On a cold, drizzly Sunday, at a rather civilized 8am, 7 paddlers met at CSCC for an open canoe, white water trip. As the last couple of boats were being readied for the trailer, our eighth member (remaining nameless) arrived late. Once David's boat was secured, six open canoes, two cars and the trailer left Chippenham heading for Wales.
The get-in for the trip is across a field and down a slight slope. Rather ominously the exact point for the get-in was marked by a lone sheep; a stark reminder why not to paddle alone, that sheep will paddle no more.
Once on the water, aside from painfully cold hands, there is little to comment on until Mill Falls. The only other time I have paddled this section of the Usk was in an open canoe with Nigel S, and that time we navigated the trickier top section of Mill Falls fine, but swam on the easy bit. Somehow I was back looking at Mill Falls, in an open boat with Nigel S, was it going to end the same way?
The Solo paddlers ran the falls first. Darren made it look quite easy, possibly helped by his pimped-out boat and snow shovel size paddle
. David ran second, he must have found the first section boring, as after a quick spin in the middle he decided to run the second part backwards; all intentional of course. Tony took the first swim after dropping into a stopper sideways before Simon finished up the solo runners without any hassle or drama in a club boat. Now it was time for the duo boats; Beth W and Tristan, and Nigel S and myself. To add a bit more excitement we tied the two boat next to each other and took the Falls as an oar-some foursome in a kata-canoe (Yes I know they're paddle not oars). The idea seemed to work really well; it was surprisingly maneuverable and we had good power. Unfortunately, half of every wave we hit came down the middle and into the boats; thankfully we got down the rapid and to the side, with the water an inch or two off the gunwale, and all paddlers in the boats.
After emptying the boats we set off again, four solo's and the kata-canoe (still taking in water with every wave we hit). During the next section of the river the soloists seemed to have no troubles bouncing over the waves. We, however, were taking on water at such a rate, Nigel became our human bilge pump; it would have probably helped it we didn't aim for all the waves. During what I can only assume was Hay Stacks, the water level was high enough to create a standing wave big enough to get us airborne. Okay, perhaps not fully airborne, but it like a jump from the front. This wave, combined with many others and our bilge pump having to paddle, the kata-canoe sunk. Unknown to Beth and I at the front, our "Captains" steering the boat had abandoned ship after the second time the craft tried to fold in half. With great skill, or maybe lots of luck, we got the boat into an "almost-eddy" where we tied it up so we could bail it.
After the two sinking's, taking on lots of water and countless laughter we decided to split the kata-canoe and go our separate ways, the same way down the river. Unfortunately even as two duo's, both boats took on water and caused more swims. Beth and Tristan took a swim and lost the boat, at the same time Nigel and I lost our fight with the sunken canoe only feet from the bank. Nigel and I managed to swim our boat to the side as David rescued the other and deposited it with us.
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