Tuesday Evening Paddles, 5th August 2008

Something More Challenging - Copeland Island

A Tuesday evening paddle with the BKC, the plan on the web site was to head out from the slip at Donaghadee over to the Copelands. On arrival the weather was drizzly as it had been for most of the day and the visibility was pretty poor with Copeland island itself barely visible. There were four single kayaks and one double in attendance.

Greg being the most organised person had thoughtfully printed off few charts and laid out the plan of attack, due to the limited visibility and possibility of swell in the sound the plan was to head for the eastern point of Copeland island and then make a decision on where to go from there with the weather and visibility making it likely that the main island would be the goal for this evening. With the double kayak being slower and a harder beast to control and with the visibility and possibility of some decent swell a formation was agreed on at the beginning to ensure everyone stuck together which was well adhered to during the evening with no one being out of communicating distance on both legs.

Karen & Jon getting ready to set off
Jon & Greg have no idea what's about to happen

We set off at 7pm with the first 10 minutes being relatively calm, then the swell really started to pick up. Our approach to the eastern point of island had us going in to the waves for the most part so this was stuck to until nearer the island. The swell was several foot high, not sure how to judge height yet but it certainly had us disappearing from sight and felt mountainous.

Disappearing Boats

None of the tops were breaking badly at this point so it was fairly steady roller coaster which kept you on your toes, it is not easy to take pictures when moving this much! At least bracing one handed while taking pictures with the other is a new skill…

As the island came closer visibility had dropped and we headed to the south coast to have a stop, with the size and direction of the of the waves from the east and visibility dropping, going around the island was obviously a no goer.

The crossing itself took 45 minutes and we had almost a 45 minute break where the worlds problems were discussed and solved while drinking coffee and eating buns kindly provided on the provision they must all be eaten before we return or unspeakable things would happen to us. The water was flat calm at this point making you wonder if you imagined the waves on the trip over!

Everyone appeared to have enjoyed the trip out and with no incidents or difficulties the return route was discussed, a zig zag ish route (a technical term, honest) was planned to allow us to run with the waves slightly then at the more difficult waves turn in to them.

With VHF out of the back of the boat (didn’t seem an on person requirement while on the slip!) we headed back out.

The waves on the return leg were an entirely different beast altogether, although the tidal flow had now dropped the tops of the waves were now regularly breaking and seemed to have grown to me anyway.

This resulted for a short period of time in a water breaking over the deck and frequent braces when you couldn’t get out of the way of incoming breaking wave.

This also meant that there wasn’t a hope in hell of me taking any pictures but the double and single near me were performing picture perfect manoeuvres and taking some water in the face at times at the breaking tops of waves. I will strap the cyborg video camera to my head next time!

The big swell ended abruptly and the sea returned to a more quiet state for our return to the slip with the return leg taking about 35 minutes.

This was certainly one of the most challenging and enjoyable trips I’ve had to date and although beyond what I have been out on before at no time did it feel uncomfortable or out of control, if anything it was an exciting change from the tranquil sea paddles I am used to, the river paddling experience certainly helped.

Everyone performed brilliantly, stuck to the plan, stayed close, communicated well and seemed to have a good time of it. Thanks to everyone that was out for this trip and to Greg for the chart and plan for the evening.

Total paddling time 77 minutes + 45 minute stop on island, total distance 7.4km.

John Grant (jaygee)

Reproduced by kind permission from JohnG's Kayaking Blog.