Venue: Mill House (CM3 4FL)
Meeting: c.5.05pm, 11th Oct 2023
Briefing: 5.30pm at Little Baddow Mill Lock
Launch: c.5.35pm at Little Baddow Mill Lock!
Finish: c.7.10pm
Level: Competent river paddlers

So it’s looking like the rainband won’t have come far enough south to trouble us too much tonight (sorry, late edit, but the 2pm forecasts still seem doable – albeit with the potential of us getting a tiny bit wet towards the end – so we’re definitely going for it!) Therefore the plan is basically a repeat of last week’s session from Mill House, but 10 minutes earlier. It will be a tad breezier and darker though. Otherwise, here’s pretty much the identical call: as warned, it needs to be crazy early so we don’t end up on the river in pitch darkness, so meeting from 17.05 ahead of a 17.30 start (and sorry, but absolutely no late arrivals / launchers as we need to keep on top of everyone’s safety in dwindling light). With an 18.13 sunset, this will definitely be another post-dusk, lit-up finish – you know the score; please no bright white lights, we tend to go for red and green LEDs, just the cheap running kind are cool. And to give ourselves a little more time, please launch whenever you’re ready and paddle upstream to get out at Little Baddow Mill Lock where we’ll gather for a 17.30 briefing before heading on.

So, parking at Mill House c.5.05pm (https://w3w.co/fitter.ideas.transmits) ahead of a 5.30pm briefing at Little Baddow Mill Lock. After, we’ll be off for dinner and drinks at our favourite local pub – numbers with a show of hands at the briefing.

Paddlers on the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation must be licensed: get or renew yours via www.waterways.org.uk … we have a few simple codes of conduct for SUP Club (eg; all paddlers must wear a leash) that you can find on our main SUP Club page.

All competent paddlers (by which we mean comfortable and confident standing-up and paddling strong, non-stop for 90-minutes, able to steer, stop and turn around effectively, ideally reverse-sweep) are welcome at SUP Club. And now as we’re so deep into autumn, we ask that paddlers bring red and/or green LED lights so we can see each other after dusk (not for illumination, so please no bright whites!)