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Dartmouth trip – 28th June – 1 July 2018
CKC returned to Dartmouth at the end of June & had two fabulous days of paddling. Tim, Richard H, Philippe, Phillipa, Fiona & visiting Danish paddler Jakob arrived Thurs eve at Sea View Campsite Devon. Jakob has kindly helped host CKC trips to Denmark in previous years. This year the campsite had left part of the campsite grass un-cut to enable birds to nest. So we were treated to the song of larks hovering above us.
Friday 29 June – Phil, a local Dartmouth paddler accompanied us. First we took Jakob past Dartmouth’s mermaid statue, before heading out to sea. We then paddled out to Mew Stone rocks, where seals were lounging on rocks, or following us curiously as we paddled through the rocks. We returned to the estuary, stopped for lunch on the east side; before crossing the channel and paddling to Blackpool (Devon!) beach with the flow. We persevered up the shingle beach up to the café, spurred on by tales of how delicious the ice cream was! At the café we found ourselves – dressed in wetsuit shorts, helmet (forgotten to take off) – mingling with wedding guests who were looking stunning (despite perspiring) – it felt quite incongruous. We managed a tiny bit of frisbee on the shingle beach – but struggled with the gradient of the beach! On our return paddle we rock-hopped back & found the passage behind some very tall rocks, which enabled us to take short-cut back into Dartmouth.
Saturday 30 June – we headed across the upper Dartmouth ferry, to Brixham, with David, a local paddler to do a one way paddle. We launched from the small beach east of Brixham’s breakwater. The paddle from Brixham out & round Berry head was lumpy, and then the sea state reduced for the rest of our paddle. We paddled underneath the largest guillemot colony on the south coast on the north side of Sharkham point. It was fabulous to watch the striking white & black guillemots come & go.
Despite the mixed gender of our group we landed (avoiding surfers & swimmers) and had lunch at Man Sands! Before Mew Stone rocks we split into two groups. Richard & Philippe returned to Dartmouth, so that they could get back to Philippe’s van before the carpark ticket in Brixham ran out. The rest of the group had a leisurely visit to see the seals at Mew Stone and paddle into Dartmouth. Thanks are due to David’s wife and Richard & Philippe for doing the drop off/car shuttle to enable the one-way paddle. In the evening we headed to Start Bay Inn to sample some of its delicious sea food.
Sunday morning we woke up to the sound of rain on the tents. Lightening could be seen out to sea, slowing heading inland. Since had had two warm & sunny paddling days, we abandoned plans to do a half day paddle on Sunday, which would have been in solid rain, to preserve memories of our lovely sunny-paddling days!
Thanks to Tim, Phil & David from Dartmouth for their welcome, enabling us to use a couple of DYC kayaks and good company on the water.
CKC club trip to Poole Harbour organised by Liza.
An over-riding feature of the weekend was a steady Force 4 wind from SW sometimes gusting to F5/F6. So we had stretching paddles within the harbour! On Saturday Izzy, Liza, Lorna, Janice, Paul, Jacqui, Richard H, Richard M, Fiona, Geors paddled and explored the Southern coastline along to Round island, and back.
Sunday we did a clockwise circumnavigation around Brownsea island. On both afternoons we took the opportunity to practice some skills in the sheltered water near Goathorn.
Huge thanks to Liza for organising a great weekend & making us feel so welcome.
Thanks to Tim, Richard, Philippa, Philippe & John for a lovely paddle down to Hampton Court in sunny weather. We clocked 22 miles for BC’s Go Canoeing week. Ice creams with dubious coloured sauces were consumed! We got to go over the Teddington rollers, and past many goslings & ducklings. Mad kayakers and Englishman go out in the mid-day sun, equals fun!
Paddling the Thames is always interesting during the year.
Photo from a happy February paddle with Richard, Philippa, Geors, Janice & Fiona.
Now looking forward to warmth and longer hours of daylight! Do join Sat 26 May paddle to Hampton Court – celebrating GoCanoeing week.
CKC AGM
Thurs 22 Feb 2018 7pm onwards
Upstairs at The Nell of Drury pub, Catherine St, WC2B 5JS.
