A quick check of the weather forecast on Saturday and I could see that Sunday afternoon was going to be a great day for hovering. Since setting up the Weston access scheme with Ross, strangely I had not launched there, so this seemed like a great opportunity.
Weston Bay is equipped with a wavebouy - handy for checking that conditions really are suitable, and on Sunday morning it showed the predicted conditions - 3ft waves in the morning rapidly calming to a 1ft chop by the time I set off. Arriving on the beach at the low of a spring tide, the sea was well out of sight - over 1.4 miles away! We met Francis, who had come down less craft just to say hello.
Hovering out, we were solo with the usual slight trepidation - which soon gave way once we left the nasty furrowed mud behind and accelerated to cruise speed on the water. The plan was for a gentle cruise up the Somerset coast, and that was what we got!
On the outward trip, we ran about 1/4 mile offshore to avoid the many fishermen onthe rocks - obviously out to enjoy the November sunshine and the low tide. The new Weston Pier was a speck on the shore - 1.5 miles away, and soon gave way to the ruins on Birnbeck Island - a former Victorian resort connected to the land by a decayed pier. Not picturesque!
Next on the agenda was a visit to the
wrecks in Woodspring Bay. These are two wrecks within a few hundred yards of each other, very interesting with much identifiable wreckage. Just a flypast visit - the area is strewn with debris and getting in close enough to board the wreck is tricky.
At this point Langford Grounds, a huge sandbank, was to our left and as predicted the breeze was falling to almost nothing so we were making increasingly good progress towards Portishead. Once clear of Langford, away to the West we could see the sandbars of Middle Grounds - huge dramatically sculpted sand, rising impossibly out of the Severn murk, and to the North, the Severn Bridges coming into view. Normally, we would be on the other side of the bridges, and the temptation to to go visit was strong (especially given that the Old Ferry is at Beachley and the fact it was lunchtime!) but once we got as far as Portishead, Denny Island was even more tempting.
Denny Island is just a scrubby rock in the channel - not even an acre - but worth a visit, just to say we had been there! By this time the tide was turning, and the water cascading round the Island was enough to say 'don't hang around here', so we set off again.
Heading back SW, keeping the Middle Grounds sandbar just off our righthand side, the water settling nicely to 'millpond' conditions. These sandbars are very dangerous - the sand is often unstable, so don't get out here! You wouldn't believe this was 3 miles offshore.
The sun over the water was dramatic as we continued our journey back - the camera never really captures the moment, but heres the best I got.
As we travelled back, Steep Holm came into view as a dot on the horizon, and there it was, calling, calling... since the conditions were so good, we set course to pay it a visit. Even at a brisk 30 knots, the dot takes forever to form into an island, but as we ventured further out the conditions were turing into open sea. At about a mile out from the island, with a long, long, 5 or 6ft swell topped by 2ft chop, and being solo, we decided on a fly-past rather than circumnavigation.
So with that we reluctantly turned back to Weston Bay - about 4 miles distant. Not really wanting to go back, we took a detour to view the wartime emplacements at the end of Brean Down and give the walkers something to look at, before running back onto the mud, still a mile or so off the beach.
Some people call these 'mudflats'... but they are wrong. They are not flat - you have to be very careful to avoid the gulleys. At Weston there arn't too many big gulleys, but at the southern end of the flats the mud is cut into ferocious lift-sapping furrows, best avoided. We finished up running into them (they have the same attractive powers as a pole in a 10 acre field) resulting in a hairy finish to the journey with lift & thrust all flat out "don't stop....!" to keep momentum up until the safe beach was reached.
And then a trip to the butty wagon! 45 miles of pure hover-heaven.
Ian