| Paddlers |
|
| Barbara Hackworthy |
|
| Ian Hackworthy |
|
The last night in July 2015 had the rare
occurrence of a blue moon. When one of the astronomical
seasons has four full moons, instead of the normal
three, the third full moon is called a
Blue Moon.
Blue Moon
(Courtesy of Cathy Warne dorsetflickr.wordpress.com)
The weather was nice so we decided to
take the opportunity to paddle our sea kayaks along to
West Bay. Then take them for a short walk to be able
to paddle up the River Brit as far as possible.
As we prepared to leave the beach at Burton Bradstock at
about 19:30 the sea was boiling with unusually high
numbers of Whitebait. Mackerel chase the whitebait for
food causing them to jump into the air. The strand line
on the beach was silver with thousands of dying little
fish.
The sea boiling
with whitebait
The sun was already low in the sky as we
paddled along the iconic sandstone cliffs between Burton
Bradstock and West Bay.
The sandstone
cliffs of West Bay
We were pleased to meet up with Louis,
out for a blast in his Legend Surf Ski. He couldn’t stop
as his boat is built to go very fast in a straight line
not to sit around chatting. Off he zoomed out to the
Black Buoy.
Louis
We pottered on to West bay and paddled
to a small slipway at the back of the harbour where we
got out.
West Bay harbour
We then crossed the road and put the
boats into the River Brit and paddled up the river. It
is surprisingly calm and peaceful up the river and it
feels quite wild and remote considering it is so close
to an urban area.
The River Brit
We saw a
water vole but I was too surprised to get a picture
of him.
We paddled up the river as far as possible until we
reached a weir at
Palmers Brewery.
Palmers Brewery
As we headed back downstream towards
West Bay the Blue Moon made its appearance.
Blue moon rising
It was a really special to be on the
river as the moon came up. It was very quiet and
peaceful and felt quite remote – though in reality we
were only a few hundred metres from West Bay (aka
Broadchurch). Once again we carried the kayaks
between the river and the harbour. The sun was setting
as we paddled out of the harbour and onto the sea again.
West Bay harbour
It was quite exciting paddling home
again in the dark. The breeze had strengthened which had
picked up the waves a bit. Easy in daylight, but not
being able to see what was coming kept us on our toes.
Paddling home to
Burton Bradstock
The moon rose higher in the sky as we
followed the cliffs home to Burton Bradstock.
The moon lit our
way
We decided that our outing counted as an
adventure!