AGENDA
- Apologies for Absence
- Matters arising from the previous years minutes
- Chairpersons Report / Summary of the year
- Reports from Committee Members
- Presentation of CKC Accounts & appointment of auditor
- Review of the Club Membership fee (See below)
- Motions for consideration by the Members (See below)
- Change to AGM date
- Removal of references to Cremorne Centre
- Election of new Committee Members
- Any Other Business
After the formal close of the AGM the plan is for members to discuss trips that they would like to do and organise for the club.
Agenda item 6 – Review of Club membership fee
See https://www.chelseakayakclub.co.uk/membership/
CKC Membership Levels
Basic Fees (for CKC members who don’t need to borrow CKC kit) remain £35 / £37+
The Motion the AGM needs to vote on is for:
Full Fees change from being £85 / £87+ to £95/ £97+ when paid between 1st April to 31st August.
- An early-bird discount of £5 applies if full-fee member joins before 1stApril (so the fees are £90/£92+)
- The Late-comer full fee membership starts on 31stAugust when the fees for the remainder of the membership year are: £60/£65+
- + indicates a £2 charge for non-BCU members.
Agenda item 7 Change to the constitution
VOTE 1A & 1B) To change the AGM date – clause 12 in the Constitution:
12.1 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING & EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING
- The Annual General Meeting (AGM) shall be held in the winter October or November of each year.
- There shall be laid before the meeting a statement of accounts made up to the 31st day of the month of January immediately preceding.
VOTE 2) to remove references to Cremorne Centre – clause 11 in the Constitution
11 PROPERTY
- Boats and equipment owned by Cremorne Riverside Centre (“the Centre”) may be used during weekly Club Sessions but may not be used for other purposes without specific permission obtained from the Club Committee via the Centre
11.2 1 Damage to Centre or Club boats and equipment must be reported immediately to the Kit Officer.
The numbering in section 11.
11.6 5 Club Members will be liable for any damage or loss to Centre or Club boats and equipment which the Club Committee considers has been caused by negligence on the part of the user.
We have organised a great opportunity to listen to a incredible international paddler, Freya Hoffmeister… an amazing Woman – on Mon 5th Feb evening, short walk from Turnham Green tube station.
Freya’s London talk about the 1st Kayak Circumnavigation of South America…. an Amazing 27,000Km!!! will be the 1st event of her UK & Ireland Talking Tour.
It will be a great evening, that will not only interest Sea Kayakers but anyone wanting to hear about expeditions, adventures and the outdoors!
Please Share with anyone/clubs you think will be interested:
https://www.facebook.com/events/856802564504249/?notif_t=plan_user_joined¬if_id=1515451851553127
The Eventbrite Link for Tickets is:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/think-bigger-the-first-circumnavigation-of-south-america-tickets-41972256148
Freya Hoffmeister has circumnavigated Iceland, New Zealand South, Ireland, Australia and South America.
She is now on her way around North America, and is happy to share her exciting paddle stories around her second continent, lovingly titled the “Southern Island” – South America!
This circumnavigation was a huge undertaking, roughly 27000 km, with Freya averaging around 45km per day on the water over the 44 months of the expedition. Visit http://freyahoffmeister.com/events/ for a flavour!
Freya has been awarded the “World Paddle Award”, became the “European Adventurer of the Year! and the “National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year”.
The evenings presentation will start @ 7pm and is spread over three hours and shall include a thirty minute refreshment break, Q&A session and a book signing at the end for those who may wish to read more about her adventures.
Please come early and take the opportunity to enjoy the tasty food and refreshments that are on offer in this lovely Fullers Pub. http://www.georgeiv.co.uk/ Many thanks to George IV and Fullers Brewery for supporting this event.
Please purchase your tickets through Eventbrite here – to secure your place and enable us to set up the room appropriately https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/think-bigger-the-first-circumnavigation-of-south-america-tickets-41972256148
Please spread the word for what will be a great & unique evening =:)
Thirteen CKCers had an excellent long weekend on the 14/15/16/17 July at Dartmouth.
The trip was significantly helped by members of the Dartmouth canoe club, (more properly the Yacht club as they are a section of that). So we were able to paddle from their base.
