09 Jun 2019

The Goodwin Sands lie about 6 miles off the Deal coast heading towards the North Sea. With the forecast indicating a window of good weather on Sunday 9th June we decided to make the trip to Deal and paddle out to the Sandbank.

Arriving in Deal around 08:30, we parked in small, but somewhat expensive, car park right next to Deal Pier. This had the benefit of being right next to the beach so unloading the boats and kit was pretty easy. The high wind from Saturday had died away and the sea was very calm indicating a nice straight forward paddle. During the briefing it was re-iterated that we would be totally reliant on the pre-agreed compass bearing as the Sands would only be visible when we were virtually on top of them. So need to worry as three of us had separately planned the route and all come up with the same plan, amazing!

Setting off we headed on a bearing of 65 degrees and after 30 minutes we had passed all the buoys marked on the chart leaving us on open water with no visible point to head towards. Keeping an eye on the compass we continued to paddle for a further hour. We now sort of expected to see the Sandbanks, but couldn’t. With nothing visible and no objects to triangulate off we stopped for a short review of what we could see. We all agreed that a buoy on the horizon was probably the Goodwin Lightship and a grey strip to the right of this could be part of the lower section of the Sandbanks. This indicated we were reasonably where we wanted to be but were travelling slower than anticipated. It appeared that the tide coming off a Spring was driving against us with a greater impact than we had first thought.

We continued to paddle for another 30 minutes still heading 65 degrees and it became clear that the buoy was indeed the Lightship and we started to see the section of the Sandbank we planned to land on. We now faced the choice of continuing and landing further up the Sandbank or turning more towards the east and head directly to the bank. Having decided on the latter, mainly due to the need for various comfort breaks it still took another 30 minute to reach the Sandbank.

It was a strange feeling, standing on a beach and looking in one direction at a distant shoreline while in every other direction was open sea. At the furthest end of the beach from where we landed there was a large group of Seals with a number popping up to look at us from the sea. But having arrived nearly an hour later than expected there wasn’t much time to explore. By the time we had finished lunch and taken a few photos we had moved the boats three times away from the encroaching sea. Steve did set off to try to view the Seals from closer range but after getting half way there the tide started to cut across the Sandbank behind him and he was wise to turn round and come back before having the fun of wading across an ever deepening channel of water.

Having landed at the beginning of Kellet Gut rather than half way up as planned and with the outbound experience in terms of the speed of the tide we discussed whether we need to amend our return bearing. It was agreed to make a small adjustment and to review again after an hour when we could compare our actual position to the one we had forecasted.

Launching from the Sandbank was easy, just get in your boat and wait for the incoming water to reach you, which happened very quickly. With all of us afloat again we set off on a course of 330 degrees, which proved to be the one we remained on all the way back. Stopping after an hour to triangulate off the pier and a radio mast indicated we were again exactly where we wanted to be and this time we were travelling at the speed we had forecasted.

Having completed effectively performed a long ferry glide we end up back at our starting point one hour and 45 minutes after leaving the Sandbank, almost twice a quick as the paddle out.

The weather was great for the whole trip, not much wind and although overcast at times it didn’t rain. Once we had packed the gear away we grabbed a quick coffee and headed back down the road to the Club considering where we might want to go next time.

Paddlers

David Hirst
Jon Miles
Dave Waine
Tom Watkinson
Steve Spice