First pics of the new kayaks in action

Photos taken at Calshot on Sunday 24 June 2012

We headed to Calshot to try out the new kayaks in the pool behind the spit. It is reasonably shallow but, importantly, not particularly impacted by the strong wind yesterday afternoon. Our wives and kids came to for moral support and, more importantly, to provide tea and cakes at the appropriate time! And of course gentle encouragement from the sidelines!

Jon practices tipping over but was, so far, unable to roll back. Then he tried a 90 degree turn and flipped over for real, giving him and Stu the opportunity to try a recovery move.

We bumped into Rachel, a member of the New Forest Kayak and Canoe Club, who was practicing some rolls and recovery exercises nearby, and she encouraged us to join the NFKCC. She looked at us like we might be little bit crazy, when we told her what we were planning to do in ten weeks time! Anyway she was very helpful and we may well take her up on the suggestion to go along to an NFKCC session.

The new kayaks were much more stable than I expected, but I couldn't help feeling the slight sense of claustrophobia which led me to take the sit-on option in the first place. I'm sure I'll get over it...!

Charlie

Jon

Charlie watches Jon attempt a roll

Stu with matching boat and paddle - this season's look

Sports Mix -v- Jelly Babies...the verdict

I know, it's the match of the century, an unstoppable force versus an immovable object. But following a challenge from a colleague at work, who I was telling all about our use of Sports Mix as both a sugar injection and a motivating tool on our long paddles, I have agreed to road test Jelly Babies too.

So today we did exactly that. I turned up at Marchwood Co-op at 6.20am in my wet suit and cag, and paid £4 (£4!!!) for two bags of sweets. In a controlled experiment, Jon, Stu and I only ate Jelly Babies on the way out, and then consumed Sports Mix (our usual sweet of choice) on our return.

Although apparently runners are advised to use Jelly Babies for a quick sugar rush, I'm afraid to have to report that we weren't taken with them. They don't last more than 10 seconds (Sports Mix last what seems like a lifetime, and you are gouging small rogue bits from various molars for what feels like hours after the main part of the sweet has long since disappeared and been swallowed). 

Sports Mix is the more satisfying and distinguished sweet, lending itself to fewer re-visits to the bag as a result of its longevity, and are far more flavoured and 100 times chewier.

The only downside of Sports Mix, which is something which does not burden a Jelly Baby, is that because it lasts so long it can become a choking hazard. I don't particularly fancy performing the Heimlich Manouvre on a rough day in Southampton Water, let alone in The English Channel.

But all-in-all we feel that, as far as Jelly Babies are concerned, Sports Mix is the daddy.

17 miles before lunch

In complete contrast to Sunday's poor showing, we all took the day off work so that we could make up the lost training time. And we definitely picked the right day. At 6.30am we arrived at Marchwood Yacht Club slipway just as Oriana was performing a three-point turn in the pool next to Magazine Lane.

Oriana passes the drained creek at Magazine Lane, 6.40 this morning

It was a really nice sunny morning with just a whisper of wind, and we launched into water that was like a millpond. We planned to set off towards Calshot knowing that it would be our longest paddle yet. We were on our sit-ons, because the spray decks from Venture Kayaks haven't yet arrived. It was low tide which meant we couldn't get in at Eling....if we had been able to, the day's kayak would have been more than 20 miles, but the slipway at Eling isn't easily usable at low tide.

Southampton Water was like a millpond this morning

Shades, sunhats and sun lotion on, cags and extra layers stowed away, we set off in the cool but very promising early morning weather with an extra bit of power in our paddles. This was proper kayaking weather, when you are kayaking for pleasure rather than for training. Today was going to be a bit of both, because we didn't plan to rush it but expected the distance to start tiring us out during the last quarter. We also had our eye on a toasted sandwich at Spinnakers Cafe in Calshot Activity Centre, where we expected to arrive at about 9.30.

We paddled along this now very familiar stretch of Southampton Water towards Hythe, passing the Marchwood incinerator (very definitaly a cover for some sort of James Bond villain's lair) and Cracknore Hard, where they seemed to be irrigating the water using the sort of system you see in fields during high summer.

We stopped at Hythe Pier for a Jelly Baby (what no Sports Mix? That's another story...) or two, and then cracked on to Calshot. The stretch between Hythe Pier and the gas ship pier at Fawley is a really long haul. It wasn't particularly hard going, it just takes forever. This is because it's a relatively straight bit of water and so you can see the target from a long way off. A glance at Google Maps shows it to be 3.4 miles, but it never feels like it is getting any closer.

When you finally arrive at the gas pier, the ships there are massive, and getting too close it a little unnerving. Plus any wash from the ferries or boats going up and down the water washes back off the gas ships causing a washing-machine-style effect.

The gas ships along the pier at Fawley are massive

The lifeboat station and lookout tower at the end of Calshot Spit came into view, and we were on the final straight. We paddles around the corner, the tide now causing us a little more hard work, and beached in front of the activity centre only to see that Spinnakers Cafe was closed. A little sunshine disappeared from our day despite the bright and warm conditions.

After a short break we began paddling back at bang-on 10.00, and got back to Marchwood just after 12, having passed a massive container ship, plus a tallship on it's way out into The Solent.

The tallship that passed us. Picture affected by wet lense!

