Paddles with an Anas acuta...... unashamedly biased toward the sea kayak of that name (actually the voyages of two boats, one 'traffic over gold', one 'quill')

Sunday 1 September 2013

Back in the Solent

More posts on Shetland are pending, but meanwhile we are back in our usual haunts. Helping out with a charity paddle from Ryde to Gosport today.

 Here is my swimmer, who made excellent progress until meeting heavy shipping between Sturbridge and Gilkicker.

We have never tried to cross with so much traffic around, but QHM and VTS were very helpful and a pilot cutter came out to assess our speed and fit us in with the AIS readings. In the end there was plenty of water for everyone, but we had to wait 5 minutes for the Cassiopeia to go ahead and then crossed astern.

Some of the slower swimmers ended up waiting for  3 large ships, an intermediate group was allowed to set off between vessels 2 and 3, getting a quick start to make the gap.

Thinking about it, 'busy' is what makes the Solent the fun place it is.

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