Explorations into the Known World: Isle of Thanet Circumnavigation part I : Minnis Bay to Sandwich (20th August 2011)

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Isle of Thanet Circumnavigation part I : Minnis Bay to Sandwich (20th August 2011)

The Isle of Thanet, at the eastern extremity of Kent, used once to be a definite island, divided by a broad navigable channel, the Wantsum,.until the 16^th century when it silted up so as to become un-navigable. Theoretically it could perhaps be passable by kayak under favourable circumstance, but I have yet to work out if this is indeed the case.

We set out, not too early, not too late, little bit of waves to surf on, past chalk cliffs, Margate with the new art gallery looking like a sardine cannery (not meant to be viewed from the sea?), round the corner, Joss Bay and the surf school, beach huts, into Broadstairs, stop for coffee and cake and ridiculously cheap huss, kids on the beach making the best of a none-too-warm August day, then out again, round to Ramsgate, nice bouncy water by the harbour, lunch stop at the mouth of the Stour, watched a gigantic rally of jetskis, then headed on into the river mouth and – SEALS! In kent! Loads of 'em! And even a “safari boat” watching them. Then on up the Stour, past the now defunct Pfizer factory (probably the only significant employer in the area) and landed in Sandwich at which point the sun came out and it was a proper August day again.

Part II: the Wantsum ditch, to follow...

1 comment:

Unknown29 October 2018 at 14:43
hi, there was a round thanet canoe marathon in the 1980's(36 miles) but unfortunately the river wantsum does not have a navigation right.I am the local river adviser for the Wantsum and I also did the race 3 times. Cheers. Mick Underhill-Rose
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Background to the explorations

The modern sea kayak is an unlikely vessel, a contemporary reinterpretation of a traditional Inuit seal hunting boat, now made of composite fibre rather than sealskin, but faithful to the original in design. It is a perfect symbol of the globalised world: it is an object which would never have come to exist without the changes and interactions inherent in the process of globalisation.

Now generally used as a leisure craft, there is a hard core of serious sea kayakers around the world who undertake marathon expeditions, gruelling open sea crossings, heroic high speed circumnavigations of remote islands, testing their own endurance to the limit.

My aim is to take a specially designed kayak and use it, rather than looking inward and testing my own endurance, to look outside myself and to explore the coastal regions of my own continent of Europe.

The explorers of the past set off into unmapped territory in search of material riches. Now the whole surface of the planet has been mapped, is theoretically known and the riches have already been partitioned out. But despite this the maps, reports and guidebooks, always slightly out of date even by the time they are printed, only show a single angle or a part of the whole picture.

I want to look deeper and try to make sense of a confusing world. I will be travelling back into apparently familiar regions and looking there, neither for unknown territories to claim, nor for slaves, spices or precious metals, but for an understanding of the world as it now exists, at this point on its trajectory in a constant process of change.

The kayak, from a practical point of view, is an ideal vessel for this exploration; it can travel to places inaccessible to larger boats and handle rougher sea conditions than other small craft, it moves a little faster than a walking pace, allowing time for observation and contemplation, it can slip unnoticed into the tiniest creeks and it has enough storage space in its hatches for the paddler to achieve total self sufficiency. At the same time its small size and unwieldiness on the land force the paddler to engage with other people in ways that a car or a yacht would not encourage. Its habitat is the marginal zone between land and sea, between water and air, between known and unknown.

It is the physical reality of this border zone and the people who inhabit it that I hope to come to understand, and through that understanding, to make sense of Europe at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Explorations into the Known World

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Isle of Thanet Circumnavigation part I : Minnis Bay to Sandwich (20th August 2011)

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Overview

Background to the explorations

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