The wind blew strongly – Force 5 to 6 until about 3pm on
Sunday 31st October. The associated sea state was rough but
the forecast was for the wind to drop and the expectation
was that the sea state would become calmer.
Nine IOPCC members met at Sandsfoot late on Sunday
afternoon. There was quite a variety of pumpkin lanterns,
masks, glow in the dark nail varnish and paddles and an
assortment of lights.
When we launched at 5.30 it was already quite dark. So dark
that I failed to notice that my day hatch was not on –
actually off and laid on the back deck. I didn’t find out
until we landed at Weymouth.
The paddle across Portland Harbour was very pleasant – it
was good to see everyone and catch up with news. As we
approached the entrance the waves picked up a bit and as we
went through into Weymouth Bay the sea was quite lumpy.
Support strokes, survival strokes and expletives in
quantity! Once into Weymouth Bay the sea became more regular
but with some very large waves. In the dark it’s quite odd
as you can’t see the waves – but you can see the rise and
fall of the lights on the other boats. I was feeling quite
wobbly paddling though these waves – but that was because my
day hatch was three parts full of water!
There were some larger breaking waves as we approached the
stone pier but we all managed to turn the corner and surfed
our way into Weymouth harbour.
The paddle on smooth water up the harbour was very pleasant
and we landed at the Debenhams slipway and went off to buy
various things with chips. Sharon met us at the slipway and
she looked beautifully groomed - make up – not a hair out of
place – smart DRY clothes…..
While we were ashore at Weymouth the wind dropped away
completely. Ron and Michelle left us at the Harbour mouth
and turned left to paddle home to Greenhill. Ron later owned
up to a swim. A large wave capsized him as they came
in to land. The remaining team of 7 were disappointed (?) to
find that the paddle back to Sandsfoot was not quite so
interesting, as the sea state had dropped significantly. I
also found my boat behaved much better with no water in the
day hatch! There were still a few large waves at the
entrance to Portland Harbour to give us a bit of fun before
paddling across back to Sandsfoot.
A good time was had by all.
|
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| Decorations were a
must |
Jackie and Bertie |
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| Michelle and Ron |
Ian (is it a
mask or not?) |
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|
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| Dicky looked after
the boats whilst we all went for chips |
5* Chip Eater |
| |
|
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| Barbara at the Town
Slip |
Jill heading back |
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|
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| Jon 'Pretty Boy'
Massey |
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