We were all camping, most of us at a site near Slapton sands, a shortish drive away. Two members of the DYC Timothy and Jonathan came out to the camp on the Friday evening to introduce themselves, and suggest a plan for the weekend, based on weather and tides. To save those gradually arriving from long journey from London from starving Tim from CKC got us take aways from Tor Cross pub. =:)
Saturday 15 July: Drove in convoy to the base, which turned out to be an outdoor boat park in Dartmouth, that had all the necessary amenities, toilets, water tap, and a nearby cafe, and all just over the road from the slipway.
Janice christened her new boat, and she had even brought champagne for us all to celebrate. =:)
Jonathan from DYC led us down to the mouth of the river treating us en-route to his extensive knowledge of local history, we then turned right(west)and then onto the sea proper. We continued paddling enjoying some quite good swell until we reached a shingle beach called Blackpool sands. We landed there and spent an indeterminate amount of time having lunch, chilling, some swimming, climbing the rocks, going to the cafe and talking to the RNLI volunteers.
Then paddling back, crossing the mouth of the river and going up the east bank (Kingswear), past all the yacht mariners and back over the river to the slipway.
We then went directly to the pub in Tor Cross, and all ate well!
Sunday – we reconvened at the boat park, and this time headed out of the estuary in 2 groups and then turned east. The timing of our paddle coincided with the tidal range that enabled exploring a cave & going through a tunnel. One group did extensive rock hopping along almost any rock they could find, and the other group going more leisurely enjoying photographing seals and birds which were on the rocky outcrops.
Sunday – we managed to play some frisbee, as well as return to what had became our favourite pub!
Monday – we reconvened as a smaller group at the boat park and this time headed up the estuary. Wonderfully we passed the train line just as the steam train was going past. We paddled past Agatha Christie’s Greenway property which has a boat landing and up to Stoke Gabriel. Philippa tried out her plastic-cardboard folding kayak. Over lunch some of us tried out her kayak, others practised some skills in warm sunshine. Philippa’s kayak is significantly slower than the other sea kayaks & we enjoyed seeing if we could enable her to kayak with slightly less effort by riding on the wake of an advance & 2 side boats by putting her as the fourth boat at the back of a diamond formation. We landed mid afternoon in time to drive back to London & hopefully miss the worst of the rush hour.
Thanks are due to Dartmouth club members for their kind welcome as well as practical advice and support.
Thanks to Richard Hilson for contributing to this blog.
Easter Saturday 15 April 2017 – Alex, Liza, Philippe and Fiona met just east of the Wish Tower in Eastbourne to go around Beachy Head to Cuckmere Haven, then Newhaven and then up through River Ouse to Barcombe Mills– as part of the London to Lands’ End paddling project!
Alex & Liza had already dropped cars off at Barcombe mills which is where we intended to land on Sunday. We had been watching the winds in the run up to Saturday, with the Met Office issuing strong wind warnings for the area but a forecast 24hr window of winds F3-4 gave us our opportunity. However, the possibility of a force 5 or more remained! We could expect a swell of 2-4ft from SW forecast for the 2 days. High tide at Eastbourne and Newhaven was ~3pm.
After photos of us with L2LE mascot Skeg we set off bang on schedule at 2pm.
(Alex handled very sensitively super keen interest of a tourist who wanted come with us just as we were launching!) We were aiming to get to Beachy Head, just as the flow from the east started. Protected from the wind by the cliffs, the sea was calm up to Beachy Head. At Beachy Head there are prominent ledges marked with “overfalls” on charts. This can result in the sea being a bit choppy, especially when there is wind against a fast tide flowing through a constrained space. So the trip timings were planned around when it was most suitable to go past Beachy Head.
When we got to Beachy Head we had spectacular white soaring cliffs above us, and some lumpy water ahead of us, with breaking waves further out to sea. First was Head Ledge, which had the “lumpiest” water and we paddled together as a close group. We then got used to the choppy water with Liza and I paddling steadily. Our group photographers captured the stunning views and then would catch up us.
This gave Liza and I the opportunity to circumnavigate anti-clockwise the lighthouse at the bottom of Beachy Head. It was noticeably more unnerving having swell and wind behind us going round the lighthouse than when going into the wind.
