Blow Away the Cobwebs- Club Paddle 28 December

Weather forecast SW5-7 becoming NW 5-7 possibly 8. It didn't look promising for the 'round Hayling paddle', but the sea didn't look too choppy, so we set off along the seafront. In fact, a part from the odd gusts, it remained at 5 all day and even dropped to 3 at convenient moments on our up wind leg. Everyone found some waves to enjoy, here Liz finds a nice piece of chop. Chichester entrance did have the odd large sea, but the tide was just high enough for them not to be breaking too far out. The tide carried us swiftly to Langstone bridge. However, it ended badly for one paddler, his knee buckling sideways under him as he slipped launching the boat from the slippery concrete slipway after lunch. Something we had not practiced in our Monday night sessions, but will do so next year; recovering a floating paddler who has lost the use of one leg on a treacherous surface with no alternative way out. The boat had to be left in storage with the beer kegs as the remainder of the group completed the paddle back to Eastney. The emergency services were initially suspicious; a sea kayaking incident in a pub car park?

Saturday 12 November

Summer sunshine at No4 Bar buoy. Safely across to the small boat channel before a fastcat leaves Portsmouth. The Mont St Michel creeps up behind us in the harbour. The sunshine disappeared later in the afternoon and it was Winter before we reached Eastney again. Finally the evening pool session at Eastney. Come on Club bloggers, get blogging.

Club paddle and barbecue

The bad weather continued for the paddle and barbecue from Tipner, here we are taking a break on Peewit Island, the calm before the storm. The run home was harum-scarum in a F7 squall, the sky black as pitch. Everyone did well to stay upright in what was very stormy weather for Portsmouth Harbour. Surfing, bracing and generally enjoying a wild ride with 1m high rolling waves. At Tipner, waves were crashing up over the footpath as the squall coincided with HW springs. Our just reward. Plus, of course, the well stocked TBAC bar.

Devon Weekend

June?? The Eddystone was clearly out of remit. However, a good time was had by all, although the stormy weather meant abandoning the deep seas and rock hopping in favour of estuary paddling. Thanks Spence.

The Two Towers - a Trilogy Perhaps?

2011 must be the Year of the Tower! So far, PDCC trips have visited two of Britain’s remarkable offshore lighthouse towers:- The Nab Tower, 7.5Nm south of Portsmouth was followed by a circumnavigation of Hayling Island to get home! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nab_Tower and, the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, 6Nm due south of Pevensey Bay in East Sussex. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Sovereign_lighthouse Both have interesting histories and can be very lonely, exposed places in poor weather. Luckily for us we had great conditions but they are still committing paddles. So what’s next? Another tower would make it a trilogy? For those that can make it, Spence is planning the big one, a paddle to the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Lighthouse This is planned for Friday 17th June as part of the Devon Camping & paddling weekend. I’m doing the weekend but sadly, work commitments means I will have to leave the trilogy to some other lucky club members. Two out of three aint bad! Sprucey

The Nab

The Nab The Royal Sovereign The Royal Sovereign

The Royal Sovereign

The Royal Sovereign

The Royal Sovereign

The Eddystone Lighthouse

Tour de Langstone

Last Saturday saw 10 paddlers venture into Langstone Harbour for the first of our new, regular monthly Saturday paddles. It was great to see some newer faces out on the water and, as an all-grades paddle, we had a really nice mix of of experience, old and new. Mike Cox lead us around Sinah Lake, the Hayling Oyster Beds and under the Hayling road bridge into Chichester harbour & Fowley Island for a lunch stop at the end of Beach Road in Emsworth. The return back to Langstone took us through the gap between Long and Baker's Island (plenty of birds but unfortunately no resident seals to be seen), scraping over some shallow lagoons on a falling tide off Farlington Marshes before finally riding the fast ebb back to Eastney. A varied paddle - the distance, the building afternoon cross-wind and some choppy wind over tide waves (in the main Langstone channel) provided some challenges but everyone stayed dry and managed really well.

