Last Annual Leave before Christmas

In my last post I vocalised that fact that I was starting to get a bit concerned by how little time I have spent in my boat, especially considering it still gives me a little fright every time I think I have tamed the wobble. Well I decided to do something about it and took my last remaining holiday off specifically to go for a paddle.

I headed for my favourite section of canal in Chichester (it’s not my favourite section of canal, that honour goes to the first few miles of the Llangollen canal from Hurleston, but Chichester seems to be the only place I am comfortable to paddle my K1 at the moment) and put on for a solo paddle.

I had a tail wind for the first 2kms as I headed toward the basin which helped with my speed and not long after I had started I achieved my max speed of the day. Turning around was a bit sketchy as the wind caught me and my boat at an angle which nearly saw me swimming, and it wasn’t until it was against me did I realise what a boon it had been for the first two kilometres.

After about 40 minutes or so I had completed a lap of the canal and usually I would stop there, but I had taken a day’s holiday for this and I was going to make the most of it. I headed off again for another trip to the basin and back which rounded the total distance up to 10kms.

I didn’t fall in… Well. I didn’t fall in while paddling which was a pleasant change. I did still have to throw in a few support strokes every now and then but in general I felt very confident in the boat. I do seem to have a problem getting out of it though, in fact, I don’t think I have managed a dry exit yet. I pulled up to the bank tried a couple of times to get out before finally losing the battle and plopped in, which was a shame as it had been a very successful paddle up to that point. My concern is the 77 portages on the DW, which currently means 77 dunkings.