Sunday morning at the Ecrehous

A small tide and a reasonable weather forecast can only lead you to think about one thing, a paddle to the Ecrehous.  Just before 7.00 am 14 members of the Jersey Canoe Club met at St Catherine's for an early morning departure to reef which lies just over 5 nautical miles to the north east of Jersey.  6 hours later we returned after a really memorable morning.

Even though it was an early morning start you don't normally expect to see such sights at St Catherine's.  A visiting French yachtsman clearly failed to grasp the tidal range in Jersey.

Although it doesn't look it the first part of the paddle was a bit sloppy.

 Alan approaching the main part of the reef.  There were a number of very inquisitive seals, which is always an unusual encounter in Channel Island waters.

 Nicky and Chris preparing a late breakfast.  The sky had cleared and the reef had a very special feel.  Today there weren't that many visitors, in contrast to a few weeks ago.

 This is always a special view, looking north across the low water reef.

The Normandy coast of France seems quite close.  It was great to meet up, accidentally, with a couple of French paddling friends on the reef this morning.

To the south was the largest island in the archipelago, Maitre Ile. 

The anchorage seemed reasonably quite today, three weeks ago there had been nearly 60 boats at anchor in this area.

The Royal Square is one of the more spacious areas between the small buildings, which are congregated on Marmotier.

Evidence of the year of construction and the parish.

 All too quickly it was time to leave in order to catch the slack tide for the crossing back to St Catherine's.

 Nicky passing through one of the small passages.  The water was delightfully clear.

 Angus and Janet en route to St Catherine's.  The obvious feature of Mont Orgueil Castle was a really useful feature for using with transits as we approached Jersey.

2014 highlights

There have been a number kayaking highlights over the last 12 months and it is always a pleasure to look back over the year.

Probably the best one day paddle was when we were staying on Lihou in June and paddled around Guernsey as well as managing to fit in lunch on Herm.  The weather couldn't have been better, the 12 members of the group were all pretty strong paddlers and the 25 nautical miles just flew past.

 

 Approaching the east coast of Jethou.  Herm is the land furthest away in the picture

 On the return leg to Lihou.  Heading down the west coast of Guernsey, Kim is just offshore from Cobo.

My favourite open crossing of the year was returning from Sark to Jersey at the end of July with some members of Tower Hamlets Canoe Club.  Due to flight timings we had to leave Sark a bit earlier, in the tidal sequence, than we would do normally but there seemed to be a small window of opportunity so we took it and it was ideal. Close to 13 nautical miles in 2 hours 45 minutes, I think I will probably use that departure time again.

Leaving Sark on the Sunday morning.  All of the anchored craft on the left of the picture indicate Dixcart, where we started.
 

 We did have a bit of company in the middle of the crossing which encouraged us to paddle a bit quicker.

Probably the best paddling event, and I have to admit some bias here, was the Jersey Sea Kayaking Symposium, held in May.  After a gap of 4 years I was encouraged to run another event but this time the structure was different.  It was based at the Highlands Hotel on the south west corner of the Island and attracted over 100 people to Jersey for a weeks kayaking.  Apart from the pleasure of the week the legacy is that the Canoe Club has been able to purchase 8 sea kayaks to place on the west of Greenland for paddlers to use in the coming years.

The view from the hotel lounge  There were views of both the south and west coast of the Island

These are the cliffs just underneath the hotel and they proved to be a popular with most of the participants.

My most memorable overnight paddle was the 10 days we spent in Baja.  It is difficult to describe just how special a destination the area is.  Remote beaches, stunning scenery, superb weather, incredible wildlife, the list just goes on and on.  We will miss out on not visiting the area in 2015 as we are heading north to use the Canoe Club kayaks in Greenland next summer.

Clear water, sandy beaches, hot weather - Baja

Some great scenery.  Along one stretch of coast the cliffs were over 1,000 feet high.

There have only been two paddling disappointments this year:

1.) I didn't go to the Ecrehous enough, although the visits I did do were as enjoyable as ever.

2.) I lost my luggage en route to a canoeing trip in Sweden so spent time hanging around Stockholm airport rather than canoeing through Swedish forests.

 Arriving at the Ecrehous in August.  Always a treat.

Looking north from the bench in September.

 Storm clouds over Karlstad in Sweden.  We spent 3 days in Karlstad and Stockholm looking for luggage, which meant that we missed our 7 day open canoe trip

So all in all another excellent year on the water.  Looking forward to 2015

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.

Even more old kayaking photographs

Once you are set up to scan your old slides, its difficult not to keep going and scan a few more.  So a few memories of sea kayaking in the 1970's and 80's.

This is a memory of the first paddle that I really recorded on film.  August Bank Holiday Sunday in 1974.  We decided to go to the Ecrehous. It was a big spring tide and we had no idea about tidal vectors.  We did leave from Gorey as we realized that the tide would be running north really quickly.  We survived but it wasn't an easy paddle.

