Just a reminder that the club boats and trailer will not be available on Wednesday 8th September which is also the last Wednesday session of the season.
The NACC white water training weekend will be Friday 5th Nov to Sunday 7th Nov in Brecon. The total cost for weekend is £60. This includes 2 night accommodation, food and all white water coaching*.
7am on a Sunday is a time that I rarely see. However, Ralph had mustered a seakayaking trip, meeting at Seamills ready to paddle at for 7:30am. As a newcomer to seakayaking and a stranger to the locale around Seamills I met up with Wayne at around 7:10. An interesting little journey followed, wriggling through the outskirts of Bristol to meetup underneath the road bridge close to the river Trym which joins the Avon as it makes its way up to Avonmouth.
In August, I went on my first sea kayaking trip. I was looking forward to the expedition nature of it and to a good day's exercise, but what I wasn't expecting was the exhilarating nature of the paddle!
As we were packing our boats, I learnt that due to the volume of these boats and being designed to be paddled fully loaded, sea kayakers do day trips in luxury! I clearly didn't have enough 'stuff'!
With a far from cheerful weather forecast for the weekend ahead, it was with considerable trepidation that I got myself ready for my first ever sea kayaking trip- a weekend based on Flatholm in the Bristol Channel led by Ralph. Michael, Esther and I arrived at our departure point and met up with our fellow paddlers, T,Anna, Steph, Stuart, Ralph and Wayne, in Weston-Super-Mare only to find that our access to the slipway was barred due to the adjacent hotel having burned down in the night, not a terribly encouraging start! However, we easily found somewhere else from which to set off and so, after loading up the boats with all our provisions and kit for the weekend, were soon on our way. Flatholm didn't look too far away at all - amazing how deceptive distances are at sea!
It was a dull grey Sunday morning when I left Richard with our sea kayaks and gear at Conham River Park. I then drove to Portishead to meet Wayne and leave my car there. Now time to whizz back to Bristol to find Richard lurking in his drysuit. We are a strange lot at times.
We all loaded our boats and were afloat by 10.30. There was no rush as high tide was around 11.30. The plan was to get to Netham Weir at high water to make it easier to shoot. As the river level was fairly high it wasn't going to take long. We cruised the 1 ½ miles to the weir in next to no time. There was still a small drop at the weir but plenty of water going over the ledge. I was first over, a short burst of speed and in a flash it is all over. We are now into the tidal section of the Avon.
At NACC we have a core of sea kayaking nuts who are slowly but surely infiltrating the club...you know who you are! They are great paddlers and on the face of it seem like very normal people. I now know better. These sea kayakers spend hours pouring over charts and shipping forecasts. They have compasses on their boats and carry strange equipment such as flares and caramel chocolate bars.
We were given our joining instructions by Ralph, our esteemed leader. Be ready to paddle by 7:00am..... meet at Beachley under the (old) Severn Bridge. Time and tide wait for none.
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