Roadford Lake Devon

The alarm going off at ridiculous hour in the morning can only mean one thing: Its another  canoe-sailing day. I  strapped my canoe onto my pre-loaded car and I set off from London at 5am ish for the trip to Roadford Lake in Devon. Arriving  at around 10.30am  It was great to see again Warin Kelly and his wife already there along with Bernie Hoffmann from the Song of the Paddle forum who has come along with his daughter and his canoe which he was wanted to know if it was suitable for sailing. There were no more participants for the days sailing which was half expected but never mind, the meet had given Warin an excuse to sail for the first time this year he said and for me Roadford lake is the most secure and safest place to sail due to the abundance of rescue boats etc so its an excellent place for people (Bernie ) to try out sailing a canoe for the first time, the fresh water rather then salt is a nice change too. After setting up the canoe I briefly pondered whether to wear my newly purchased Typhoon extreme drysuit or don 3mm farmer john style wetsuit. When I brought my drysuit I was a little concerned that it might be uncomfortably hot to wear during the summer months when most of my sailing is done. Thankfully(?) this has not been a problem this year! The day was mostly dry and there was a stiff F4 westerly blowing with low clouds ripping by, which makes it a good summers day by this years standards. I started off with a couple of turns on the mast to reef the sail in a bit, Warin has no concerns and is flying around  with his lugsail ketch setup.As the morning progresses I am eventually sailing along under full sail the wind having eased a little as the morning progressed. I sailed across the lake to the hill top café for lunch. After some food  I decided to deploy my jib

Jibtastic

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This may have been pushing it somewhat as the  wind got brisker coming in fits and bursts and somehow I managed to muck up a tack and the canoe gunnell went well underwater filling the canoe about a third full. My Atwood battery operated pump got the water out eventually but it was completely underwater to start with, really I should of hove-to and used my bucket but it was a good experiment to see the limitations of how much water a pump like this can deal with. While the pump dealt with the water I dealt with the jib and took it down. I made my way back to the sailing club side of the lake and offered to take Bernie out for a spin in my canoe. After removing the jib halyard fairlead and cleat from the mast thwart I attached my outriggers, got Bernie to sit in front of the seat and I sat behind it, I handed the sheet and the rudder stick to Bernie and we were off.

Taking a back seat for a change

 This was the first time I’ve been in any of my sailing canoes and, due to my confidence in Bernie but also due to the presence of the outriggers, been able to be a total passenger! It was great! I really enjoyed it, it was a really nice change not having to do anything but check out the view and enjoy the ride. We headed to the little jetty beneath the cafe across the lake, the wind picking up at this point,  Warin decided not to venture further out in to the lake and headed back to more sheltered parts. I jumped out of the canoe and let Bernie have a try out for himself.

Bernie at the controls

 He seemed to have a blast out on the lake after he collected me we sailed back for the last time. As we returned to the sailing club we saw a ambulance at the jetty, there had been a lot of dinghy capsizes during the afternoon due to the gusty nature of the wind, it soon became apparent that someone had received a head injury perhaps by a boom? We didn't know, the staff asked us to move our cars to make space for the air ambulance which arrived shortly, hopefully the casualty has made a swift recovery! I set off to South Devon across a rain swept Dartmoor to my mum's house, the following day I headed back to London but stopped on the way to look at the Dart. I've never seen the Dart this full in summer, the continual rain this summer most likely having saturated the moors.

The Dart at Buckfastleigh