Coble Landing, Filey to The Sands, North Bay Scarborough

Sunday dawned another beautiful if a somewhat cold day. Dave was keen to have a play in his new Delphin. A lunchtime launch to get the last couple of hours of ebb, the Brigg end was looking quite lumpy but with a wide berth it made for a fun crossing - on to Scarborough.

Dave and his new boat







North Bay and a bit of swell running, time for a little fun







Unfortunately on more that one occasion we both ended up swimming, what fools but great fun.

Humber in January

We store the boats on a farm which is right next to the Tidal River Hull. On several occasions I have put in here and headed upstream to Beverley but never downstream. Today was to be that day, albeit a very last minute decision.

Heading down towards the city was uneventful and quite dirty and somber to be honest, steaming outfalls from chemical works are really not very appealing, I wouldn't want to be in the water here. It wasn't until the city centre when things got better.



Out into the Humber, cutting out into the main flow, a good 4 knots of tide here... The Deep



Grabby eddy lines everywhere, easiest thing I found was to just power through them..





Paull Lighthouse










Down towards Spurn, keeping an ear on channel 12 - Humber VTS, this brings home to what really is a busy waterway and with major tidal flows and grabby, devilish eddies everywhere this waterway needs respect. The Taran did me well, very fast, the Nordcapp would have been more forgiving but the Taran punched through the last of the ebb as I turned to return to my pick up at the village of Paull.

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men.........

Charts bought, tidal diamonds examined and route planned, Sunday looked like an ideal day for a play in the upper Humber over low water - what fun could be had messing between the mud and sandbanks, following the last of the tide down to the Humber Bridge, a play around the supports and then back up on the flood.

Launch point had been located, a pontoon from behind the pub at South Ferriby, near the entrance to the River Ancholme. Others had landed here over high water to visit the pub. Up early, over the Humber Bridge and down to the pub carpark, the tide was ebbing fast between the south bank and Reeds Island.

Problem....the pontoon had been removed for the winter and was laid on the bank, now there was 20 ft of deep treacherous mud between us and the water.  Well that was that, no other safe access point could be found.

Not to be beaten, it was a nice day, the River Ancholme was close by but still, straight and quite boring, lets go find the Trent, it has good flow, certainly not as challenging as the Humber but could be fun.

Down to Newark and a put in just above the weir in the town for a push upstream...

Want a race?



A little bit of breaking in and out in the moderate flow.



Fi admires a weir..





It could have been very easy to have turned around and gone home but it turned out to be quite a nice chilled day in the best of the January weather. and about 18 kms covered.

New Year on Anglesey

A few lovely chilled days on Anglesey with friends, a perfect way to start the New Year.

Humber Tributary

A blistering cold day in December and both Fi and myself needed to get out. Between all the Christmas shopping just time for a quick paddle over high water.  With icy decks and frozen hatches its still better than fighting for space in the shops.



Fi is eyeing up a goose for Christmas...




Loving the Taran still..

UK Paddling

For my own benefit I thought it would be interesting to mark on a map the locations I've personally paddled over this last couple of years.....and I came up with this, locations marked in red.

Surfing Rockpools

Big, big sea over here on the North East coast, chance of a bit of fun within the fairly sheltered bay of Filey. Dave brought his Alaw Bach and I was paddling the Taran.

A wonderful day catching nice clean waves along Filey front, I should have had an amazing video of us both surfing the same waves in tandem and much more but alas the Gopro was playing up. A few stills from the day..





We were both having such great fun as the surf built through the day, nice big clean swells that eventually broke sending you bongo sliding towards the beach at a fantastic rate.

Unfortunately Dave stayed on one wave far too long and ended up bongo sliding into a submerged concrete post....



We weren't going to let this spoil our day and it will fix.

Taran

Feeling rather under the weather - man flu - and a 7 occasional 8 forecast it would have been very easy to stay at home but I wanted to have a run in this boat.

The tidal river looked like the sensible option, so after downing more pills it was onto the water at Weel Bridge Beverley. Ipod on and up the river I shot. Any feelings of instability soon dispersed and the boat handled lovely, for the majority of the journey the rudder was simply not necessary leaving the boat to handle through simple strokes and edging. Quick? Yes very, but then that is what its built for.









As the sun disappeared over the horizon the temperature plummeted, a quick stop and within seconds the wind chill painfully bit into my hands. Back onto the water and a sprint for the finish, a total distance of 28km, 14Nm for the afternoon.



Now I've familiarized myself with the boat I'm keen to get onto some more challenging water, but not until I've got rid of this blasted man flu.

Fooling Around at the Farnes

A superb day for the end of November, a disappointingly flat sea but a bit of fun to be had anyway. Great company with Neil, Brian, Jim, Rich, George and Fi.

Incident Management at UKSG6

A few photos by Axel Schoevers and Warren Parker from the recent UKSG6 of yours truly and side-kick Neil Turnbull.

Good Friend Neil's Video of the Recent UKSG6 Symposium, Anglesey 2011

Esthwaite Grand Slam Kayak Match

The idea was to land three species - pike, perch and trout from this lovely water within the English Lake District.

The weekend arrived and we made ourselves comfortable in Hawkshead YHA. Saturday dawned beautifully but within no time the weather deteriorated. Today was a practice day which found both Fiona and myself in search of pike.





We had limited success with one small fish each which proved to be a hard day for everyone.







Fi was happy as it was her biggest pike to date...but no way was she holding that thing as it had teeth.



Back to the hostel for a hot shower and freshen up and then into Hawsker with friends for dinner. A few beers too many and off to bed.

Sunday, match day, proved to be just as difficult and the fish eluded both Fiona and me. Good friend Simon did latch into a nice fish though, taken on a fly...











The fish, along with a trout later on gave Simon 1st place, well done mate. A wonderful weekend with good friends, shame the fish had not been biting better but it didn't spoil what was a very successful event.