Words: Kevin Mansell
Photos: Michal Madera,
Julie Perren,
Nicky Mansell and
Sarah Hollingworth
‘Moderate Becoming Good Later’
‘Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking, the Shipping Forecast’ by Katie and Toby Carr, will be published on June 8th.
Toby: ‘Moderate Becoming Good Later’
Toby wasn’t particularly well-behaved at our wedding in 1982. He appeared to spend significant amounts of time filling glasses with food while making a mess of the table. Toby was 11 months old and had been encouraged into these mischievous antics by sister Katie and brother Marcus. With an infectious grin, he could get away with almost anything, his blond hair contributing to his angelic looks.
Fast forward 35 years and the untimely death of older brother Marcus to cancer due to Fanconi Anaemia, a genetic disorder that Toby also had. Marcus’s death was a terrible loss but not unexpected, and this spurred Toby into making plans for the future, which included paddling in all the Shipping Forecast areas. By then, he was already an accomplished sea kayaker, well respected in his local paddling community.
Toby and Kevin Mansell in Greenland
Toby became a kayaker almost by accident. In 2011 Toby and Katie arrived in Jersey on Christmas Eve morning. For as long as I can remember, Christmas Eve lunch has always been at the Corbiere Phare, a great restaurant with sweeping views of the west coast of Jersey. Light winds, a lack of swell, several beers and bright December sunshine encouraged us to go and jump off the pier at St Brelade’s. Toby was always up for a challenge, so the pier jumping was followed by, “You should come out on the Canoe Club Boxing Day paddle.”
This was a tradition stretching back to the 1970s. Toby’s paddling experience, at the time, could best be described as non-existent. So it was with amazing confidence that he slipped into a Nordkapp HM before we headed off to Noirmont Point to play in the tidal race. He had great faith in the coaches and leaders of the Jersey Canoe Club. His trust was well placed because when he fell in, there was a race to get him back in his kayak.
Toby was hooked and was asking about further opportunities for kayaking. Sometimes things are just meant to be. Two weeks earlier, Tower Hamlets Canoe Club had visited Jersey, with Natalie leaving her paddling helmet in our care. Not on purpose! The helmet needed to be returned to its rightful owner, and fortunately, Toby lived nearby. Natalie and Michal Maderova became lifelong friends and introduced him to the Tower Hamlets Canoe Club.
Toby and Michal with Nico in Point de Raz, Brittany.
His rise through the ranks of paddlers was meteoric, and within three years, he was responsible for organizing Jersey Canoe Club’s annual weekend on the Thames. In 2014 he planned for us to paddle from Shadwell Basin upstream to Richmond Canoe Club, where we spent the night before hitching a ride on the morning ebb tide back through the centre of London. On the way to Richmond, as night fell and we were still on the water, he put a polite request into the conversation. Could he join us on our trip to Disko Bay, on the west coast of Greenland, the following summer? Perhaps he thought that the darkness would hide his unease.
By this time, he had become a regular fixture with the Jersey Canoe Club, I stayed out of the conversation, but the other group members had no hesitation in offering him a place. He was welcomed with open arms. He joined us in Jersey for a couple of training weekends before the day arrived, and we met in Terminal 5 at Heathrow for our flight to Copenhagen.
The Jersey-based paddlers checked in one by one, and when it was Toby’s turn, he asked me what his booking reference was. I told him mine but could not help him with his, as it wasn’t my responsibility. His face dropped as he realised that he had failed to complete the one task that he had to do. All British Airways flights were full for the rest of the day, and if he couldn’t get to Copenhagen that night, he would miss his Greenland flight.
Remember those angelic looks from the wedding 33 years earlier? They came into play again. He looked at his uncle (me) as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth whilst asking if I had a credit card with enough credit to ease his predicament. He was soon in a pre-paid taxi to Gatwick, with a ticket on the last flight to Copenhagen. Fortunately, that was his only issue during the three-week trip.
Greenland
Greenland was Toby’s first reasonable-length trip, and he quickly adapted to the nomadic sea kayaking lifestyle. He was acquiring skills which would serve him well on his journey around the Shipping Forecast areas. Images of him walking around with antlers on his head or jumping off glacial scoured rocks into the water, wearing only his swimming shorts, will remain etched in my memory for years. He returned to Greenland a few years later, guiding a mixture of paddlers from Tower Hamlets Canoe Club and Germany.
