Maiden voyage…

Earlier this year we hatched a plan with our best buddies to build something quite special…

Plans were purchased, workshop space cleared, materials acquired, tools readied and then Chris and Jason started building their first… canoe!

It was one of those slightly hare-brained ‘what-if’ discussions over a pot of tea, sitting in the wonderful late Spring sunshine that actually, amazingly came to fruition (because how many of those crazy “well, we could build one” type conversations really do end up happening?!?)

Made from Birch Ply using a technique called ‘stitch and tape’ gradually, over the last 3 or 4 months a canoe has manifested itself in the workshop. Working steadily through the plans, with very few false starts or mishaps a beautiful vessel has been created… and last weekend saw our two families take it for its maiden voyage.

Not quite in the water yet…

The excitement is building as the canoe gets wet for the first time (and none of us have yet 😉 ) Chris and 6 very excited children who all want to go first…

But of course, it’s the two master boat builders who have the pleasure of paddling off for the very first time… Can you hear the cheers?

It floats!

And back in one piece…

Ready for us all to take turns to climb aboard and test her out…

It was a gorgeous warm afternoon and we spent a couple of hours paddling up and down a beautiful stretch of the River Waveney getting to grips with the logistics of an 18ft canoe, six children and a couple of dogs!!

No mishaps, no wet kids (so far!) and a perfectly stable, sound vessel that will surely be the base for many glorious weekends exploring the waterways of East Anglia (and further afield??)

The final voyage… all 6 kids and Chris with his work cut-out attempting to helm 😉

Perfect! Such a great way to see even more of the wonderful countryside we are surrounded by… slow paced, everyone can join in and incredibly peaceful (when the children aren’t squabbling over paddles 😉 )

Now they need to build canoe number two… so we’ve a canoe per family and we can venture off together into the unknown!