posted on September 19, 2011 09:59
August Bank Holiday Monday saw the return of the annual CAP Beach Party, or at least it would be annual, if I didn’t tip down with rain every Summer.
The weather forecast for the Bank holiday weekend was not brilliant but our hardy crew decided to take the plunge and head for the bright blue ocean. Once again, we visited the beautiful beach at West Wittering which is a blue flag beach, backed by sand dunes and looking across the waves towards the Isle of Wight.
We all arrived at the beach on time at 10.30am, in true CAP style, bright and early (by our standards) but designed to make the best of the mid-day high tide.
No sooner had we arrived than the intrepid Coxall family grabbed their boats and headed for the ocean waves. Tim, Henry and 12yr old Alice seemed to really enjoy themselves bouncing around on the waves and riding the small surf waves onto the beach.
On previous river trips Alice had generally acted as first mate in the SS Duo so it was good to see her promoted to the role of Captain in her own Kayak. Once she built up the initial confidence Alice seemed very happy paddling through the waves.
Determined that Alice’s Mum, shouldn’t miss out, Rob Evans cajoled Mum Elaine into the Duo and they too had a good
play out on the ocean, really good to see such a keen new bunch of family members.
Pam was particularly energetic and throughout the day spent most of her time paddling around chatting to everybody and displaying a big contented smile on her face. Mike too spent quite a time shadowing, watching over and generally encouraging the waterborne crowd.
The weather seemed to be on our side and although quite windy the sun came out to play and most people went home with a nice rosy sun tan.
Particularly Chairman Mike, looking like a red snooker ball, he just doesn’t seem to know what suntan lotion is for?
The rest of the motley CAP crew took life easy on the beach. Sunbathing, chatting, burying Henry in the sand, building sandcastles, listening to yet more of Mike’s never ending stories and munching their picnic lunches.
Coach Gary went nowhere near a Kayak but demonstrated his skills at kite flying, taking advantage of the brisk cross shore winds. Keith, Chris and Ed became suitably enthused and joined Gary in the flying activities.
We were pleased to be joined by Gemma, for her to see what we get up to on a typical CAP trip and a chance to have a good old chat and get to know everyone. As always, I’m sure Gem found that CAP members are a really friendly bunch of people.
Once the tide had eventually run away from the CAP crowd, disappearing about half a mile off shore we packed up all our kit, washed off the boats and in true CAP tradition headed for a country pub.
We stopped at a quaint Inn in the South Downs village of Amberly, enjoyed a leisurely pint in the peaceful garden and then eventually headed for home. Another good Summer CAP day out having been enjoyed by all.