Canoes on the Humber

Along with many friends, I've paddled the Humber quite frequently in the past but always in sea kayaks. The Estuary does require some forward planning, tides need to be correct and wind speed / direction needs to be within limits. Sunday proved to be one of those days although visibility was fairly limited at our time to launch - approximately two and a half hours prior to high tide.

With this in mind we decided to put the open boats in near the bridge and stick to the north bank, leaving the crossing of busy shipping lanes to another day. Non the less we had a pleasant day using both the wind and tides to our advantage.  A couple of hours up towards Brough and beyond, a quick lunch stop and then a return journey on the building ebb... well there's no need to work too hard...

As high water was reached the wind swung around and dissipated to almost nothing, the mighty Humber turned into quite a millpond - although a quick check on transits soon confirmed we where still making very good progress. 

Tides where never going to be big, forecasted at being just below six metres and not much fresh water coming down the rivers.