We then carried on to Cuckmere Haven paddling underneath the brilliant white of the Seven Sisters cliffs, with sea birds and walkers spotted above us! On the way to Cuckmere we heard over the radio the inshore forecast from the coast guard, which included a possible F6 “later” on Sunday.
At Cuckmere we landed ~ 5.15pm on the beach where there were many tourists, majority from the Far East. (We are not quite sure how this spot got onto their tourist itinerary!) We had paddled 7 nautical miles. We had a discussion about whether we would have a snack and then push on for Newhaven that night because of the stronger winds forecast, or stick with the original plan to camp at Cuckmere and then continue to Newhaven on Sunday. With a more detailed forecast, which didn’t anticipate the wind picking up until the following afternoon, we decided to camp as we were tired and Cuckmere was probably a much nicer camping spot. However, we planned to leave earlier on the Sunday morning, to make better use of the tides and reach the shelter of the Newhaven harbour wall and the River Ouse,before the stronger winds arrived.
Saturday evening was magical. The tourists left leaving us alone on the beach. A small amount of driftwood was found to make a fire which was lovely and warming.
Before bed, we walked to the top of the first of the Seven Sisters, where we could see the twinkling lights of Brighton in the distance, below a star filled sky. We camped at the top of the shingle with lovely views from tents out to sea. However the down-side of this was that 3 out of 4 of us didn’t sleep as much as we might have done because the roar of a wave sweeping across a long pebble beach is very noisy! 2 out of the 4 of us were cold in the night – a reminder that it is still April!
Sunday morning initially the wind was calm but we could feel the wind slowly building. We left 9.50am our lovely camping spot fortified with breakfast and hot drinks. Paddling against a head wind from the west we made steady progress. We passed under South Hill, where there might have been some choppy water over the ledge there. After Seaford cliffs our speed dropped a bit as we came into the bay,the tide having turned against us. We had a go at guessing distances from Seaford cliffs to Newhaven. We were able to see the light at the end of Newhaven’s westerly pier and so assumed that Newhaven wasn’t far away but in fact it was still ~3NM (~6km) away! The wind was F3 perhaps and building as we paddled to Newhaven. Alex and I had some practice at towing initially in a “V” arrangement which is very sociable if you both have 15m towlines, and then in an in-line tow. As we saw the ferry to Dieppe reversing out of Newhaven harbour we came out of the towing arrangement in case there was some wake. The harbour office had warned the ferry that the wind was now F5 with gusts of F6 on the end of the Western harbour wall, so we had made the right call to start the day paddling earlier. We landed on the beach to the east of Newhaven’s Eastern harbour wall at ~11.30am. It was lovely to be in the sun & out of the wind. We had more hot drinks and snacks, or for some lunch #1. Alex’s speedy cooker warmed up some milk for our teas & coffees – luxury!
The inbound tide up the River Ouse started at 12.30pm. At ~1pm we paddled through the concrete lattice structure which makes up Newhaven’s Eastern harbour wall, after Alex got the OK from Newhaven harbour control that there were no commercial traffic in the harbour. The harbour is a working harbour where there is the most amazing pile of scrap metal made up of compressed cars.
After the scrap metal pile on the east came a very new looking incinerator, and then there were fields. At 1.30pm we got to Piddinghoe where we had lunch #1 or #2 for others. I was grateful to 2 friends for dropping off a bottle of fresh water because I was almost out of clean water. (I’d unwisely used some to rinse pans the night before!)
We then got back on the river at ~2pm. We knew we had an inbound tide at Lewis until ~4pm but were not sure how long we would have the tide after Lewes. So we needed to paddle swiftly, otherwise we might be fighting an out-flowing tide later on. We could very much feel the wind from the West in the wider, exposed parts of the river, and so we needed to use our skegs. Now the inbound tide was now much stronger. Alex mentioned that we were doing 5knots and we’d just past a speed limit sign of 5.5knots! The jet ski and motor boat (I assume) hadn’t seen the speed limit, whilst the lone kayaker going (downstream) against the flow was very much inceeding the speed limit!
