South West Sea Kayaking

After having to work through Saturday on a beautiful day, it was good to escape for a paddle in the evening. I headed out of Kimmeridge late in the day, accompanied by Mrs R and Andy L. We camped at Chapman’s Pool and dined on poorly barbequed burgers and sausages. Good job it was too dark to see them …

In the morning we joined Ade and Claire, who had been camping nearby, for the paddle further on to Swanage. They are both avid kayak anglers, but seeing as they never actually catch anything, they were keen to try using their kayaks for a bit of journeying instead. We headed around St Alban’s Head and explored every nook and cranny along the limestone cliffs. As noted in my book, this is my favourite and most regular paddle … yet I still see something new every time; this time it was some razorbills (basically they are guillemots with silly ‘aviator google’-like markings) and a cave that I could swear was never there before.

Whilst we paddled, we listened on VHF to a situation unfolding nearby. The RIB Cobalt made a Pan Pan distress call to warn the Coastguard that they were drifting without fuel, being blown offshore by the stiff F4.  ‘Pan Pan’ is the distress signal used when things have gone pear-shaped, but life is not in immediate danger. The Coastguard did not respond for a few minutes, and I was about to ‘relay’ the message to Portland Coastguard when they finally picked it up and informed Cobalt that they would summon Swanage lifeboat to assist. The lifeboat quickly showed up; no doubt John Gilmour will supply details of how their shout went.