I’d been racking my brains over what to do anyway. I was going to be out alone and my first idea of a 13 mile paddle up the River Waveney from Beccles to Oulton Broad was put on hold. Second thought was a quick fishing session around the White Swan but that was anchoring and I’d already decided not to do that. Troll Oulton broad or Beccles for pike? Maybe. The tide times would have been alright for heading on the last of the flood to Kessingland and then back over slack and into the start of the flood but it just wasn’t quite the right thing to get my attention; none of them were.
It’s starting to get lighter as I get downstairs and pour a coffee. Then it comes to me, harbour road, a paddle around Lake Lothing. A bit of distance and a bit of sightseeing. It’s a great place to waste a couple of hours if you like to look at boats or enjoy a bit of history. It’s also pretty good for paddling as the water, clear and clean, is pretty sheltered from strong wind and is nice and open without much traffic. Excellent idea. Off I went.
I got a case of Déjà vu. I was here a year ago when we had the first snowfall. That’ll be a tradition now then. I started unstrapping the Necky and looked around as I heard a boat and amidst the flakes Lead Us chugged past with another party of anglers who will no doubt be over the moon with their day. I waved and carried on unstrapping with fingers getting rapidly chilled.
Kayaking, as opposed to kayak fishing, is lightweight and hassle-free. I fish light anyway but I didn’t even need to carry a small amount of kit down to the water nor use a trolley. No, 17ft of composite Chatham on my shoulder and a paddle in my left hand, spray deck already around my waist and PFD on over my cag and bib and brace combi and I was fully kitted. I decided to use my Kinetic Wing again too for the first time in ages. I put my kayak onto the water at the bottom of the slip, got in, sealed off the deck and went out, it’s just that easy.
Paddling out between a sunken boat and the Excelsior I decided to head against tide and wind initially and run up towards the town to cover a bit of distance and get my shoulders loosened up and worked out – my upper back and shoulders seized up for a couple of days when I was off ill so I figured they could do with a stretch. The wind was cutting straight through my fingers and it was painful but there was plenty to see.
I passed the Lydia Eva and Mincarlo tied up on the quayside, I passed the LCT Mark VIII HMAV’s L4073 Ardennes and L4164 Arakan with their opening bow doors, I passed the Sulisker, work to turn her into a throat-warbler-mangrove having stalled, I passed the dry docks and silos and other reminders of Lowestoft’s maritime past and finally I passed Asda, turning around before I got to the Bascule bridge. It was nice to be heading the other way at last and my fingers started to work again. As I paddled back I stopped resisting the temptation to paddle through the jetty supports that were only a few inches wider than the kayak and ran along the side startling pigeons and seabirds from their slumbers.
I crossed the water again to get another look at LT412Mincarlo and YH89 Lydia Eva, the former, a sidewinder trawler, the last of the Lowestoft fishing vessels with an engine built in the town and the latter the last surviving steam-powered herring drifter which summers at South Quay in Great Yarmouth but returns to Lowestoft for winter maintenance. She dates from 1930 and was built in Kings Lynn in 1930. I continued on my way.
The Sulisker, approached head-on, really does have a lovely bow shape and I told myself not to be bloody stupid and paddle between it and the dock; I listened for once. Fooling around and being foolish are two very separate things.
Back to my launch site and I took a better look at the sunken boat. She was a nice looking one that I have grown familiar with over the last couple of years. She might pull some of the peelers away from the beach next summer but should be an easy venue for the hardback smut bait pots…
I passed by LT472 Excelsior and had a proper look too, a lovely shape to her (great arse) and a beauty to watch in full sail. A restored fishing smack built in 1921 and the last surviving sailing trawler I can take a look from her own turf whenever I want.
On down past the moorings and marinas and then off to one partially exposed rack of ribs, the remains of the former YH228 Eadwine, a wooden steam drifter built in great Yarmouth in 1914.
The water was so clear I decided to see what I could pick up on the action cam and answered my question with a load of seaweed which had to be whipped off again.
Back out and I crossed over the water to the ‘beached’ hulk of Probe, MMS 1086, last used as a survey ship operating from Lowestoft in the 1960’s until sold for scrap in March 1969.
I wandered off again, past the inshore fleet’s moorings and turned in to have a closer look at the LT326 MFV Yellowtail and the other wreck alongside her.
Again the water here was clear and I could see the bottom so after a circuit I headed back just to the west to see if I could film whatever it was I’d looked at on the side imaging unit a couple of years before.
I had a good view, from my seat and on the camera but am none the wiser! No bother. Besides, the prize, my favourite was just a few hundred yards away on the other side.
Hang about, what’s that? I looked again, up by the stacks on the yellowtail where the boarding had come away. I’ve found the pinkfoot hiding place! A pair of pinkfoot geese taking shelter from the snow just had to be filmed and so I paddled over for a quick hello.
Then it was across to old 102, 68ft of Honduras mahogany. Okay so I have a fondness for wartime stuff and always have but this is one seriously beautiful boat to look at and I’d first seen her way back in 1980 after I’d been to my first airshow (the Mildenhall Air Fete). She was passing under the bridge near my home back then and I’d only seen her under way once since, sadly not doing the 48 knots she’s capable of. Rather a distinguished lady this, designed in 1936 by the MD of Vosper, Commander Peter Du Cane CBE, she was launched in 1937 and bought by the Admiralty, becoming MTB102. She was the first Motor Torpedo Boat of the modern era and was crewed by 2 Officers and 8 Men. She saw service throughout the war and crossed the English Channel eight times to rescue stranded servicemen from the beaches around Dunkirk, being the third from last to leave, Rear Admiral Wake-Walker’s flagship for the last two nights and is the last remaining Royal Navy vessel still afloat that was present. Later, she carried Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower on their review of the D-Day fleet prior to the Allied return to Occupied Europe. and launched in 1937 she was the first of the modern MTB’s., being the third from last boat off the beaches at Dunkerque (having crossed the Channel 8 times and becoming the flagship for Operation Dynamo as it was called). Interestingly, she was involved in the return of Allied Forces to France some four years later too, in a roundabout way. It was MTB 102 that carried Churchill and Eisenhower as they reviewed the ships for the D-Day invasions. Acquired in 1973 by a Sea Scout group she was refurbished for filming of ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and is often seen on documentaries and in the news.
Well that was it, time for a fast paddle back past the yachts to the slipway and thence to the van…I had a need for coffee and had had my fill of snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment