take all my paddling gear (!).
Friday
The seas were damn rough on the way over and taking Rob Davis’ (from Seapoint Canoe Centre) tip I headed as low as I could go and grabbed one of the bunks and went to sleep – after all the ferry is not nicknamed the “vomit comet” by the locals for nothing!
I arrived into Hugh Town dock (St Mary’s) feeling pretty good – all things considered – on Friday lunchtime. I thought the others may already be on the water but no – the weather was just too bad in the morning and had opted for shopping instead (albeit Toons just stayed in bed apparently). Trudging through the wet streets of Hugh Town I grabbed a taxi to the cottage in Porthlow and I was told we were all heading out in less than an hour to venture on to the sea. Chris from KayakScilly (where we were hiring the boats from) had briefed the others the day before about the tides, tidal streams and weather and was optimistic that the weather would clear in the afternoon – we were less than sure (as it turned out we should have had more faith).
We headed over to where the boats were kept with the rough plan of heading out into St Mary’s Pool and northwards along its coast (nothing too adventurous). A quick chat was had with Murray, we grabbed the boats (a mix of P&H Capella’s, Wilderness Systems Sealution’s and a Dagger Atlantis) and we were off. The going was tough against the north-westerly wind that was coming straight at us with some pretty big swell as well. However, as we headed further out away from the coast onto “The Road” the wind pretty much instantly died and the sun started to shine through the clouds with more and more blue sky appearing. An instant decision was made and we headed straight for Tresco. As we approached the island inquisitive seals suddenly appeared in front of us – this was to become a common sight over the next few days. Geoff, Toons and I pulled up onto the beach between Crab’s Ledge and Green Island to have a bit of a wander. Meanwhile the girls decided to get the fishing line out and bob about a bit.
We turned westwards along the southern coast of Tresco and paddled over to Samson to have a look at what the Atlantic swell was up to. Geoff decided to jump onto Samson’s sandy beach and claim it as his own! We then made our way back southwards before heading back to St Mary’s. We all got changed and headed into town for food at the Mermaid Inn.
Total estimated distance paddled: 9.4 km or 5.2 nautical miles.
Saturday
We had a plan to be on the water by 10am – hmmm – I see Debs and Geoff have perhaps not been on many trips with the rest of us before! However, amazingly we were on the water by 10.30am – got to be a record? Chris had phoned in with an updated forecast in the morning and we had an outline plan of heading across to Tresco, up between Bryher and Tresco and poking our noses out to see what the Atlantic was doing and whether to go around the tip of Tresco and back down its east coast. We had a southerly wind with us for the open crossing – at Tresco, Toons had a quick pit stop to adjust his footrests and we continued northwards. The sights and landscapes on either side of us were amazing as we approached Hangman Island (the locals had even put a mock gallows with a skeleton hanging from it…) and Cromwell’s castle on the northwest point of Tresco. We poked our noses out into some pretty big swell and after a quick chat decided we’d have to venture out quite a way to avoid the breaking swell and clapotic waves that were occurring a modest distance from the shore. So we turned back and pulled up on Bryher’s beach and had lunch and coffee at Fraggle Rock Cafe (!).
Back on the water we headed southwards along Bryher’s coast and decided to semi-circumnavigate Samson, picking our lines carefully along its west coast to avoid being beaten broadside onto rocks by the breaking swell and surf. A few seals hailed their hellos as we paddled through. Toons taking the lead decided to go for a wave which nearly ended in tears with him being flipped and having to resort to a punt off the bottom (or Italian as we call it) to get himself up (but hey whatever works I guess).
After a bit of a session practising in some surf on the southerly tip of Samson we pulled up on its sandy beach to explore it a bit. Samson is the largest uninhabited island in Scilly and comprises two hills which are connected by an isthmus on which its former inhabitants built cottages – the remains of which can still be seen (it was depopulated in 1855). We headed up North Hill to take in the views across to Bryher, Tresco and St Mary’s and could even see across to the Bishop’s Rock Lighthouse beyond St Agnes.
We then headed back across to St Mary’s with very little wind and glorious sunshine. Most of the group practised their rolls and rescues before heading in to get changed and eat in the Mermaid Inn again (as it turned out everywhere else had stopped serving at a stupidly early time!).
Total estimated distance paddled: 17.3 km or 9.6 nautical miles.
Sunday
Sunday was supposed to be a complete wipe out with severe weather predicted. However, when we woke up things could not be further from the truth – it was an amazing day. The plan was to head across “The Road” and along the east coast of Tresco. There was very little wind and the seas were pretty smooth going as we paddled across with some amazing views across to the Eastern Isles in the sunshine.
We took our time paddling along Tresco’s sandy east coast, past Old Grimsby and its Blockhouse and landed on Northwethel to look across to Men-a-vaur (Murray had said it was possible to time the swell and shoot between its rocks). It looked seriously choppy out there with crashing waves going through it every 4 to 5 seconds or so. After a quick bite to eat as a group we headed out to Men-a-vaur to get a bit closer, picking our route carefully past the various rocks and surf zones along the way. Paddling through some pretty big swell it was clear that it was not going to be possible to shoot through, not without significant risk of injury. As we turned around to head back to head towards St Helens – I caught a glimpse of a fin, we all turned to look and saw a dolphin jump literally metres from our boats (amazing!). Unfortunately no time for photos as the swell was so big we did not want to hang around.
I pulled up on to St Helens to look at the remains of its ‘Pest House’ (a quarantine station) – in the 1760s an Act of Parliament decreed that any ship approaching the British isles via Scilly would have to abandon any of its passengers or crew who showed signs of any contagion in the stone quarantine station on St Helen’s until they either died or recovered (most did not recover).
The group headed off towards Tean and Tean Sound – Geoff and Toons opting for a route which took them between Pednbrose and Tean whereas the rest of us paddled around the north of Pedbrose. Reunited we headed towards Lower Town on St Martin’s to grab a coffee and cake. Luckily we came across a local couple in a tandem sea kayak who informed us that the cafe was shut but to go further on and pull in at Old Quay in Higher Town, head up the road and Polreath Cafe should be open – and indeed it was (no substitute for local knowledge!). Cream teas and cake were had by all.
We headed back across “The Road” past the Eastern Isles to the northerly tip of St Mary’s and back along its coast to Hugh Town. We pulled up the boats, rinsed the kit and head back to the cottage to chill out and cook up all food we’d bought.
Total estimated distance paddled: 18.7 km or 10.4 nautical miles.
Monday
No paddling was to be had on Monday as we had to pack up to go our various ways back to the mainland – which was a shame because the weather was probably even better than the previous few days.
All in all an amazing trip and with the weather forecast against us from the start we were damn lucky. The weather got progressively better each day we were there. I guess the Isles of Scillydoes not mean the “Sun Isles” for nothing! Many thanks to Miranda for organising!
Getting to Scilly is the hardest part! Once there it is a truly unique environment and has something for all sea kayakers – stunning landscapes, seas to cater for all abilities, diverse wildlife, limited traffic on the water and not many people around to bother you. CKC will be heading back there in the future that’s for sure – the only thing is do we opt to paddle there from the mainland next time?
