Paddlers:
Jon Massey
John Miller
David Cotgrove
Ian Hackworthy
Barbara Hackworthy
The weather was looking alright, no real wind to worry about, a bit
cloudy and overcast but at this time of year that cloud
cover seemed to help a little with the overall temperature.
Was good to see fellow paddlers. I had been looking forward
to this day for a little while, apart from a couple of
creeps round Portland Harbour I had not been out much
lately. We set off in good spirits, was a slightly steep
launch (slide ) down the pebbles at Chesil Cove that came
with a refreshing slosh in the face, all good fun. To be
honest there was a bit more swell out there than I expected.
Although I have done this trip before I still feel pangs of
anticipation before and sometimes during and as we
approached Pulpit there was certainly some large lumps of
swell to contend with. The cliffs in places looked a bit
different to me today possibly because some parts had huge
chunks missing not just topsoil, landslides, big rocks and
parts of cliff also had come away. We rounded the Bill and
at one point from my angle it looked like Ian was about to
catch a huge bit of swell a little to close to the shore. I
meant so say INCOMING ! but I shouted its coming in its
coming in ! Ian cooly let it pass through I think he got the
gist of what I meant!
We were planning on a bit of lunch at Church Ope cove, after
some really big sets of swell coming in we were going to
have a change of plan but as we got nearer the swells calmed
for a while and we all landed safely, if not a little wet
(eh Ian)! My mum's Christmas cake went down well and we all
had a bit of fun timing our launches as the swell had picked
back up a bit. We chatted back to Portland Harbour and
landed in calm water next to Portland Castle. It was a
good paddle, I think all my paddling pals would agree it was
an enjoyable trip.
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