The Solent 28/29th April

Wildebeest on the Plains of The Isle of Wight?
You might not expect to see herds of wildebeest roaming the hills of the Isle of Wight but..

As Peter put up his brand new tent, we came to the conclusion that small plastic windows in tents must be there to view herds of wildebeest, grand sweeping canyons or some other grand wonder of the world. Then we discovered they are there to watch rain clouds sweep over the distant Isle of Wight!

Saturday morning brought a poor weather forecast but we decided to paddle anyway. Leaving Keyhaven, we had the shelter of Hurst beach for the first mile or so. It was dry but there were very few other people on the water this morning. Clearing the sheltered bay, the predicted F4 south westerly was obvious. Nothing to worry about and the following sea gave us the chance to surf a few waves as we paddled towards Lymington.

Even the sunshine managed to come out for a while and we settled down to another pleasant day on the water. This stretch of the Solent has easy access, good facilities and is well worth visiting. What it lacks in coastal scenery, it makes up for in interesting landmarks, things to watch in the Solent and (of course) the wildebeest on the Island

Lunch was taken at Lymington Town Quay, about a mile or so inland from the Solent itself. As we headed back, after lunch, there were a couple of hints that things had moved on a bit since the morning ! most of the dinghies that had passed us on the way in were now being towed back de-masted and the rigging of the moored yachts was singing like the Hounds of the Baskervilles!

Once clear of the limited protection of Normandy Point, the full force of the wind hit us. It had picked up considerably and was probably now blowing at Force 5 and straight in our faces! We worked quite hard to round the point and the Solent was a mix of peaking waves and white horses. The quickest route back to Hurst was straight across the bay and through the waves.

This was the biggest sea Julie had ever paddled in and she wasn't looking forward to making the crossing. At the end of one of the shingle spits, I decided that it was too much for Julie and reluctantly she agreed. We turned around and headed back to Lymington whilst the others made the crossing and arrived safely back at Keyhaven. The sea is not a big lake and should not be taken chances with. Julie had already paddled in conditions she was not used to and had learnt enough for one day!

Sunday morning brought more clouds but no rain (luckily). The beach at Lepe was fairly busy but there were far fewer yachts out than we had expected. From Lepe we kayaked along the shoreline into the Bealieu River. After a couple of miles we lunched on a small beach, nearly opposite Bucklers Hard. In this day and age of gin palaces and Saturday sailors, it is hard to imagine the timber warships of ages gone by being built here and sailing off to do battle on the high seas.

After lunch we made a casual return to Lepe to finish off a great weekend. No doubt we will return one day this year and have some more good paddling here.

Paddlers on the weekend were Paul Frost, Peter Venters, Terry Hutchins, Julie Williams and myself.

Nigel Williams