The Needles up close.
Anyone who has sailed regularly in the Solent out of Portsmouth, Southampton or Cowes will be familiar with the chain of rocks called the Needles - probably the most famous landmark for sailors in the south of England.
I have passed them many times in yachts but it was only this last weekend that I managed to get up close and personal - too personal as it happens.
A few of us visited the Isle of Wight to spend a day kayaking and learning some of the rescue and recovery routines. We decided to go for a paddle in the morning and do the routines in the afternoon. The weather was good and the tide was receding with the prospect of a bit of breeze getting up later in the day.
We headed west towards the Needles from the Cowes direction within the Solent where it was pretty calm, but as we approached we could see that between the rocks the sea was much less benign.
The Needles get their name from a spindly pillar called "Lot's Wife" that collapsed in a storm in 1764. Today they resemble more a set of molars.
Four of us paddled out and rounded the lighthouse under the supervision of Owen Burson, an experienced instructor who runs Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking. On the channel side of the Needles there was a bit of chop but nothing too worrying.
There was quite a bit more chop, however, between the lighthouse rock and the second of the "white teeth" jutting out from the island. The idea was to paddle through this gate towards the calmer water beyond.
I volunteered to go first, with the others following, spaced a good four boat-lengths between each kayak, so we didn't get in the way of each other. Just as I had reached the roughest part between the rocks I heard a shout from Charles Godden (who crops up with BJ - Mark Brownjohn - another of our group, in this story) behind to watch out as his canoe ploughed in to mine. I had no means of steadying myself and there was a slow inevitability about the capsize.
There was time enough for me to rip the spray deck away as I went over (no I haven't had the self-righting and rolling lesson yet) but it didn't feel too comfortable to be a canoe's length from the rocks in the waves. This is not the place you would choose to fall out of a kayak.
Charles held on to the upturned kayak as Owen arrived and paddled me clear while I held on to my paddle and the rear of my kayak. Once away from the cliffs we were able to go through the recovery routine - emptying the canoe and clambering back in while it was rafted to Owen's kayak. Then it was back with the spray deck and once more through the gate - this time successfully.
Everything went well during the recovery but I can tell you it was a relief to be back inside those cliffs. It taught me just how easy it is to fall out of one of these sea kayaks and just why it's important for comparative novices to be with an instructor. I don't blame Charles (well of course I did, continually, for the rest of the day, just as he insisted he had saved me), it was just one of those things.
In the afternoon at a calmer spot near the shore we rehearsed the routine that had happened for real in the morning. Owen says that it's good to practice your balance at home on a big exercise ball. Safer too. I must remember that.
I have passed them many times in yachts but it was only this last weekend that I managed to get up close and personal - too personal as it happens.
A few of us visited the Isle of Wight to spend a day kayaking and learning some of the rescue and recovery routines. We decided to go for a paddle in the morning and do the routines in the afternoon. The weather was good and the tide was receding with the prospect of a bit of breeze getting up later in the day.
We headed west towards the Needles from the Cowes direction within the Solent where it was pretty calm, but as we approached we could see that between the rocks the sea was much less benign.
The Needles get their name from a spindly pillar called "Lot's Wife" that collapsed in a storm in 1764. Today they resemble more a set of molars.
Four of us paddled out and rounded the lighthouse under the supervision of Owen Burson, an experienced instructor who runs Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking. On the channel side of the Needles there was a bit of chop but nothing too worrying.
There was quite a bit more chop, however, between the lighthouse rock and the second of the "white teeth" jutting out from the island. The idea was to paddle through this gate towards the calmer water beyond.
I volunteered to go first, with the others following, spaced a good four boat-lengths between each kayak, so we didn't get in the way of each other. Just as I had reached the roughest part between the rocks I heard a shout from Charles Godden (who crops up with BJ - Mark Brownjohn - another of our group, in this story) behind to watch out as his canoe ploughed in to mine. I had no means of steadying myself and there was a slow inevitability about the capsize.
There was time enough for me to rip the spray deck away as I went over (no I haven't had the self-righting and rolling lesson yet) but it didn't feel too comfortable to be a canoe's length from the rocks in the waves. This is not the place you would choose to fall out of a kayak.
Charles held on to the upturned kayak as Owen arrived and paddled me clear while I held on to my paddle and the rear of my kayak. Once away from the cliffs we were able to go through the recovery routine - emptying the canoe and clambering back in while it was rafted to Owen's kayak. Then it was back with the spray deck and once more through the gate - this time successfully.
Everything went well during the recovery but I can tell you it was a relief to be back inside those cliffs. It taught me just how easy it is to fall out of one of these sea kayaks and just why it's important for comparative novices to be with an instructor. I don't blame Charles (well of course I did, continually, for the rest of the day, just as he insisted he had saved me), it was just one of those things.
In the afternoon at a calmer spot near the shore we rehearsed the routine that had happened for real in the morning. Owen says that it's good to practice your balance at home on a big exercise ball. Safer too. I must remember that.
Labels: BJ, Charles Godden, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Kayaking, Lot's Wife, Mark Brownjohn, Owen Burson, Portsmouth, sea kayak, sea kayaking, Solent, Southhampton, The Needles
posted by Richard Donkin at
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