A perfect day off Portsmouth

Once again a good briefing is vital but what is hiding under that hat? Sandwiches? Trip Leader's EPIRB? Rubber Duck to diffuse any potential aggresive contacts bewteen paddlers?

Final adjustments before the "off"

Smiles in the sun all round

On parade at South Parade Pier

A neat tidy line in the sun at lunchtime

A Trax folding boat joined the fleet -adjustable rocker and adjustable sideways bow curve in place of a skeg, all controlled from the cockpit without taking off the spray deck. Jim took it home on the back seat of the car!

A few clouds appeared for the return trip - have a word with the Trip Leader, will you!

The tow line (nicely slack here!) came out to assist some for the return against a strong Langstone ebb tide. Others elected to land at the base of the pier and portage the last 300metres.

A great paddle, thank you Andrew but we still don't know what was under your hat?!

Keyhaven - Cowes 12th February 2012

The coldest of winter days - snow on beach and we had to break the ice to launch the boats!

It was cold, so Andrew decided to wait for the incoming tide rather than get his feet wet!

A good briefing is vitally important for group safety...."Cowes is over there, somewhere"

Andrew set a good Devizes-Westminster training pace to warm us up.

Second breakfast or first lunch?

One of the few remaining public launching slips in West Cowes.

The Sausage's revenge!

The Castle, home of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Not many members out on their yachts today.

The day warmed up and we returned to Keyhaven at 4pm in a balmy 6Degrees C.

A Perfect Winter's Day

A very rare week day off work and perfect weather for a winter's bimble in the lowers reaches of the Bealieu River.

Who said Friday 13th is bad?

Anoraks & Bridges

Here's one for the nerdy "Anoraks" amongst us!

Sunday's paddle was programmed to be Eastney to Portchester around the north of Portsmouth via Portsea Creek. The route would take us alongside the very noisy M27 motorway under three of the bridges connecting Portsea Island to the rest of the UK! The railway bridge to the east and the two bridges under the A3 Hilsea Roundabout to the west.

HW Portsmouth on Sunday 8th Jan was due to be around 1030 (possibly 20-30mins later at the top of the harbour?) As this would be around the time we arrived I thought I'd better cycle over the day before and check the air draught (Clearance) under the bridges.

So here it is:- HW Portsmouth 0948 Height 4.4m Weather: Southern England under a ridge of high pressure approx 1020mb (high pressure depressing tidal height and possibly delaying the time of high water?)

What do you think? Should we go or not?

Railway bridge at the east- HW +20mins. Plenty of clearance under the north span. No real tidal flow.

Eastern Hilsea East Road bridge - HW +30mins. Clearance touch and go sitting upright in a sea kayak? If it was low pressure the water would be higher. As a guide, if the plinth in the low foreground is just covered it's a definite no go (water 25cm higher)

Same as above - close up. Note the west going ebb already starting at the right hand edge pillar.

West Hilsea Road Bridge - HW+ 40mins. Good clearance on this newer and higher bridge. Note the strong west going ebb already producing a big eddy at the right hand edge pillar. (I estimated it to running at 1.5 - 2knots when I went back past the bridge 5mins later!)

What did I do? I changed the club paddle to a much quieter outing (no M27 motorway) in Chichester Harbour! One of my fellow paddlers on Sunday reckoned that a tide height of 4.2m was the highest tide you could get away with - I think he was right.

Sprucey