Cockney-shell Heroes on the Thames Tideway

Taffy visits London

A reciprocated visit to paddle on Paul's patch is duly accepted. Streets, or rather waterways, of London here I come.

Friday night is curry night and a fine prerequisite to a full days paddling.

The weekend dawn is just breaking as we arrive ready to get on the water at Chiswick. It's quite a chilly morning, actually really cold. We have to be careful not to slip on the pontoon at the put in due to the thin layer of white powdered frost. It's so cold that while boats and kit are being sorted I have to stand in my boat to keep my toes from freezing.

The Motley Crew: David Mattingley, Roger Wiltshire, Jen Clough, Paul Lazenby-Barrett, Carlo Briffa, Jason Cole and Jason Paul Tolmie.

Roger getting set on a chilly January morning

The early morning Thames scene is quite enchanting. A beautiful wispy mist rises off the water, and through it the appearance of other rowers that have got on the water well before us. Dedicated nutters!

Dawn Raid at the break of dawn on the misty and enchanting Thames Tideway

I have to admit to being quite excited when I starting to see the famous sights of London from the water. Like the first trip to London as a kid, I remember then being vaguely in awe at the busy-ness and magnitude of the place. The low morning winter light was amazing on the historic monuments and tourist spots.

The Tideway isn't a docile little river paddle by any means, definitely need to keep your whits about you. It's a very busy waterway with ferries buzzing about throwing up small but beautifully barrelling surf waves on some of the sloping banks, and various static obstacles to be aware of. The tide doesn't hang about and produces some locations where there is a little lively water.

Musically iconic grade II listed power station at Battersea

Battersea power station - - over 500MW of power generated from the two coal fired stations, Battersea A and B what an Animal!. Designed by the same industrial designer and architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott,  who designed the iconic red telephone box.

London metropolis - Westminster Bridge

A few heads have nodded off here. Hear! Hear! - Houses of Parliament otherwise known as Westminster Palace

The Golden Hind - 1577-1580 circumnavigated the globe under the captaincy of Sir Francis Drake

Don't see this from the gold paved streets above

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast and a group of Cockneyshell Heros

Here-on  on the Thames

The Millennium Dome

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren and finished 1710

Must have cringed to think his design was so close to the Millennium or "Wobbly" Bridge.

St Paul's cathedral

You are being watched -The London Eye

Vauxhall Bridge detail

A few heads have rolled here - The Tower of London

Anybody having the opportunity to paddle the Thames Tideway should grab it with both hands as at least for the first time you do it it is truely

There's some folks who always worry, and some folks who never care,
But in this world of rush and hurry it matters neither here nor there.
Be steady and realistic, don't hanker for gold or gems,
Be carefree and optimistic, like Old Father Thames.

High in the hills, down in the dales, happy and fancy free,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.
What does he know, what does he care? nothing for you or me,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.

He never seems to worry, doesn't care for Fortunes fame,
He never seems to hurry, but he gets there just the same.
Kingdoms may come, Kingdoms may go, whatever the end may be,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.

High in the hills, down in the dales, happy and fancy free,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.
What does he know, what does he care? nothing for you or me,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.

He never seems to worry, doesn't care for Fortunes fame,
He never seems to hurry, but he gets there just the same.
Kingdoms may come, Kingdoms may go, whatever the end may be,
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along, down to the mighty sea.

 Raymond Wallace and Betsy O'Hogan

Nearly 53km paddling on The Thames Tideway- a grand day out!

Chasing Rainbows

Taking the Cetus out for the first paddle of the year.

No gold found though

Raynard's Cave at Tresillian Bay on the Bristol Channel

Cockney Visitation

Paul comes down to South Wales for a spot of chilly post Christmas paddling in the surf at Porthcawl. More about it here.

At least we got out for a few hours - didn't go far, just played in the surf

Loaned Cetus from P and H

P and H have kindly sponsored both Paul and myself for the circumnavigation of Britain. While they build my boat they have kindly provided me with a demo Cetus to start paddling with. The boat they are building will be the new Cetus HV, slightly different to the original Cetus, but that's for another time.

Some more pics here.

Playing in the soup with the Cetus

very refreshing!

Paddling Challenge

It's been a little manic to say the very least over the last few months and as such the blog has taken a bit of a back seat. I've committed to partake in an exciting adventure with a gent who was looking for a partner to circumnavigate the UK by sea kayak.

One thing has let to another and I'm now trying to play catch up. The trip is due to begin in April 2012 so getting hold of a boat and various kit has taken a high priority, and various other logistical aspects are competing for attention. The tick list is long and nowhere near finished - the list that is - not the ticking off of the items on it!

In an attempt to move into some form of mobile blogging arrangement I've chosen to move to wordpress, so have been setting up a website for the circumnavigation expedition.

The story kind of starts here. I hope you enjoy the ride - it's starting to build momentum and take on a life of it's own.
 
www.kayakaroundtheuk.co.uk

Sea Kayak Stolen

My mate, Chris, has had his green plastic P&H Scorpio kayak stolen from South Wales , Serial no: XJBFANCJE909, please keep eyes and ears open.

Anyone see one for sale or seen one on top of a vehicle in South Wales last day or so please drop him a line. Zero7973 519561.

Chris in his Scorpio

Going out for a BANG!

Clear sky and a fairly calm sea, I sent out a late round robin e-mail to see who fancied a night paddle out across the bay from Ogmore to Porthcawl and catch the fireworks displays from the water. Chris and Jim were up to the foray.