5 years later and knowledge and equipment had surged forward in leaps and bounds.  Nicky off the Ecrehous in 1979.  Those were the days when we used to tie our BS3595 Lifejackets on the rear deck.

 Pete Scott had just purchased his new Nordkapp, so at Easter 1981 we rushed off to Pembrokeshire to launch the kayak.  He was keen to practice his self rescues.

 The Skerries in April 1982.  This was when lighthouses were still manned so we carried out our duty and delivered the daily papers and fresh milk to the keepers.

 

My first ever visit to the Isle of Wight.  November 1983, it was a quick Sunday run from Lymington to the Needles with lunch at Alum Bay.  Sadly that is still the only time that I have paddled on the Isle of Wight.

 Just north of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire.  October 1989 and Nigel Foster, Howard Jeffs and myself were running a Level 5 coach assessment.  In common with so many assessments at the time it coincided with a major storm hitting the Irish Sea.

Another Ecrehous Day

The continuing spell of settled meant that the Ecrehous was an ideal destination for Sunday's sea kayaking adventures.  The relatively large tide, just over 35 feet meant that a prompt departure from St Catherine's so that we avoid the fastest tidal flows.  The crossing of just over 5 nautical miles was completed in a very satisfactory 1 hour 10 minutes.

On spring tides the water often flows across the tombolo, which joins Marmotiere to the smaller islets to the north.  It is always a great place to play and Andy obliged with swimming through the run so I could experiment with the various options for rescuing a swimmer.

Although it was the last weekend of September and the continuous flow of swallows south was an indication that summer was over,  the temperature rose into the low 20's celsius. A very pleasant few hours were spent on the reef before heading back to Jersey, and again the crossing passed relatively quickly.  Isn't it satisfying when the navigation works out?

Although we will no doubt visit this far flung corner of the Baliwick of Jersey over the coming months I think it will be some time before we have such pleasant conditions.

 Andy playing on the small race which develops over the tombolo, when we first arrived.

 In places the water is shallow, fast and clear.  It can be very disorientating if you spend too much time looking down.

 Just after high water on a spring tide.  There is not much of Marmotiere showing, within a couple of hours a totally new landscape will be revealed.

Transporting Andy to shore after he swam through the race for the second time.  This was a far more stable position than having him on the rear deck.

 Once the tide drops it was time to explore the northern part of the reef on foot.  A couple of hours earlier this is the spot we had been surfing.

 One of the small alleyways which thread their way through the small but well kept huts on the main island.

Kate demonstrating the advantage of a plastic kayak when it comes to launching.

 Re-grouping at the southern end of Maitre Ile before starting the crossing back to Jersey.

How far have I paddled?

Over the years I have come in for some ridicule as I have kept a kayaking log book. My first entry was in January 1979 and since that date I have made a record of every time that I have been in a canoe or a kayak.  Sometimes it might just be a brief note whilst at other times it might be a comprehensive record of where we parked the car, what the launch was like, any wildlife seen etc.  Due to the fact that I have kept the log book going for so long it has now become almost impossible to stop.

Earlier this year I was wondering to myself as to whether I paddled the equivalent of the circumference of the earth at the equator?  First of all how far is it around the equator.  Plenty of places will give you the distance in kilometres and statute miles, it was only after a bit of searching that I found the answer in nautical miles, it is 21639nm.  My log book records have always been in nautical miles so this was an important figure to find.

I then sat down with the log books and over a couple of hours completed a table. There were 5 columns, standing for year, sea kayak, sit on top, canoe/general purpose and total.  I passed the magical distance on the 19th May 2012 whilst on a trip out to the Paternosters.

So if you don't already keep a log book think about starting keeping a record of your paddling experiences, in a few years time it will make interesting reading.  I don't have a log book from 1969 to 1979 sadly, as there could be some interesting reading about a number of sea kayaking adventures, including being pulled of the water by Tito's police in the former Yugoslavia, as we naively thought it was alright to paddle on the sea in communist countries.

 The oldest picture I have scanned in.  The first trip to the Ecrehous, August Bank Holiday Sunday 1974.  Is it really 40 years since I first paddled out to the Ecrehous.  Possibly the best one day paddle anywhere.  This was probably the first ever organized paddle by the Jersey Canoe Club, which we had just formed.  This was 5 years before I started keeping a log book but it was a pretty memorable day.

A few months after I started keeping a log book.  An evening surf session in May 1979 at St Brelade's.  We were so proud of our KW7's.  So versatile, one day we would be rock hopping the next heading out to an offshore reef.

 One advantage of keeping a log book is that you are able to track your memorable paddles.  This is dawn on the morning of my 150th paddle to the Ecrehous, we are packing away before returning to Jersey.

The day that I passed the equivalent of the circumnavigation of the earth.  Getting ready to leave the Paternosters.