We reached Lewes very quickly ~3pm after views of chalk rolling hills, fields, walkers on the river bank, cattle and sheep with lambs. Lewis doesn’t provide welcoming public landing spots. In fact the public landing spot just SW of the road bridge has some steps where access is hampered by an overgrown bush. We did have an option of attempting to get out at grassy river bank just north east of the town. What we did instead was to have a rest rafting up to have snacks and water, whilst gloriously continuing to be taken upstream by the tide!
After Lewes we saw fewer people, and we took a left hand “short cut” down a narrower channel. From now on we were out of the wind. This was a perfect channel for kayakers – it is easily wide enough for 1 kayaker and we zoomed along dodging the odd tree branch in the water. When we re-joined the main channel we noticed there was a small weir as the main channel dropped down in height ~0.5ft which perhaps explained why our channel was flowing faster than the main channel. The river proceeded to get narrower, and there were lovely reeds on the banks, and we saw more ducks and swans.
At Barcombe Mills we were not sure were to get out. At the mill area we could see there were kayakers above us –but 3 weirs were separating us from them! It was fun to explore up ever narrower channels possible get-outs – but these were steep, muddy and/or overgrown. We decided to get out under the road bridge which had steps to provide access to the river. This meant a very steep carry up the steps and for the fibre glass boats, carefully pulling them out of the river avoiding the sheet pile wall.
In total we had paddled 22 Nautical miles over the two days averaging ~2.9knots. See tracker below
Many thanks to Alex for planning and leading this lovely trip.
L2LE-10 eastbourne 2 barcombe mills GPS track
Sat 16/17 August weekend saw the continuation of the paddle from London to Lands End. Alex, Liza and Fiona met to kayak from Margate towards Dover. After dropping (not literally!) kayaks off at Margate, Alex drove his car to Dover & came back on the train to Margate to enable a 1-way paddle. Over the weekend we had lovely paddling conditions with an off-shore light wind (F2), dappled sunshine and minimal swell.
This was a fabulous trip which included an adventure! We had the opportunity to kayak through chalk arch (several times =:) ) in Kingsgate bay where we got views of a castle, land at Broadstairs for ice cream, before crossing Ramsgate harbour entrance and then heading up the River Stour.
On the way we saw a porpoise, and a Vulcan Bomber flew overhead which was deafening.
As we paddled against the outgoing flow up the Stour we saw perhaps 50 or so seals which had beached themselves on high ground at high tide. As we approached some of them launched themselves down the muddy bank and slid into the water. It was amazing to watch. The same muddy bank which provided the seals with an excellent slide became our challenge [cum-adventure] as we were looking for a place to land and camp overnight. We paddled further & further upstream looking for a place to land where we could haul the kayaks up above the high water line.
Eventually we found a gravelly spot to land and were able to create some steps and a platform from an old disused pallet to put into the mud to create a less-slippy, non-sinking surfaces to walk on & move the kayaks up. Tents were speedily put up & supper eaten by head-torch. Our camping spot had the unusual combination of having a stunning night sky, but with sporadic noise from A road & the wind carried noise from the fairground in Ramsgate! However I was sufficiently tired that no noise would have kept me awake. We also discovered that we had camped in a particularly dewy spot & if we had camped at the top of the bank it was several degrees warmer, and got the same level of road noise.
After a wonderful night’s rest 5.30am came & we were getting up, to benefit from the outgoing flow down the Stour. Which we did! Having launched into the flow we were gently floated downstream & all the corners we had fought to go upstream whizzed by! Yet again we were entertained with the sight of tens of seals launching themselves down the muddy banks, as we again silently passed by, only this time a light aircraft disturbed the peace by passing by low three times – I assume to see the seals too? Further downstream the Stour becomes very shallow and even the channel markers are beached. The great part about this is that you are kayaking at the same eye height as all the birdies who are standing on the exposed sandbanks. We think we saw a pair of spoonbills.
Once out of the river we headed out to sea so that we could pick up the tide to be taken south, (as well as avoid being beached on mudflats). We landed at Deal just before the pier for a hot drink and a rest. The shingle beach was deep and even with no swell we still managed to get a fair amount of water into the cockpits when we landed! During the trip we saw some interesting boats, an RNLI boat presumably doing a routine exercise, a windfarm boat which had interesting bow presumably for landing at the bottom of a turbine, and a boat which delivers local captains who can drive big ships into tricky harbours.
