Autumn on Herm

Herm, is a delightful island, which lies several miles to the east of Guernsey across an interesting section of water, the Little Russel.  Today is almost perfect conditions we were able to explore, not just the coast of Herm but the fascinating reefs to the north.  A memorable paddle for the beginning of October.

 Jim just off La Rosiere Steps on Herm.  Once we arrived here we knew that we were out of the strongest tidal flow and we could relax to a certain extent.

 Lunch spot on the north east corner of Herm.

 Laurie off Shell Beach.  The Humps are visible to the north.  It is hard to believe that it is the fist weekend in October with conditions like this.

Approaching Godin. This small island is the largest  of the Humps, a fascinating area to explore to the north of Herm.

There are plenty of distinctive navigation beacons around Guernsey and Tautenay is no exception.  It provided a convenient resting place whilst crossing the Little Russel, back to Bordeaux.

Some more memories of Jersey sea kayaking

Another couple of hours scanning some old slides has revived some great memories of sea kayaking in Jersey.  It is clear that over the years the Jersey Canoe Club has been involved in a variety of entertaining events both in local waters and further afield.

The start of the 1979 Canoe Club race from Gorey to St Helier.  It is clear that it was important to have an orange Nordkapp HM and wear a Ricard sun hat.

John Hurley at the 1982 white water championships.  Close to St Helier the white water was revealed when the tide dropped.  The water was from the power station and so it was really warm.  An ideal place to paddle on a cold winters day.  Sadly it has disappeared under the reclamation site,

In the 1980's Jersey competed in the Home International Surfing competitions.  1986 we entered a team in the slalom event for the first time.  This was training at St Ouen's in almost perfect conditions.  Sadly the week of the event was accompanied by no surf and pretty strong easterly winds.

In the early 1990's the BCU introduced the idea of a National Canoeing Day.  In September 1992 we managed to get 120 people to turn up to St Catherine's to form a raft.

The 1990's also saw the development of Sea Kayak Symposiums.  This is 1996 and Gordon Brown is demonstrating a number of Greenland rolls and skills.  We were fortunate to have John Heath at the event who gave a running commentary to Gordon's performance. 

 

Some people expressed an interest in folding kayaks.  This is a naked Feathercraft Khatsilano.

We also developed a tidal slalom course in front of the Club House at St Catherine's.  I think this is Scottish paddler Donald Thomson taking part in the closing event of the 1996 Symposium.  All competitors had to use a VCP Skerray.

The 1998 Symposium.  This is a bird watching paddle, I ended up paddling Bill Oddie around in double Spud whilst he pointed at feathered things of interest.  There must have been at least 50 people in the group, which created quite a spectacle.

An innovation at the 1998 Symposium was the making of kayaks over the weeken with people able to assist.  Howard Jeffs produced a fibre glass BAT and Duncan Winning built the "Jersey Junior" being paddled here by my daughter Lisa.

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.