West Solent, March 2024: My First Time Kayaking on the Sea
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
6d ago
“Avoid travelling completely or find something to do at home: decorate the bathroom or something,” so said National Highways as they shut the M25 over a weekend for the first time in its history. Unluckily for them, I decorated my bathroom last year, and I had signed up for Liza’s planned trip on the Solent, one of the first CKC sea trips of 2024. The plan was to paddle about 10km along the south coast from Lymington to Lepe and back again, about 20km in total. But first, we had to get there. After meeting at the Arches to pick up the boats and kit (shout out to hero Phil for driving down to t ..read more
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Selsey Bill March 2024: A Shipping Forecast Micro-Adventure Part 2
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
3w ago
Following on from the Margate to North Foreland trip in February 2024, CKC had planned a trip in another Inshore Shipping Forecast area: Selsey Bill. Checking the forecast on Friday for the Saturday trip didn’t give us much hope: “The Inshore Forecast issued by the Met Office at 0500, Friday 1 March…North Foreland to Selsey Bill, Southerly or Southeasterly 5-7, occasionally gale 8, veering West or Southwest, 4-6, rain or squally showers, good or occasionally poor.” Some hasty re-arranging, meant that we were able to change the day of the trip to Sunday, where the forecast was much more to our ..read more
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Margate Feb 2024: A Shipping Forecast Micro-Adventure
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
1M ago
An early start on Saturday meant that we were able to get the shipping forecast for the area that we planned to paddle today. The North coast of Kent is the location of North Foreland, one of the boundaries for the shipping forecast and in particular we were interested in the Inshore Forecast for our trip: “The Inshore Forecast issued by the Met Office at 2300, Friday 16 February…Gibraltar Point to North Foreland, Westerly 3 or 4, backing Southerly, South-Westerly, 5 or 6, fog patches, rain later, moderate or good occasionally very poor.” Our departure point was at St Mildred’s Bay, West of Ma ..read more
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Christmas Paddle, Dec 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
3M ago
Hands up for Christmas! Yes, it is that time of year again – time for the annual CKC Christmas Paddle! Even though the wind was gusting force 5 in our faces as we launched and the fluvial flow significant, we still had an enjoyable, although short, paddle. Meeting up in the late afternoon sunshine, meant that we could all easily decorate the kayaks with tinsel and lights (and the odd inflatable Christmas tree). As well as finding our Santa hats. Santa hats on Decorating the kayaks Deciding to go behind Brentford Ait was a very good choice after we saw some photos from the bank of the water al ..read more
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Sardinia, Oct 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
5M ago
Sunday 1st October It was finally the day for six intrepid CKC kayakers to rendez-vous at Laguna Blu campsite in Alghero, Sardinia. The preparations had been ongoing for much of the previous year from planning calls with Clark, our local operator and provider of kayaks, to group zooms where kit lists, food plans and the all-important route planning was discussed. The “advance party”, comprising of David, Liza, Fiona and Rich had flown into Olbia, on the other side of Sardinia couple of days before.  They had enjoyed some exploration – which seemed to have largely involved eating and buyin ..read more
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Crossing the Meridian: Rottingdean to Cuckmere, July 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
9M ago
After a short safety briefing on the beach we left Rottingdean just after low water under cloudy skies, light winds and a small amount of swell – perfect kayaking conditions for this mostly straightforward paddle, but with some significant distance to cover. Launch at Rottingdean The trip followed the cliffs passed Saltdean and Peachaven, crossing over the Greenwich Meridian. This is marked at Peacehaven by the Greenwich Meridian Memorial, which was just visible from the sea with its green ball on top. Sea defences form a barrier at the bottom of the cliffs to slow down coastal erosion. Green ..read more
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Selsey Bill – June 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
9M ago
For Mike’s first practice sea lead we had chosen a favourite CKC trip down on the south coast – Selsey Bill. We had an onshore wind F3 with some good swell ~0.5m (although later that would become an issue) and launched in brilliant sunshine with occasional sea fog drifting in. Once on the water we headed towards the Bill along the long shingle beach. The Bill itself has the potential to create some significant waves at some states of the tide, but Mike had planned the trip to make sure that our trip only had some slightly disturbed water. Once around the corner at Selsey Bill the wind dropp ..read more
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Riding the Elephant: Moderate Water Skills Weekend, Wales, May 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
11M ago
CKC organised a club skills weekend in Pembrokeshire, focused on developing paddling skills on the sea. The plan was for both less experienced paddlers and more experience paddlers to be able to gain new skills and practice old skills in a safe environment, with external coaches. This meant that everyone was challenged at least a bit, but without the peer pressure to do too much beyond each individual skill level. The result was a great success with everyone coming away from the weekend much more confident and better paddlers. With a rockhopping focused first day and a trip over to Skomer on ..read more
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Gower Surf Skills Weekend, April 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
11M ago
Last weekend we had a great turnout of fourteen for a surf skills trip on the Gower in South Wales. Previous attempts to organise a surf skills trip had been postponed because of poor conditions – too calm the first two times on the South coast, and then too rough on the Gower in the autumn. This time, however, the weather worked out and we had a successful trip.  Liza arranged accommodation for us in the Eastern Slade Barn, and we converged there on Friday night, having picked up boats, equipment and passengers at the arches. On arrival Yossi prepared an amazing vegetarian focaccia for e ..read more
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Kew to Teddington Saturday 4 Feb 2023
Chelsea Kayak Club » Blog
by David_P
1y ago
It was so good to get back on the river yesterday,  and in my case to experience paddling a different part of the Thames.  I have had one outing in the dark from Kew to Richmond and so I was curious to see it in the light and Richmond lock at high water with the sluice gates raised.  We all went to the pub for Sunday lunch! Richmond to Teddington was entertaining with music and sounds of merriment from the rugby crowd enjoying riverside pre match refreshments.  The warm glow of the fairy lights in the trees at Twickenham was very alluring against the grey sky.  Grey sk ..read more
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