IOPCC Trip Report

Halloween Night Paddle
Sunday 31st October 2010

 
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.
 
Decorations were a must Jackie and Bertie
   
Michelle and Ron Ian  (is it a mask or not?)
   
Dicky looked after the boats whilst we all went for chips 5* Chip Eater
   
Barbara at the Town Slip Jill heading back
   
Jon 'Pretty Boy' Massey
 
 

Pictures of the paddle are on the
Galleries Page.

Back to the Trip Report Index

Report: Barbara Browning
Pictures: Barbara Browning | Ian Hackworthy


 

 

Paddling on the Jurassic Coast