South West Sea Kayaking

‘For all the celebrations it had been the object of in prose and song, the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness…’

Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea

One of the trickiest things to research for the book is tidal information; times, flows, rates, directions, quirks. There are numerous sources to consult and amusingly, they don’t always correlate. I sometimes find myself forced to choose between the damned lies of one and the shameless mistruths of the other. A bigger problem is coverage. Almanacs don’t always provide information for the specific location that you need and the selection process for which locations they do decide to cover seems to border on the random!

Into the breach steps The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. Their ‘Admiralty Sailing Directions’ Pilot books are thorough, meticulous, dauntingly authoritative. These hefty tomes tower over the rival pilots and almanacs, being quite frankly the nearest thing to maritime Bibles. Of course, they still can’t always provide all the information you need about every place, but they come pretty close and let’s face it … there is only so far that you can quantify the sea.

Yesterday I paid over thirty quid on eBay for second-hand copy of NP 37 West Coasts of England and Wales Pilot which is a more up to date edition than my current copy. This might sound like extravagance, but it’d still be a bargain at twice the price.

All due thanks to the Hydrographer of the Navy. Britannia still Rules the Waves.

Another day, another chapter drafted.

The islands of Poole Harbour are privately owned and often resistant to visitors. Brownsea Island is owned by the National Trust who repel invaders who don’t arrive in the tourist boat and hand over their landing fee. Highly unusually, landing between the high and low water mark is banned on Brownsea. In the 1930s, the reclusive owner was Mrs Bonham-Christie, who let the island revert to nature and employed ‘a blonde and powerful female Scandinavian PT instructor to throw visitors off the island’ (National Trust Guide). What would Baden-Powell think?

The only uninhabited island is Long Island, where landing and camping is permitted with prior permission from the owner. 

This morning was spent exploring islands and creeks along the southern side of Poole Harbour. Stiff winds were a bit of a chore on the way out, but the surf back was pretty exhilarating! I was joined on the water by John Gilmour and Heather. Richard Parkin (editor of Paddles Magazine) also tried to join us, but couldn’t find us out on the water … it is a big place!

About 140000 people live in Poole and the Harbour handles large volumes of leisure and commercial shipping, including cross-channel ferries. You wouldn’t know it, where we were.

The tidal River Yealm is part of the South Devon AONB. There are 35 AONBs wholly in England, of which eight form part of the south west coast.

According to the NAAONB, ‘An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is exactly what it says it is: a precious landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the nation’s interest to safeguard them ... Created by the legislation of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, AONBs represent 18% of the Finest Countryside in England and Wales.’

I am an adult bull Atlantic Grey Seal. I live in and around the tunnels beneath the North Light of Lundy Island. I weigh about 300 kilos and am over two metres long. I spend the majority of my life sleeping. The rest of the time I can be found in the water, fishing or simply lounging around.

It’s a tough life, but someone has to live it.

Come, and trip it as ye go,
On the light fantastick toe.

Milton, L’Allegro’.

During the past couple of years, I was sea kayaking regularly from early February onwards. The ongoing drought meant that white water paddling was a non-starter and the settled high pressure meant calm seas. Now that I’m trying to write a book on sea kayaking, the irony is that this is becoming one of the wettest and windiest winters on record.

I’ve done some fantastic spate steep creeking on Dartmoor’s rivers recently, but this doesn’t exactly help me to get the book researched and written.  Whilst I’m still waiting for the seas to subside and the winds to ease, I’ve stuck my head into a few books and gone back to school. Right now for instance, I’m trying to grasp the concepts of colour and light in photography. I have no idea if this will make me into a better photographer, but it is interesting in itself to understand why the sky is blue…

Graham ‘Bertie’ Beckram is a sea kayaker with a guilty secret. He is sometimes to be found guiding novice paddlers along the Purbeck Coast, which can be seen in the background. These folk sign up at Lulworth Cove for a paddle among the amazing coastal landforms in the vicinity. However, they don’t take to the water in a 5.5 metre expedition sea kayak as pictured here. They (and their guide, Bertie) paddle sit-on-tops, which for the uninitiated, are open-decked and unenclosed kayaks with knee straps for control.

‘Proper’ sea kayakers have been known to sniff at sit-on-tops. However, a sense of perspective is required here. Sit-on-tops are cheap, accessible and unthreatening craft with which to first enjoy the sea and learn the basic skills. More crucially, the people who paddle them are the future of our sport. Sit-on-tops outsell all other types of kayak by a big margin. If we choose to exclude these folk, then they may eventually become an unenlightened burden on the marine environment (and maybe even the emergency services). However, if we put aside our prejudices and be nice to these folk, then today’s sit-on-top novice could be tomorrow’s expedition sea kayaker; one of us. This can’t be a bad thing.

Keep up the good work, Bertie.

The southernmost coast of Devon between Hallsands and Hope Cove makes for a superb day trip along cliffs and reefs. If the weather turns grim, at the midway point there is a sheltered haven to escape into, provided you are careful in crossing the shallow sand bar at the harbour mouth where surf breaks. This is Salcombe Harbour, and 10000 cruising yachts berth here every year. Unsurprisingly then, the town is crammed full of yachtie types, and the clothes shops along the main street give the game away…e.g. Musto, White Stuff, Quba Sails.

Salcombe wasn’t always the preserve of well-heeled Hoorays. In 1607 a magistrate observed that Salcombe was, ‘full of dissolute seafaring men who murder each other and bury the corpses in the sands at night’.

If I wait, I am a castle
Built with blocks of pain.
If I set out
A kayak stitched with pain

Ted Hughes, Gaudete.

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
I left my shoes and socks there. I wonder if they’re dry?

(Not) John Masefield