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Fifteen hardy souls took to the warm but sometimes rough waters of Chichester harbour last weekend to try paddling in a very different environment.
Armed with an assortment of K1s and K2s, two foam rubber rockets and plenty of food, the courageous few braved big washes, salt water and sunburn to venture where few K1 paddlers are brave enough to go.
Braver still however was a local paddler they encountered who had been lent a Rapier and a set of flat paddles by a South Coast Canoe Club, and told to come back when he could paddle it!
Swimmer of the year award went to Craig and Lucy, who succumbed to a large wash they were trying to surf, and won a long swim. The most painful rocket shooter award went to Dani who was lethal at any distance under 20 yards. Practical jokers Tim and Craig crossed Peter's rudder wires over and watched him paddle some 100 yards backwards to the shore and almost suffer a sense of humour failure. Boffins of the year Craig, Tim and Peter spent a happy 20 minutes on the shore calculating the height reached by the foam rubber rockets, timing their fall from the top of their flight, and working on 10m per second squared and terminal velocity after 1 second.., whilst Lucy won wader of the trip for meandering into thigh deep mud on her way to the facilities at a local hostelry.
It was an excellent outing. Six hours of paddling, kite flying rocket shooting and piracy.. finding a convenient wash, the crews realised that rather than paddle on the wash, it was possible to hold onto the motor boat and blag a tow. With six boats all holding on, the boat slowed, and the owner peered over the back to see what was going on. Assuming an invasion was nigh, he threw two buckets of water over our heroes. Thus refreshed our wet but clean paddlers resumed the more traditional way of gaining a tow.
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