The return journey was odd. We knew we were travelling back on the fastest incoming tide of the day, but that it was only around 1 knot. As our speed is usually around 3-4 knots, this meant we were travelling faster than the tide and therefore still having to work quite hard to cut through the water. Even so, we got back around 30 minutes quicker than the outward journey, despite it not feeling any easier.

And so we got up early and beat our personal best distance, another step towards success in our Channel crossing objective.

We just need to get into the sea kayaks now.

A fathers' day fail!

I did a fair amount of homework for today's early-morning trip to Milford-On-Sea, from where we intended to kayak the 7+ miles around to the headland just south-west of Mudeford. I looked at the tides....no problem; I looked at the weather....sunny and a light wind, so no problem. Except that it didn't turn out that way!

We pulled up at Keyhaven and hauled the kayaks up and over the spit and almost fell back down again in the wind that was coming up off the Channel from the southwest. It had seemed so calm in the shade of the high spit down on the road. Yes, it sounded a bit windy but we thought it would be fine.

It was 7am and we were sat on the beach looking at the waves, The English Channel and The Needles in the distance. The 6ft plus waves were coming onto a steep beach and it looked a bit hairy. Offshore it was very choppy. We noticed that every so often there was a massive wave preceeded by a fast sucking-out of the water off the beach, which was reminicent of what they say happens when there is about to be a tsunami!

The light wind was a force 3-4 at least. Stu decided to go for it, and so Jon and I volunteered to watch in case someone needed to call the emergency services at short notice. Stu waited for a huge wave to come in, break over the top of him and then paddled like fury out and clearer the next one, which was a little smaller, and off out to sea. He disappeared and then re-appeared as the waves rolled him about and it looked like a stuggle to stay upright. After 10 minutes or so, Jon and I were still sat on the beach wondering whether to go for it, and Stu was loitering offshore knowing that getting back onto the beach was going to be a challenge.

Suddely Stu decided enough was enough, and came back in. Usually you basically paddle as fast as possible to ensure you land as far up the beach as possible when you come in. This is exactly what Stu did, but a wave rolled up and under him as he approached the shore and then was dumped nose first with the back of his kayak 45 degrees higher than the front. Stu rolled off the front of his kayak and landed on the beach, his boat landing almost on top of him in the process and his sunglasses disappearing without trace.

Jon and I looked on as he picked himself up, recovered his kayak and wandered towards us. We decided to try it from the other side of some rocks, thinking it might be a little less violent. Stu was very game today and clearly the Sports Mix he had before we started had given him more than a sugar rush. He succesfully launched at the second attempt and Jon did too. I failed miserably and after four failed attempts decided to stop on the beach and watch the other two. Our 15m kayak was not going to happen today.

They came back in quickly and we decided to have one more go. Jon and Stu got off the beach quickly this time, finding a good gap in the waves to get offshore. I confidently waded in, sat on my kayak and let a small wave break over me and then paddled quickly out. Suddenly I found myself back on the stones. It was one of those horrible pre-tsunami moments and the water beneath me had suddenly retreated out to sea. The 6ft wave yawned and grew in front of me. I felt totally calm in expectation of impending doom, as I wondered what would happen next. The wave rumbled up underneath me and lifted the front of my kayak up, rolled me off and I took in a big mouthful of manky seawater. I held back my kayak which rolled towards me heavily, and the weight of it stopped me getting up. I waited for the next wave to come over me, but instead managed to get up and onto the beach, dragging my kayak behind me. I wanted a swig of water but my bottle was gone!

I looked out to sea and Stu/Jon were paddling about, rising and falling in the swell. I think I got away with it without being spotted!

I decided enough was enough. I lay on the beach in the early morning sun (it was still not even 8am)and had a snooze.

Jon/Stu came back after 10-15 mins and we called it a day, but when we got back towards the car we decided to paddle about in Keyhaven Reserve. We headed for Hurst Castle where we beached and had a look around. It was so calm in the reserve that it was hard to believe that, just the other side of the spit, the water was in chaos. We strolled around to the seaward side of the castle to take a look at the water between the Isle of Wight and Hurst Point, which looked very choppy to say the least. This narrow channel acts like a funnel between The English Channel and The Solent.

We headed back home and, given it was Fathers' Day and we were finishing much earlier than planned, we headed into Milford and had a very nice full English breakfast at a very nice cafe.

With the sea kayaks turning up last week (but not the spray decks) we will have to get out on some seriously long paddles to get used to the new boats and get some miles under our belt. The hard work starts now, but we'll certainly pay more attention to the wind speed forecast from now on.

The really good news? I checked back on the seaward side of the spit, and found my water bottle. A small victory for the day!

Our kayaks arrive...and some thank-yous

Last week our cross-channel sea kayaks arrived at my house, delivered by the amazing Southampton Freight Services from the equally amazing Venture Kayaks. Both these companies have really helped us with our aim to cross the channel in aid of Action Duchenne and without them we would have been kayaking in our sit-on-tops, which would not have been either easy or quick!

P&H is also giving us some spray decks for the crossing. Expedition Kayaks in Lymington sold us a new paddle each at a significant discount, whilst Liquid Logistics in Bucklers Hard gave us a free coaching session each.

All of these companies have added real value to our efforts to raise money for a charity that means a great deal to us.

Huge thanks to you all!