Happy Christmas!

There's only so much Turkey, Sprout's and Christmas Pudding that a PDCC member can eat before their mind turns back to the Sea; So here's a little something to help you with your withdrawal symptoms - See you on the water!

Mid-Winter Madness

Eastney carpark was not the place to be changing on Sunday morning. Temperature well below freezing, snow and ice on the ground and a bone-biting north-easterly.

However, we had been invited for drinks at the RNLI nearby and the opportunity for a paddle beforehand was too good to miss.

It was a competition as to who could wear the most clothing.

Once on the water we were warm enough and paddled along the Hayling shore and back for a couple of hours. However, the ice on Sherril's boat was still there on the way back and we had problems with frozen skeg cables, the mountain bikers' solution of peeing on frozen cables was judged to be impossible with spray deck, drysuit and many layers in the way. Plus of course, the risk of an unwanted ducking.

The RNLI were serving piping hot cider punch; cider, rum and the RNLI secret spice mix. We were soon back to operating temperature; must have been the spices.

Cloudless Skies

What a contrast to the last post! A cloudless blue sky on Sunday saw us paddling from East Wittering to Church Norton via Selsey Bill. The tide cooperated perfectly with a good easterly push in the morning, reversal over the 1/2 hour lunch break, and a  westerly push back in the afternoon, making the 14nm fly past with barely a need to tickle the water with the paddle. The tide at Selsey Bill set up some wavelets; seeking out a surfable spot, I was surprised at how shallow it was, even a good way out, with seaweed and rocks clearly visible below the keel.

Returning under the lifeboat station.

Nature Paddle - Langstone Harbour 28th November 2010

Twelve Hard Core members (Read; Lunatics) braved the - 3 C wind chill and enjoyed a leisurely rummage around Langstone Harbour on Sunday.

It's amazing what you find when you slow things down a bit.

I know that there are some that are keen on Inuit style paddling, but this is taking it a bit far... That harpoon only just missed Ingrid!

Nearly a white out - anyone remembered their compass?

Don't move too quick - you might break something off!

The wildlife were pretty obliging (no, I'm not referring to the picture above).

There were plenty of sightings, unfortunately the highlight of the day was only witnessed by Liz, Peter and myself; As we sat down to eat our sarnies a magnificent Short Eared Owl took to the air only 30 yards away.

Hide & Seek with a pair of Grey Seal was fun, I don't think this young one had seen a kayak before.. or was it Pete's whistling that made it so inquisitive?

Stop!... (Liz fancied some Oysters for tea).

And it's Bye bye from Pete!

Ships that pass in the night

Good to see some newcomers to the Club out on the water last night, 

alongside familiar faces.

A black black night  last night, luckily the wind at 4kt wasn't inducing much wind chill, or it would have been very cold. One of the joys of paddling a busy place like Portsmouth Harbour is the interest of passing shipping and being only a few yards away from large ships whilst keeping things safe for everyone, crossing deep water channels responsibly and letting QHM know your intentions. 

Here is the Bretagne, 24,500 tonnes, 2000 plus passengers (but only 400 tonight), 130 man crew, creeping up behind 7 kayaks, 0.5 tonnes and 7 passengers and crew. It has engines generating 18,000 kW, how many kW can we manage between us? Its 26m beam almost exactly measures 50 Anas acutas side by side, but it is only 20 times longer, so we are the sleeker craft. 

Watching each other, it passes as we head outbound to No.4 buoy

and continues into the night for France, whilst we cross astern, back towards the shore and a well deserved drink at The Wellington.

Hillhead to Hamble last Friday

Here's a few photo's taken last Friday on my lone paddle from Hillhead to Hamble Village.

As you can see, the conditions were wonderful

I had the pleasure of seeing an amazing variety of wildlife including a Great Northern Diver, a Slavonian Grebe, a flock of Eider and Common Scoter and another seal (though this time it was a Grey).

It was great paddling in the rain

But even better when the sun came out

I wonder when we'll see conditions like this again

The Thursday Paddle: Gilkicker to Cowes

4:30 am!! My alarm clock squared up to me, beeping defiantly as it waited to receive its early morning clout. The next thing I remember is running through the pouring rain at Gilkicker. I decided to chance putting my dry suit on in the loos; surely no one would be about in this weather? But a tall lady came in just as I was squashing a pile of clothes, food, flasks, scattered dry bags and booties against the wall. She pointed at the door and said “out!” very sternly. I glanced around nervously, and was relieved to see, from the patient clouds of breath coming from her unseen dog around the corner, that I was not the one being evicted.

We were Tony, Sheila, Mike and Stuart (not Martin this time) made famous earlier this year by a song about four crazy people paddling to Ryde on a Thursday morning.

There was some discussion about how to deal with shipping; play it by ear or apply the time table? The rain started to ease off and in a fit of optimism we decided on the former and launched into a now mellowing Solent.

We were soon making steady progress towards a huge brown vessel
looming smokily at anchor beside the shipping lane.

Some of its yellow jacketed denizens in a small attending boat assured us that it would depart for Lima “in ten minutes or an hour”, so we honoured tradition by paddling anticlockwise around its rusty hull, taking photos while Mike made us nervous by telling us he was going to shoot the gap between the rudder and the ship.

The sun had come out and the last leg to Cowes was very pleasant. Stuart lead us to a tiny strip of shingle beside a slipway that surprisingly absorbed all our kayaks for the duration of a leisurely lunch.

Our ship, outlined against a big chunk of rainbow, was underway and turning by the time we were back in the shipping lane. Tony advised us that if it picked up speed and headed towards us, we ought to catch a ride on its bow wave.

I stopped thinking of exchanging my sweaty woolly hat with ear flaps for a cap and decided to keep paddling instead. The rainbow kept pace along the seafront, shimmering above GAFIRs’ big orange doors, while two further magnificent arcs, the longest and brightest I have ever seen, soared towards us out of the grey skies over the mainland

The sunlight was failing and a hazy Solent dusk was already gathering behind the Island, sepia tinted and bordered with clouds like an old fashioned photograph with torn edges.

Back at Gilkicker, Ian and Mike practiced rolling enthusiastically. A few onlookers gathered on the shore, possibly hoping to see some lifeboat action. Mike was being driven to extremes by the dreaded rolling gremlins, but did some very impressive re-entry and rolls that would be the envy of most kayakers. I got to practice my bow rescue, and just as we were beginning to think GAFIRS might be about to come down the slipway to drag Mike from the water, he decided to call it a day.

A car of onlookers drove off. We passed around the hot chocolate and reflected on the fickleness of the rolling muse, and what a good day we’d had.