Over the course of the weekend we were highly conscious of the time window which we had for going into Dover harbour & the earlier landing points between the cliffs for the end of the paddle. Although we had ideal calm conditions for going into Dover harbour, we decided on Liza & Fiona landing at Kingsdown rather than paddling into Dover Harbour. We were starting to get tired and although conditions were good, the spring tide was turning against us and we would soon start to feel its effects; not to mention that if we missed the high water window, we could end up paddling against a 4 knot flow as the harbour drains out of the entrance. We also would need to be prepared for bigger conditions, as the north-easterly swell and waves was reflected back from both the harbour wall and the cliffs.
So we agreed Alex who was considerably fitter after recent couple of weeks of paddling in difficult weather conditions in NW Scotland, would continue to Dover and send a text before 3pm to let us know either whether he had landed in Dover Harbour, or turned back to Kingsdown or St Margaret’s. As expected we got a happy text from Alex saying he had landed in Dover Harbour and the backup 3pm call to Dover port authority never needed to be made. With the sun shining, we were finally reunited at the Zetland Arms in Kingsdown, where Alex shared his experience of the last few miles under the famous white cliffs.
Thanks to Alex for organising a lovely weekend paddle along a new & stunning bit of coastline, and to Liza for being good company & bringing delicious snacks!
A grey day was forecast with force 2-3 winds but it turned out to be slightly worse than expected with fog blanketing everything south of Guildford resulting in fairly poor visibility. Liza, Jonathon, Rob and I met at The Inn on the Beach shortly after 9.30 – it was chilly and getting on the water was not particularly appealing! We decided to ‘keep an eye on the conditions’, pay the ridiculous parking fee (£6 per car) and drink tea whilst waiting for Fiona to arrive. The combination of driving a ‘new’ (hire) car with a kayak fixed to it via inflatable roof bars in a gusting wind led to a conservative speed of 50mph but she still reached us by 10am.
Before launching we discussed our varying levels of experience, who could roll/rescue, fitness and injuries etc. Jonathon confessed to hurting his wrist the previous evening loading the boats but thought he’d be OK to paddle. We agreed to attempt a circumnavigation of Hayling Island – going anticlockwise to complete the open sea part early on in the day.
An exciting surf launch was followed by a morning of paddling in poor visibility with smooth/slight sea conditions. We battled into a force 3 head wind but fortunately had the tide with us. Progress was slow for some of us – reflecting injuries and not being ‘paddle-fit’ after several months off the water. The sights were limited to a few gulls, stripy beach huts, shingle beach and a desolate fun-fair until – on the approach to Chichester harbour – we spotted some sinister looking white caps and breaking waves. Our fearless leader went to check the surf and indicated a path of safe passage – we went through one by one – Liza taking the lead and Rob the rear.
The tide turned as we headed up the East coast of the island. We made slow progress and decided to stop for lunch at Hayling Island Sailing Club. We enjoyed a good break watching the sailors in a range of boats – including oppies and toppers. By far the most interesting were the ones that pivoted on a tiny blade and flew along on the surface of the water.
We had a chat after lunch and decided that given our slow progress, Jonathon’s wrist, the risk of a muddy passage at the top of the island and the poor weather our best option would be to go back the way that we had come. Prior to that though, we thought we’d explore a little further up the coast. Upon launching we realised the deceptively fast speed of the current and were immediately carried off in a southerly direction. Turning 180 degrees to go North as intended proved to be a pointless exercise so we quickly abandoned that and were happy being carried back with minimal effort! By this time, the wind had dropped a little and was mostly behind us.
We crossed a small eddy line then snuck through a narrow, shallow channel between the island and the sandbanks created by the receding tide. We popped out by some rocks well away from the booming surf breaking on the sandbars further off shore.
On our return journey we saw a shag and several black headed gulls; Fiona squeezed between the groyne posts and other markers just off-shore and we heard numerous fog horns but saw no ships.
Back safely at our launch site we decided to do some rolling practice and surf landings followed by tea and triple-chocolate-sparkle cake to warm up. Finally, the fog lifted and we were able to see along the coast where we had paddled!
Thanks to Rob for organising and leading the trip.
   
Sally Horton
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