Although most know Toby as a sea kayaker, he was a highly respected architect. Those of us who were aware of his health issues as a young person were in awe of his academic achievements. I remember fondly his paddling tour of the architecture of the Thames downstream of Tower Bridge. He was leaping in and out of his kayak, standing in River Thames mud with his visual aids in his hand. Toby brought architecture alive to a group of amazed paddlers.
This passion for architecture resulted in Toby becoming a lecturer at the University in Falmouth. Sadly, challenging and inspiring the next generation of architects was a position he held for too short a time. It did allow him to escape from London at an opportune time; he was living in Cornwall during the pandemic. Even as his health failed, it allowed him to maintain his connection with the sea in a way that living in Hackney wouldn’t have.
BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast
Anybody from a family interested in boats and the sea is probably aware from a relatively young age of the importance of the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast. The content is almost irrelevant; it is the comfort provided by the familiarity. It is a British institution, listened to by people living in the heart of England who have little interest in the sea. Something to fall asleep to or wake up with, depending on whether you are a night owl or an early bird. Do sailors need it in the digital age? Probably not; do we as a nation still require it? Probably yes.
Challenged by his brother’s death, Toby applied for a Winston Churchill Fellowship with the aim of visiting and kayaking in all the Shipping Forecast areas. The Shipping Forecast covers 9 European countries, stretching from Iceland in the north to Portugal in the south. Plus, those countries which constitute the British Isles. Not a small undertaking.
Toby joined us again for Christmas 2017; the images of the Christmas Day swim, and a paddle from Belcroute Bay indicate an active life. He was thrilled about the upcoming interview for the Winston Churchill Fellowship in early January 2018. His enthusiasm for the Shipping Forecast project was infectious; everyone he spoke to was supportive. 2018 was going to be an exciting year.
On New Year’s Day 2018, the swift action of an ambulance crew at Leigh Delamere Services on the M4 probably saved his life. They started treatment for Meningitis en route to the nearest hospital. He cancelled his interview for his Fellowship from his hospital bed in Swindon.
Avoiding a downward spiral into how illness had limited his opportunities, he was offered another interview date. Toby hadn’t fully recovered from his non-contagious pneumococcal strain of bacterial meningitis when he attended the interview, but he must have impressed the panel as in February 2018, he received the news that he was successful, celebrating with a bottle of Polroger, Churchill’s favourite champagne.
Amazing distances
Toby started his journey in southeast Iceland before the long journey south via the Faroe Islands, the only land in the Faroes Shipping Forecast area. We were fascinated by his progress along the coastline of northwest Europe, amazed by the distances he could cover and the resilience he was showing.
We caught up with Toby in the autumn of 2018, listening to stories of the journey’s past and future plans. In May 2019, he was the main speaker at the Jersey Sea Kayaking Symposium, from where he headed out on the next part of his journey with his good friend Michal. A summer of Breton tide races plus the north and west coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. This project was approaching completion when world events and personal health issues intervened.
Sadly, Toby died on the 10th of January 2022; his last time in a sea kayak had been less than two weeks earlier, in Flushing, the village which had become home.
Toby was many things, a loyal friend, an architect, a long-distance cyclist, an accomplished sea kayaker, a university lecturer, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, a son and a cousin, amongst other things. Most of all, though, he was just a thoroughly nice person who set out on a unique journey which most of us wouldn’t have the vision to see or the courage to do.
Katie Carr
Toby’s sister Katie has embarked on a journey of her own, learning to sea kayak so that she can complete his journey through the shipping forecast areas. Perhaps more importantly, she has undertaken the difficult task of converting Toby’s written and voice notes, photos and videos into a book, which is more than just a record of a sea kayak journey. It is the celebration of a life well lived, despite the challenges that Toby faced throughout his all short life. And perhaps there lies the lesson for all of us, Read Katie’s interview here.
Toby didn’t sit at home and dwell on the difficulties that he knew he would face in the coming years, and neither should we.
Follow Toby’s example get out paddling, enjoy yourself and on returning to land, raise a glass to his memory.
