Sunny Sunday Kayaking

A group of 29 sea kayakers is an impressive sight as they prepare for departure even more so when 6 of them are in the brand new orange Tiderace Vortex kayaks, which have just been unwrapped in the car park at Ouaisne.

This was the annual visit of Tower Hamlets Canoe Club to Jersey and the plan was to head east from Ouaisne, have lunch on Elizabeth Castle before taking advantage of the increasing north easterly wind to aid our progress back.  As it was the wind and tide slowed us down earlier than we anticipated with the result that it was sandwiches on St Aubin's Fort.

That really didn't matter as we had a really entertaining paddle along a lovely section of the Jersey coastline in conditions, which were quite interesting at times.  As we paddled back into the bay you could feel the warmth of the sun on your face for the first time this year, it really did feel like spring had finally arrived. 

 Its Christmas, in March!  Unwrapping the six new kayaks ready for our friends from Tower Hamlets Canoe Club to use.

 With 29 paddlers in the group, a clear pre-trip briefing is pretty essential.

 Angus just off Noirmont

 Matt paddling in front St Aubin's.  Less than 72 hours earlier we had gone in the opposite direction on our night paddle.

 Janet enter St Aubin's Harbour.  This was a pretty big tide so the water level was dropping at about 90 cm every 20 minutes, so we didn't hang around.  Within minutes it was dry.

 

 Lunch at St Aubin's Fort.  Thanks Matt for this photo.

 Approaching Noirmont, wind and tide with us.  It was a pretty quick run back to Ouaisne.

Nicky passing through one of the narrow channels off Noirmont.

Daily Picture - 25

Mine and Nicky's kayaks ready to depart St Brelade's.  Lovely paddle to Corbiere although we turned back before the lighthouse because of the size of the swell and the speed of the tidal currents on the spring tide ebb.  17 paddlers from Jersey Canoe Club out on the water followed by out first apres paddle pint sitting outside at La Marquendarie Pub.  So much warmer than yesterday.

A November Ecrehous Visit

The Met Office had been forecasting light winds for several days but as Wednesday morning approached the amount of cloud cover and precipitation forecast increased although the winds remained almost non existant.

JR and myself met at St Catherines just after 07.00, this morning for a prompt 07.30 departure.  It was a predicted height of 35 feet so there was going to be a lot of water moving around and the tidal window for the crossing was pretty limited.

The one thing that we had on our side was that we were both paddling pretty fast kayaks, JR was in his Taran and I was in the Tiderace Pace 17.  It was the first time that I had paddled this kayak I was surprised by just how fast it was.  We cruised at 5 knots and on the way out with some tidal assistance we hardly dropped below 7 knots for the first 30 minutes.  It certainly won't be the last time that I put this kayak on the water.

 A day of limited colours.  JR on the way to the Ecrehous.

 At high water there are restricted landing opportunities.  We were the only people on the reef and whilst paddling there and back nobody else contacted the Coastguard on Channel 82.  If I hadn't called in I wonder if they would have spoken to anybody else on their shift.

 There is almost a rule that you have take a picture from by the bench looking north.  See this post to see what it looks like on a sunny day.

 Jersey is out there somewhere.  This photograph was taken from the same place as the top one in this post.

 The tide was pouring north on the eastern side of the reef.

 As the tide drops the tombolo uncovers, whilst standing here a Red Throated Diver flew over our heads which was rather a surprise.

 Last time I was here 6 weeks ago I fell asleep here in the autumn sunshine, not today.

 The bay on the western side of the tombolo looking towards Marmotier.

Almost back to St Catherine's and the island was shrouded in low cloud.