On the river living life right!
Today
was one of those days that I’ll remember for a long time to come!
About
a week ago I had arranged with some friends and my better half to go kayaking
on The Hamble. Yesterday afternoon whilst Mary was busy elsewhere I got the car
packed and the kayaks loaded ready for an early start.
We
set off at 8 ready to meet James and Kiah at Lower Swanick. The sky was blue,
and the weather warm. Once at Swanick Mary and I got the kayaks set up (and in
the case of The Saucy Nancy II inflated) just as the second Dynamic Duo
arrived.
We got
everyone down to the water and got launched and just chilled for a while whilst
our 2 man (person?) team got settled; after a few adjustments and a quick
change of paddle we were off.
Going
up through the marina to start with and then under the bridges (road, rail and
motorway).
As we passed the pillars of the M27 bridge we noticed something
unusual, there are oysters growing there and some of them are very large. I’ll
now be researching how to purge them!
A
short paddle up river and we reached Manor Farm Country Park where we beached
the kayaks to stretch our legs (apart from Mary who was sat happily in her
kayak)
It
was about a mile or so upriver that we hit a bit of a stumbling block for
kayakers; we ran out of water! We had reached a point where we had
approximately 6” of water under the keels. Not a problem for Mary and I but a
major problem for James and Kiah as The Saucy Nancy II has a skeg (a small fin
on the underside of the kayak that helps it run true in the current).
When
Mary and I had come up before the tide had been higher and we were able to get
up Curbridge Creek to The Horse and Jockey pub. This time we just pointed our
noses downstream and took a slow paddle back to the marina and a well-earned
bite to eat and a cold drink at The Jolly Sailor.
This
was the first outing of The Fantastic Four but I’m pretty certain that it won’t
be the last as plans are already afoot to go and paddle The Stour.
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