During the Isle of Wight Scout Camp, a group of five Explorers went on a sea kayak expedition round the coast from Newtown Creek to Yarmouth. Led by David Miller, we set off in our boats down Newtown creek. It was planned that we would go with the tide that sweeps round the coast of the island, making for a reasonably fast journey to Colwell Bay, stopping at various points on the coast as we went.
We set off at about three o' clock in the afternoon. Three of us were in sea kayaks, and three in Dancers, the best boat for long journeys apart from a sea kayak. We were told about all the safety checks to be made on a kayak before setting off, and taught about how best to pack the dry bags so they didn’t leak – an important lesson as we were taking all of our dry clothes with us in the boats!
From Corf Scout Camp, we paddled up to the entrance of Newtown Creek and then went west, towards Yarmouth. Once out on the open sea, we realised that the trip was going to be harder work than we had initially thought; despite the strong tide, the wind was blowing us back towards Newtown Creek. We couldn’t go as fast as we’d hoped, so decided to shorten the trip so that we would get to Yarmouth, not Colwell Bay for seven o' clock.
We stopped for a break at a beach about half way to Yarmouth. It wasn’t a beach that could be reached by land easily, because of all the erosion and landslides on the coast, but it was fine to bring the kayaks onto. After making a useful seat out of all the crates and pieces of wood washed up, it was time to continue to Yarmouth. Before reaching Yarmouth, another stop was made for boat swaps so that everyone could try out a sea kayak. I swapped into a Dancer which, as expected, was much harder work over long distances compared to the sea kayak.
Finally we arrived at Yarmouth. The port was busy, with the Wightlink Ferries and all the other boats travelling in and out. Being in kayaks, we did not have right of way, so careful negotiation was required to get across the path of the boats and to somewhere that we could land. David got us all through safely and we enjoyed the last bit of the journey – paddling up into Yarmouth, looking forwards to a bag of chips when we got there!
Ellie Stacey
Explorer Scout
