Sunday 17th August Club Paddle - Dengie Flats & Foulness Sands
Taking advantage of the continued warm summer weather and ideal conditions for a slightly longer paddle, 6 paddlers from the CKC took to the water on Sunday 17th August with one aim, let’s go "Out, Out", as one famous comedian would say. The aim of this paddle was to get outside the banks of the River Crouch and the relative shelter this normally provides us with on most of our shorter paddles. This allowed the group to see some parts of the River Crouch and wider coastline they haven't necessarily seen whilst kayaking before, including the Dengie Flats, Foulness Sands, Offshore Windfarms. The additional benefit of heading directly out of the river in the direction of the Whittaker Channel is that we also get to experience the more bracing conditions heading in from the North Sea, including stronger winds and larger waves.
The forecast for the paddle held firm throughout the day with a strong easterly breeze gusting up to 19kn head on, providing some bouncy conditions as we passed the entrance to the River Roach and slowly turned directly into the winds as we headed out the River Crouch. Once level with the mouth of the River Crouch, we could easily see the Dengie Flats and Foulness Sands rising on both sides of the channel. Due to the good progress we made on the first leg of our paddle, we arrived around 1 hour early of low tide and had to adjust our plans due to the Dengie Flats being mostly still under the water at this point.
We then crossed over towards the Foulness Sands through some lovely chop, with waves exceeding the height we normally get to experience in the confides of the River Crouch on a regular basis. This was a good skills practice for the group and very fun in the warm and sunny weather, whilst taking advantage of the easterly breeze as most of the larger waves would be head on. After arriving on the south side of the channel we stopped for a lunch break, admiring the views across to Foulness Island, Bradwell, Clacton and the Sandbanks in the near distance.
After our lunch break, we headed back to home via the South Shore of the River Crouch, staying close to the banks of the Foulness Island before cutting across to the North Shore just past Horse Shoal Buoy. Being tide and wind assisted for the entire paddle home is a real pleasure, also allowing for some surf conditions close to the shallow waters.
Overall, a great 14-mile paddle completed in 4 hours, which included our half our stop on the banks of the channel for lunch. We also had the pleasure of celebrating Sophie’s Birthday and hope she enjoyed marking it with such a nice paddle out on the river.
Cheers Dan
Photos Supplied: Dan / Dee / Sophie
