First came the email, a trip to the Thames Barrier, “great” I thought, “a Sunday, able to park in Lots Road all day, on the river in daylight, a new experience to get into the heart of London (as I have only been as far as the Eye), better reply quickly as there is bound to be a large uptake.”
So came the day, Andy, Geoff and I on a dull and overcast morning met at Cremorne; rain was forecast. After getting the boats out and having the usual kit faff (trying to sort a skeg out) we got on the water at about 10:15.
Through London taking in the architecture, history, riverscapes etc – it was terrific! Although it can all be seen from the bank, being on the water in command of your own boat is quite special.
This was the longest paddle that I have done, and beyond Tower Bridge I was experiencing pain in my right wrist. Geoff very kindly let me use his cranked paddle and the pain was instantly reduced. He let me keep it for the rest of the trip – just as well as I think I would have had major problems if I had tried to carry on with mine.
Anyway, we reached the Barrier, and Geoff, being our comms man, got on to London VTS and they told us which span to come through…. the light signals turned from red crosses to green arrows…. WELL! Architecture, history, riverscapes etc all paled into insignificance as three grown men in kayaks experienced deep joy and satisfaction at this small and insignificant event. So far, the highlight of the trip!
Once through the Barrier we beached the boats and ascended the ladder taking us up beside the visitor centre, which was unfortunately closed until April. So we all shared coffee and chocolate and Andy called London VTS on his mobile. Next minute a chap came out on the balcony and gave us a wave. They were friendly and chatty and Andy thanked them for all their help and assistance both just now and in the past – perhaps we’ll arrange a visit to them in the future?
Then back in the boats and back through the Barrier (once again, the lights changing specially for us) and then a short paddle to our second highlight of the day, the Greenwich Yacht Club. An amazing building, hot lunches and pints, and a couple of old boys happy to chat. With Youngs and Fullers on tap and Ireland v France about to start on the TV we could have been well settled for the afternoon, but time and tide wait for no man and the river called.
It was quite a testing paddle back, at least it was for me! Geoff and Andy tried surfing the wake of the fast Thames Clippers. Getting past the O2 seemed to take a long time – the bend in the river I suppose. We pushed on to Tower Bridge where we stopped on a beach right in front of the Tower of London. Time for another quick coffee and for us to put our lights on, then back to Cremorne.
The expected rain mostly held off; a bit of drizzle hit, but we were safely in the yacht club at the time.
All in all a great day. I will not deny that by the end I was cold and the hot showers at the Centre were worth the membership fee alone! Looking forward to doing the trip again with a bigger group and a nice warm sunny day.
In addition to the circumnavigation of Hayling Island, last weekend the Club also organized a 2 Star Training / Assessment Weekend at Thames Ditton Reach for seven of its members – Paul, Marina, Geoff, Stu, Kate, Rob, and Manda. Coaching was provided by Alan Pearson and Phil. Paul Sardar and Marina de Stacpoole sum up their experiences and thoughts about the weekend.
Paul Sardar said:
“Intensive, fun, exhausting, demanding and rewarding!”
Five words that I would use to describe last weekend’s 2 Star training course. It was the great group of people that were brought together for this course that made it for me. They provided a combination of humour (sometimes off the wall), great teamwork, experience and just a little bit of competition. Not a moment was wasted as we spent two full days intensively learning paddling strokes, rescue techniques and an abundance of knowledge about kayaking and canoeing. We even learnt the difference between a canoe and a kayak!
Marina de Stacpoole said:
A relative novice to kayaking and someone with absolutely no previous canoeing experience, the 2 Star course proved to be an intensive but extremely fun weekend. Arriving for 9am on the Saturday, the weather started off as somewhat grey. Luckily, by the end of the afternoon the sun had emerged so the fear of a drizzly two days was dispelled!
We were split into two groups, with some using kayaks and others in canoes, swapping around at various points. The general purpose kayaks took a bit of getting used to, as I’d only really used sea kayaks before. Essential skills were learnt, culminating in a relay race of two groups at the end of the day. Geoff managed to amuse everyone on the very first morning by managing to capsize his canoe! (ED: we’re all between swims, eh Geoff???)
The cold was helped by gratefully received cups of teas and coffees at various breaks over the two days!
Using the canoes was really enjoyable, especially as it was my first time in them. This was helped with support from canoe savvy Paul who I teamed up with to practice my paddling skills.
All in all a fantastic couple of days. A lot of new skills were covered with not a second going to waste.
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).
