|
|
ENDURANCE KAYAK THE BRISTOL CHANNEL: A CROSSING OF BOARDERS
On the first day of summer leave a group of paddlers from HMS ENDURANCE Kayaking club decided to get together to paddle across the Bristol Channel. It was early on the Monday morning when Mark Jameson (BV), Mark Townsend (Towny) and I rose early to drive from the English side of the Bristol Channel to the Welsh side to start the 12 mile paddle from Barry to Watchet.
The day seemed relatively benign as we started off but as we arrived in Barry it became obvious that we would face a challenging paddle against the wind. As we paddled out into the chop we all looked at each other and thought the same thing “I hope that it is not the same all the way across”. The going was tough at first as we relentlessly paddled into large waves that would wash across our deck, but this is the way we wanted it: a real challenging paddle before our summer expedition to Scotland.
We continued to paddle in a straight line on a bearing of 185 degrees which we had worked out would take us along the shortest route to Watchet. The tide was still coming in and we had calculated that it would turn to go out as we passed over the half way mark and therefore we would get an equal push up the river as down the river and so all we had to do was to maintain our course of 185. We kept in a close group for most of the crossing maintaining ourselves within audible distance. This is important in sea kayaking so that if one person has a problem the others can quickly be alerted and arrive to help.
As we continued the paddle the wind began to ease slightly which was welcome relief to us all. By half way we were all beginning to feel slightly tired but the beautiful green hills of England did not seem to get significantly closer. When you are paddling large distances as a crossing it is easy to think that you have gone further than you have but a quick look behind soon tells you that you still have a large distance to cover. This was clearly shown when Towny and I were convinced we only had about 4 miles to go when we had not actually reached half way. We were so convinced that we chose not to believe BV’s GPS. However we would be proved wrong later.
The paddle continued at a slow pace and we all gradually tired. When you become tired it is often not the fittest person who is able to keep going but it comes down to mental fitness and how much you want to achieve your particular goal. With our military backgrounds we all had experience of being mentally and physically drained but we still all suffered and were still all really pleased when Watchet came into sight as a discernable landmark. Soon we could see Towny’s wife waiting for us and then we knew that our pain would not last much longer. We pulled our Kayaks up on the beach and stepped out. It was at first hard to stand as our legs had been gripping in a seated position for the previous 6 hours. However standing up was far better than sitting in a kayak at that point.
We packed away the kayaks back on to Mark’s car and gave ourselves all a pat on the back, we wandered into Watchet village centre and all had a cream tea and cake. Oh the spoils of a homecoming!
|