Ok, sorry, I have to admit that the pics are pretty dire, but they do have this arty feeling to them that sort of conveys the mood out on the water and its quite hard to hold a camera steady while popping about.

I was pleased to get out to watch the fireworks at last-have been trying to do it a few times, Jim popped his night paddling cherry and a great evening paddle was enjoyed by all.

Red sky at night

Who ate all the pies?

Tweedledum and Tweedledee?

Waiting for the sun to go down

More Storms and Assessed in Anglsey

With a day of playing and enjoyment under my belt followed by an evening of frivolity partaking in a mixture of the hilarious and sometimes down right embarrassing acts of the "Around the Stacks" quiz night, I devote the remaining two days to the sobering task I've set myself at the end of the week which is to be assessed for the BCU four star leadership award. This was to be the culmination to my thoughts started back in the spring of 2009. So to bolster confidence I begin by partaking in a leadership session headed up by Nick Cunliffe.  In strong southerly force 6 winds, but to look at the photos you wouldn't believe it, our small group take it in turns to lead the others as a group along the coast to various destinations. This tested our group management skills around headlands, rock gardens and landings.

consensus of opinion of ones current location is . . .

There was little bit of a swell running that made our rock hopping session quite fun, culminating in me getting the Cappella entirely airborne, and at one point taking a rocky swim. Shame there were no pics as I understand it was quite entertaining.

The evening shenanigans was started off by a very frank presentation delivered by Jeff Allen, "In to the Wind", where he recounted his and Harry Whelan's recent record breaking achievement of the circumnavigation of Ireland in 25 days. If you get the chance to hear Jeff give this talk, take it, as it is a very open and honest account of their experience. It has an underlying message of how not to undertake a paddling expedition, where uncompromising goal setting can undermine sound judgement and decision making.

The last day of the gathering I went to a rolling clinic run by the betrothed partnership of Helen Wilson and Mark Tozer to resurrect my drysuit bloated roll.

Watching Helen perform her rolls you feel the need to be whisked off to some far eastern country, shave off all your hair, begin to chant daily, only to return when you can transcend yourself into some zen like state of being. I really, really want one of her ultra cool stealth invisible paddles.

Returning to my tent I got into the lotus position to wait out the next two days, mentally preparing myself for the forthcoming four star assessment. Anyone might think I was apprehensive.

After 2 days R&R I joined Francesco (Sicily), Mikael (Sweden) and Beat (Switzerland), to form an international group of kayakers ready for assessment. 
By then the wind had subsided to just about force 5 and the sea state had calmed right down, this gave our days assessor, Axel Schoevers, a bit of a task to find us some challenging conditions in which to test our self rescue, towing, navigation and paddling skills. But he did.

The second day's weather had built up to provide excellent conditions for today's assessment which would consist of: leadership; group management; rescue skills; navigation and paddle skills, assessed by Kate Dufus. Kate had just completed an attempt at the current circumnavigation of Anglesey the previous day.
 

What if Mikael were to capsize (deliberately) right now, what would I do?

Kate kept us all on our toes during our turns of "leading", throwing in various incidents. It was actually very good fun. I think everyone managed to relax and actually enjoy the experience.

Sunshine even

Which way?

Beat enjoying a swell time

Kate incident planning or planning an incident?

Beat unflinchingly enjoys a bit of clapotis

Kate having a blast!

We all return to dry land to be debriefed individually by both Axel and Kate. After being given pointers for continued improvement we were all to be awarded with our stars. Happy bunnies all around, and a very satisfying conclusion to a few great days paddling "up north".

Storm Gathering 2011

It's was three years ago that I last ventured up to Anglsey. The island is situated at the north westerly tip of Wales and has some exceptional tide races to lure paddlers to play. It was stormy then, and it promised to be stormy again for the 2011 Storm Gathering. With the weather blowing a good southerly F6-7 there was to be no playing out on the races, and with pretty much everywhere having rough water and high winds I decided that a spot of surfing would be just the ticket to get me into the groove.

Rhosneigr for a spot of surfing

Surfing the plastic Cappella was fun - but turning around in all that wind was a bit of an effort. I took the opportunity to try out a P&H Delphin, it was a surf specification version. Shorter than the Cappella and with an excellent fitting seat and a lot of rocker it was just the job. Turning in the wind was so so easy, and surfing it was the most fun I've had in a long boat. I loved it so much I didn't want to give it up for the rest of the session. (Sorry Kate).

Surfing the Delphin in a bit of wind!

Oh dear, think I want one

I think the cheesy smile says it all

Surf pics thanks to Kate Dufus

Duh! . . . might be useful

Thought I'd pass this on as it might be of use - I know it's obvious - but it was so obvious I overlooked it.

Did a little rolling and self rescue practice last night - after a few dunkings I thought it prudent to let the coast guard know what we were up to in case someone phoned in thinking we needed some assistance.

"You are very muffled and broken up" 

was the gist of the their return call, together with a misinterpretation of my call sign.

"Try turning into the wind sir" - 

 what wind. I couldn't figure out what the problem was.

Then it dawned on me. I don't carry my VHF in a pouch, it's "waterproof`" :), and of course during the immersions the speaker/mike grill gets flooded and doesn't necessarily drain quickly - there is a function on the radio to blast out the water by emitting a tone for a few seconds - remembering the key combination I used this and hey presto transmissions were restored strong and clear.

It made me think how important this might be to remember If I needed to make that call in dire need after being dunked or still being in the water.

How something quite simple hindered communication.