Tour of Hoo Salt Marsh. Sunday 11th October 2015

[Tharlow]

I am planning a trip to Hoo Salt Marsh Island in the Medway estuary to see the Hoo Fort, abandoned wrecks, various wildlife and the newly restored Medway Queen paddle steamer .

This is a short trip of 5 miles but it does involve crossing the shipping lane twice and having the final hours of the incoming tide against us.
Therefore paddlers should be of a 2* standard.

Chart of the area is at:-
http://www.visitmyharbour.com/harbours/ ... 2012-chart

Timetable.
Meet at Boathouse at 09.00 to collect boats and equipment.
Leave at 9.30
Meet at The Strand Car Park, Gillingham, ME 7 1RJ (free parking with toilets and café) at 10.30.
Launch at 11.00.
Cross shipping lane to south of Hoo Island and follow shore east and then to the north.
High Water is at 12.49.
Continue heading north to the Medway shore at the remains of Cockham Fort for packed lunch at 12.30ish.
Leave 13.30.
Return to west of Hoo Island then cross shipping lane to Corporation Wharf, Chatham to view restoration of boats.
Return to The Strand slipway by 15.00.
Retire to café for those who want to.
I hope to be back at the boathouse by 16.30.
Low water is at 19.10.
This will be an inter-club trip with our friends from Bewl and Maidstone Canoe Clubs.
If you would like any more information please contact me via the forum.

Details of previous trips can be found at
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1311
and
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1277

I will be at the boathouse on Saturday mornings to answer any questions you may have.

[andy g]

Thanks for organising this one Tim,

For those who would like to do a nice open water paddle this one is a really good introduction to this type of estuary water.

I am planning to participate , and am prepared to take some paddlers who may not have gained their 2 Star yet , but do have sufficient trips under their belt. Please see me in advance (and definitely not on the day) and I will let you if I feel you are suitable to come along.

Please see myself or Tim and ask if you are thinking of coming along.

Yoli and I are going and we can probably take another 2 paddlers and boats on my car.

Andy

[Martin Boardman]

Thanks to Tim for organising. The combination of wind, tidal flow and confused water kept things interesting, and made the paddle a little more challenging. 5.8 miles covered - slightly more than planned because a number of paddlers wanted to extend the trip, and took a coffee break on Hoo Ness Jetty, opposite Gillingham marina.

Some pictures from the day here:- http://www.kayakpics.martinboardman.co. ... 020151011/

[Tharlow]

Martin, Gabriel, Kathleen, Phil, Andy, Yoli, Julia and myself together with 3 members of Maidstone CC and 3 friends from Kent County Scouts met at The Strand on a cloudy morning with a strong NW wind blowing.
Unfortunately the right half of photos are not shown.
To view the complete picture, right click on picture and click on 'Open image in new tab', then click on picture for bigger size.

Crossing the Medway was delayed by the passage of a preserved tug...


..we then turned into both the wind and tide with Paul and Alison in the open making good progress...


This was Gabriel's first estuary trip and he excelled in both testing wind and tides....


By the time we reached the wrecks on the east of the island, the Sun eventually emerged..



and now with both the wind and tide behind us we made good progress with Paul and Alison decided to set sail...


Arrived at Cockham Fort for lunch where The Great British Bake Off continued....



With the tide now turned and in our favour and protected from the NW wind by Hoo island we made good progress to Corporation Wharf where Andy took the opportunity to inspect The Medway Queen...

Meanwhile despite my repeated orders to 'Drop Anchor', the crew of preserved lightship LV21 http://www.lv21.co.uk/ refused as 'their 3.5 ton anchor might get dented on those below.'....


Arriving back to The Strand earlier than planned, those who were keen did a quick dash back to Hoo island where Kathleen regaled Gabriel with stories of paddling over a hot coffee.

[andy g]

Tim
Thanks for very much for organising this trip , Yoli and I had a good time on the water. It was nice to meet paddlers from other clubs.

Looking forward to the next one!

Andy

[Jules]

Another great trip by Tim. Thanks