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A motley yet fine band of
paddlers assembled on the slipway at Weymouth Harbour bright
and early on a Sunday morning. They were commendably led by
Clive West, who attempted to get the properly kitted out
band of 18 merry paddlers into some sort of order. All types
of craft were represented today. The plan for the day was to
head off out through the harbour bound for the northern
entrance of Portland Harbour and on to Chequered Fort. With
appropriate warnings of death by hanging if we dared to
venture onto the structures we duly departed under sunny
blue skies. Obviously Clive had had words with the weather
gods since we had a touch of blue sky and barely any breeze.
The forecast of E /NE 3 -4 was certainly incorrect for the
morning.
We shared the slipway with Weymouth Rowing Club who were
launching a new gig in preparation for some gig racing in
the harbour entrance later that day. The paddle out through
the harbour was a pleasant warm up . As we neared the
harbour entrance the blue sky disappeared and a chill
descended over the area. The sea however was flat calm and
we made rapid progress to our destination, with plenty of
opportunities to chat to fellow paddlers, a number of whom
were meeting for the first time. A special welcome to Jon
Massey, Ron Lee and Michelle Price who were taking part in
their first club paddle.
The only drama on the way out was for Geoff, who had
swapped a borrowed club Charleston for Barbara’s Rockpool
and suddenly found himself taking on water. Stopping to pump
out what appeared to be gallons of water it was unclear
whether this was sea water or whether Geoff had got caught
short after a heavy night the evening before. Geoff’s
concern was more to do with the size of the repair bill that
Barbara might present to him.
On arriving at the Chequered Fort the calm seas meant
that we could fully explore and take in the historical
surroundings. At this point Kevin Mundy decided to put on
some extra clothes, not quite landing on the structure
(obeying the words of out Leader) and it could be said that
it counted as a ‘half –swim’. As we had made such good
progress plans were altered and our erstwhile leader said we
would head across to Sandsfoot. However as the leading group
approached Sandsfoot we were informed that we were heading
for Castle Cove. We never did work out whether Clive’s
navigation was faulty or whether that was the intention all
along!
Anyway we lunched on the beach, Barbara and Hilary
ensured our energy levels were high for the return journey
by providing plentiful home baking, including left overs
from Ian’s birthday cake. Happy belated birthday Ian!
Meanwhile Barbara’s boat was temporarily repaired and she
happily swopped back into her now dry boat.
With the breeze picking up slightly, together with the
sea state, we set off for the northern entrance of Portland
Harbour. It was slightly choppy coming out through the
entrance and making our way back to the harbour entrance,
but all managed well with no swimmers or near misses. The
rest of the group paddled back without incident to the
slipway, with the exception of Jon and Barbara who paddled
between the hulls of the large cat. They were suitably
rebuked by an irate crew member.
All managed to exit safely, so the first paddle of the
year with no swimmers and no alteration in the current
league table.
Yet again it was a great day out paddling in local
waters. It was great to see so many club members out and
especially good, as a new member, to meet other new /
relatively new members and put faces to names or forum
names, as well as meet the ‘die hard’ committee members who
together put much time and effort into making the IOPCC a
success. Thanks are particularly due to Bertie for arranging
the programme and to Clive for his unflappable leadership,
even in the event of partial rebellions and much talk about
tassels. You’ll have to get to know me a bit better to find
out more about that one! |
