Poole Harbour
Saturday 19th June was a bright sunny morning and saw me driving down from Reading to Poole to meet other members of WCC for my first club trip. I’ve only been kayaking since I did the one star course in April and wasn’t totally sure what to expect or who else was on the trip. I’d been up late trying to scour the house for what camping gear I had and getting together everything I thought I might need with the constraint that it all had to fit into the two small compartments of the Sea Kayak I’d just been introduced to by Marion down at the WCC boat store.
I arrived at Redcliffe Farm where some of the group had camped on the Friday night to find Jonathan and Stuart guarding one of the canoes. I met John, who’d kindly brought a kayak down for me since my soft-top is totally impractical for this sport as I have begun to realise! It was a pleasant and gentle start to the morning and people gradually arrived. Mark and Jim had been round to Studland head to drop Jim’s car, ready for the next day. Steve and Marion arrived from Reading and gradually the group assembled and packed their kit into their respective kayaks and canoes - Tanya with her own sea kayak, Harry, Hanna in borrowed boats and Stuart in one of the canoes.
By about half eleven or so we were ready to go and our flotilla of seven sea kayaks, most of which Steve had managed to borrow for the weekend, and four canoes set off down the Wareham river toward Poole Harbour. It was only my second time in a sea kayak but it did not take long to get comfortable with the way it handled. Compared to the kayaks that I’d done most of my training in, the sea kayaks were pretty easy to keep in a straight line! To turn them I just had to remember to lean out from the direction I wanted to go - slightly counter intuitive until you get used to it. By the time we got out into the western end of the harbour we were ready for a snack so everyone rafted up for a mid-morning break although it was getting closer to lunchtime! A gentle breeze from the north pushed us steadily but there was plenty room to drift into and we were heading away from the Wareham navigation channel.
Most of the sea kayakers pulled ahead of the canoes with Steve leading the way as we rounded Gold Point Heath. We met a couple of Sea Kayakers out trialling some boats from a local shop. With Brownsea Island in the distance we started to turn south toward our objective for the afternoon - Long Island. We seemed to be heading into the wind now which gave me my first bit of sea chop to handle but it was satisfying to push through this establishing a good paddling rhythm.
We beached the boats on arrival at Long Island and set about offloading the kit and setting up camp. Long Island is a private Island available for camping by prior arrangement. We’d booked it but there were a few “unexpected guests” who were persuaded to move away. Although it is a reasonable sized island only part of it is above the tidal line and most of that has dense undergrowth with only a few areas suitable for pitching a tent. Steve, Stuart and I went back out in our kayaks to see if any of the canoes needed a tow against the headwind but they had made good progress and soon everyone was ashore. Having set up the tent I went for a short wander around the island. Looking across the reeded tidal flats you get a good view of the extent of the harbour and can enjoy the peace of the bird life.
The next few hours were occupied with a mixture of cooking, drinking, digging (to restore a former camping spot that someone had dug a large hole in for no apparent reason) and generally sitting around chatting. The younger members of the group - Hanna, Harry, Jonathan and Stuart - kept busy building fires on the beach nearby. Jonathan seemed determined to not sleep in his tent, in turn building a beach bivouac and then stringing up a hammock. The culinary delights ranged from the full gourmet creations of Marion, Steve and Pete, through Mark’s meat feast barbeque with enough hash browns to feed an army to a few meat ball delights (naming no names!). The fact that you are camping seems to be no excuse for dumbing down the menu in WCC! Marion, Steve and Jonathan headed off for a late night paddle round the little creaks in the west of the harbour making the most of a very peaceful evening with a crescent moon low in the sky. After the first day’s paddling I slept very soundly.
Sunday morning was lightly overcast with a slight breeze and we headed off mid morning toward Furzey Island on the south side of Brownsea. We bumped into Pangbourne club who were old friends to some in our group. We meandered our way around the moored yachts off Goathorn Point having stopped for a rest on the beach below the cliffs on the west side. There was a bit of a breeze blowing from the east as we headed across the north end of Brands Bay. It was heads down as we ploughed through the low chop that the wind picked up on the shallows of Stone Island Lake to come ashore among the house boats of Bramble Bush Bay.
Once Jim had driven the drivers back to Redcliffe to pick up the cars, it was back to South Haven point to pick up the boats, the people and the kit before heading off to catch the chain ferry shortcut to Sandbanks and the way home. As we did so the rain took hold so we really had been lucky in getting the best of the weekend’s weather for our trip. I’d thoroughly enjoyed my first proper trip with WCC and got a taste for the sea under paddle. Here’s looking to the next time!
Doug Stewart
Tuesday 23 November 2004
