As we have told our plans to more people, many of them have warned us of the dangers of canoeing solo, particularly on large areas of open water. Alex’s mother in particular is convinced we will be swept out to sea and killed. Despite our reassurances that we will stay aware of the weather and tides, it is only sensible to be prepared and plan for the worst.
Capsizing on a relatively narrow stretch of river or close to the sea shore is not a big problem. Swim the boat to dry land, tip it over and the boat is dry and ready to go again. Capsizing either in the middle of a Loch or several hundred meters into the North Sea is a much bigger problem. Learning how to do this in a raging storm with our camping gear floating over the horizon is far from ideal so we decided to get an idea of what we would be up against. On Friday evening we headed to the River Stour. The following video (part 3 of 5) shows the method we will probably use in the event of capsize far from the shore.
From this we have learnt:
1/ It’s best not to capsize in the first place!
2/A boat filled with water is very difficult to manoeuvre.
3/ Bailing with a tupperware box is inefficient – we’re trying to obtain a pump to make life easier.
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Two friends from Suffolk climb Scotland's two highest mountains and canoe between them. In doing so, they raise money for the RNLI.
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