After the extremely cold,
frosty, snowy, windy weather Dorset has had so far this year
Sunday 17th January was a beautiful day. The Isle of
Portland Canoe Club took advantage of the excellent weather
forecast and 15 members met at Sandbanks, Poole. There was a
blue sky, sunshine, a light breeze and a calm sea. It wasn’t
warm but everyone had appropriate gear for January paddling.
We could see our main objective Old Harry Rocks, 5km in the
distance.
We set off from Sandbanks across the entrance of Poole
harbour towards Studland Bay. There was very little traffic
on the water and we were able to cross the main channel
easily. In the summer this area can be very busy but on this
occasion we
had it to ourselves and crossed easily into Studland Bay
which was beautiful and calm. As we paddled across we met
three more Club Members who had launched at Knoll Beach.
This made a total of 18 paddlers on the water – an IOPCC
Club record.
From the calm of Studland Bay we could see the ominous white
of breaking waves around Handfast Point – Old Harry’s Rocks.
The stacks point out from Handfast Point towards the Needles
on the Isle of Wight, 28km across Bournemouth Bay. ‘ Old
Harry’ is an archaic name for Satan, and describes the stack
at the seaward end. A tide race forms off the outer edge of
the rocks and on this occasion with a big spring tide and
residual swell it was working well! For most people this was
good fun and everyone bounced round this spectacular
Headland into the relative calm of the cliffs towards
Ballard Point where we paddled inshore to be close to the
spectacular chalk spires, pinnacles and caves that form off
the white cliffs.
At Ballard Point we turned and paddled back through the
stacks and pinnacles to Old Harry’s. The tide race had
developed further and we had the combination of following
waves and tide against us. For those who chose to give Old
Harry a wide berth the tide was stronger and those paddlers
who cut in close had large breaking waves. Too large for
Hugh who capsized, failed to roll and swam. Ken skilfully
reached him and carried out an efficient rescue so Hugh,
clad in a dry suit, was unscathed and quickly back in his
boat. The other 17 paddlers eventually battled their way
against the tide back into the calm of Studland Bay and we
then paddled across to
Joe’s Café for a well-earned lunch break. Some keener
Club members took advantage of the calm safe water and
practiced their rolling skills before lunch. Most people
decided to stay relatively dry.
After lunch we paddled inshore along Studland Beach and
played in the small surf waves. This was very good fun. Cate
got a bit carried away and capsized. She was quite close to
the beach and was safely washed up. We dropped three people
off at Knoll beach and made our way back to the training
wall and the main channel out of Poole Harbour. The tide was
running out of the Harbour very quickly and we had to work
quite hard to get across the Channel. There were waves off
the Sandbanks in the bay to add a bit of interest to the
last kilometre before we all safely reached the beach at
Sandbanks. All landed without incident apart from Clive who
decided to swim the last 10 metres – smiling and swimming –
now that’s a neat trick in January!
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| John Miller passing one of the
can buoys off Sandbanks |
Barbara 'posing' by one of the
Sandbanks buoys. |
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| John landing on Studland Beach. |
Craig in rough water off Old
Harry's Rocks |
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| Hilary at Old Harry's Rocks. |
Ian surfing at Studland |
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| Clive W taking a swim whilst
landing back at Sandbanks. |
Cate very pleased that Clive took
a swim too!! |
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| The Group at Studland |
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GPS trace of the paddle courtesy of
Clive West.
Click the thumbnail to view a bigger image. |
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