It was great way to push some personal boundaries in a protected, supported environment. 

Important Club Announcement

The committee have asked me to make an announcement about a major new investment of member’s funds. As a result of both the survey conducted by the BCU and the recent EU “Canoe Raft and Personal” safety directive (CRAP 01/04/2011) the committee have become increasingly concerned about health & safety and how it affects their potential personal liabilities if a major incident were to occur on a club trip. An Extraordinary committee meeting was held earlier in April and it was decided to spend the club reserves on a share in a second-hand helicopter along with UHCC. A suitable rotary wing aircraft has now been found and Mark Spruce attended a flying course @ Culdrose, near Falmouth last week to do a training & conversion course with Sea Flying Cornwall. Our thanks go to club member Paul, a Navy pilot, who also gave up a week of his leave to train him.

Mark "Rock-hopping" while training in Cornwall

The inaugural club flight was a discrete fly past over the round Hayling paddle and I have posted the pictures we managed to snap from the cockpit (Below). There are clearly several ramifications for all members about this new venture. Obviously, in addition to obtaining the BCU 4* leaders qualification, all trip leaders will now be expected to pass their Private Pilots Licence (PPL – Rotary) in the current subscription year. In addition, it will mean a small increase in club subscriptions but the committee have assured me that it will only be in the order of 1000% for the next 100 years so they feel sure that, with such a good value, low cost subscription at present, most members will not notice this very small increase. The helicopter is based at Daedalus airfield, Lee on Solent and members who would like to see it can enter through the north gate on presentation of their membership card. It can be found next to the MCA helicopter at their base and it’s registration number is: G-LAPROLIOF0104. Please do go and look at your new helicopter. We would also encourage all members to keep an eye out for our chopper and give it a big wave when you see it when out on the water.

Sunday 27 March

Twenty two Club members set off from Langstone Bridge to East Head and met two more members there. Twenty four, is this a record? Only part of the flotilla is in the picture.

Eleven of the party went on out of the entrance over lunch and were rewarded with swell "1' and glassy", 10 seconds apart and rearing to head height (seated in the kayak!) in places. Despite being 1/2 mile offshore we could surf the deeper channels catching waves which formed and reformed for miles (at least 50 metres). Ankle deep water nearby facilitated the inevitable boat emptying. Swimmers pronounced the water pleasantly warm, it must be Summer.

Fervent February & Mad March

I thought the blog was a little bare so here a few photos from some recent Sunday club trips to prove that we have actually been very active, even in the dim dying days of winter's end!

The water is starting to warm up a bit now (according to Peter. B anyway!), the days are definitely getting longer and the sun has shown his face on several days recently, so come on everyone, get yourselves out on the club trips. Many of the upcoming trips are shorter and less demanding - a great way to ease those muscles into your 2011 paddling season.
See you on the water soon!

Round Portsmouth & Hayling (RP&H)

"Bet you can get across in front, go on, you can do it, dare you!" (RP&H)

Three icons - one's a famous kayak, one's Portsmouth's tower and the other lives and paddles there! (RP&H)

Er Bill.... the other way! (Hilsea Creek, RP&H)

Second Breakfast or 1st Luncheon? (RP&H)


All set and ready to go (Selsey Bill)


"It's out there, honest. If you had come to my Navigation class, you'd know" (Selsey Bill)


Yep, I can squeeze in to my boat too - just! (Selsey Bill)

Your Treasurer, wondering when YOU are going to pay your subs! (Selsey Bill)

Always good to keep the RNLI close (Selsey Bill)

The Mixon (or R.O.T - the republic of Tim's land as PDCC's own Tim Sims was the first to lay claim - you had to be there!) (Selsey Bill)

The smile says it all. (Selsey Bill)

Comrade Tim, the first ruler of ROT (Selsey Bill)

Joe thought he could cunningly camouflage his kayak with the beacon but his drysuit gave him away! (Selsey Bill)