After urging me to organise a further attempt to link the Wey and Arun rivers by means of restored sections of the old Wey and Arun Canal, the Wey and Arun Canal Society and local council backed out at the last minute and asked me to postpone the exercise indefinitely. As, however, several DCA members were keen to get together and do something on the advertised date, we settled for a day trip from Pulborough to Pallingham Quay Farm, the limit of natural navigation of the River Arun.

Despite an appalling forecast the previous day and a cold blustery wind on the morning, 7 people turned up. There were four canoes and one Mirror sailing dinghy. We set off as the tide rose above the river stream, sailing one canoe with a fisherman’s brolly used as a spinnaker. Even with the cold dull grey skies, the scenery on the upper reaches was magical: “like a Constable painting,” someone observed. A point of special interest was the newly excavated entrance to the Wey and Arun Canal, which had been buried under a mud bank for so many years. Being neap tides, only the canoes were able to negotiate the last quarter mile to Pallingham Quay. After lunching on the windy river bank, we returned on the first of the ebb, with the Mirror dinghy planing at times. All of us were pretty cold when we got back and were, therefore, doubly grateful for Diana and Colin Newnes’ hospitality after the event.

An inland water’s meet like this seems to be the best way of filling the gap between the end of the London winter meets and the first of the South Coast summer rallies.