Working on last week’s theme of what was the club doing a year ago? Well below is the newsletter for the 24 April 2019. Just to remind you what we were doing and what fun it was.
This report was written by our very own Colm.
Currently Colm is working in Ireland
Setting off a few hours late due to river races, we were able to sleep off the worst of the time change to British Summertime.
Eight people made it down for the day, and Poppy and Harvey chose to use the relatively benign tide to give the open boat a go, paddling in tandem under the watchful eye of Dean. We followed the outgoing tide and headed downriver to Putney. With Josh and Andy C setting the pace, we flew down to Hammersmith before hitting the flatter water around Fulham football ground. A low tide nearly trapped us on a couple of the hidden sand banks, but we slogged through and made it in good time to Putney. It was nearly an hour until the tide was due to change so we stocked up on food, while Poppy and Harvey got to grips with managing a canoe solo.
It seems someone had forgotten to tell the tide about the clocks changing. We dutifully got back on the water only to find the tide still happily flowing out. It meant a much tougher workout on the way back as we somehow managed to stay ahead of the changing tide, but it did at least mean we were still at low tide as we got back and Dean got to indulge in a little mud-larking!
There are many advantages to paddling a canoe. Coach Dean demonstrates it makes for a most excellent table substitute.
Even better the River Thames provides just the right level of chill for a decent chardonnay! Now if that wasn’t reason enough to practice tying knots I don’t know what is. Can’t have you loosing a bottle or two tied to the back of you boat. Now that would be disappointing.
