Welcome to Sea Touring in the South West
If you are new to Sea Touring allow me to extol the virtues of the sport: Sea touring combines the challenges of trip planning, seamanship and paddling skills to give a true travelling experience. Depending on your inclination and level of experience you can choose between paddling on glassy calm waters and just enjoying the natural beauty of the coastline through to pitching yourself against raging seas which can offer just as much excitement and challenge as any white water run. Add to this the wonderful experience of a night bivvying or camping on a lonely beach watching distant navigation lights and shipping movements, the moon glade stretching out to the watery horizon and a clear view of the stars, and you are beginning to get the picture.
Likely ways to get into the sport are either through a club (see links from elsewhere on this site), through a centre (some centres are now doing introductory sessions, weekends and holidays for those who are relatively new to the game) or through visiting a Sea Symposium. Sea Symposia are varied in nature but are generally organised meetings of sea canoeists with a choice of activities (usually a mix of 'on' and 'off' water). They generally cater for paddlers at all levels and often provide the opportunity to try out different kinds of boat. See my report for dates or contact me for more information.
Of course there is nothing to stop you sea touring in any 'general purpose' kayak (I did my first sea trips in a Dancer) but you will find the paddling a lot easier going in a specially designed Sea Kayak. A purpose designed sea kayak also opens up the option to do overnight trips or sustained moving on tours. There are a whole range of sea kayaks on the market in either plastic or glassfibre based materials. I won't enter into the debate as to which is best here. The main thing is to have a go in a few different types before splashing out (no pun intended) loads of dosh - or maybe buy a second-hand boat first to see if you like the sport.
Forget access problems, booking up months in advance and then praying for rain - OK, so there are a few places where you can be charged excessively to launch a kayak but on the whole there is free and easy access to the coast around the British Isles, year round. Our own Southwest Region coast is second to none and is well mapped out in Nigel Hingston's guides (see 'where to get information'). Amongst my favourite paddling destinations outside the region are Pembrokeshire, which offers some excellent coastline and then for the true pilgrims among us there is the mecca of the Western Isles of Scotland (as long as you don't mind bad weather and a few nasty biting insects). Add to this the Channel Isles, Brittany coast (carry or trolley your boat onto the ferry if you don't want to take a car) and the west coast of Ireland and you will see that there are plenty of truly wonderful places to paddle, and these are just the ones which are within easy reach of our region for a weeks holiday.
Coastal information can generally be gleaned from a combination of Ordnance Survey maps and Nautical Charts. You should be able to get tide table information either from a nautical almanac (worth buying if you plan do a lot of paddling up and down the country) or from small local tide time booklets.
The South West Region Small Craft Sea Touring Guides compiled by Nigel
Hingston are brilliant for trip planning on our local South West Region waters.
There are three A5 format paperback booklets covering:
Volume 1 - Dorset
and South Devon Coast
Volume 2 - Cornish Coast Volume
3 - North Devon,
Somerset and Avon Coast
They are £9.95 plus £0.85 postage and
packing or £29.85 for the full set postage free.
Use the order form for mail order or
mail/phone me for more information.
Coastal 'Pilot' books written for sailors can also be quite useful. I find the most appropriate weather information for most trips is the inshore waters forecast from the Met Office (www.meto.govt.uk). This can be obtained via the premium rate phone service (voice or fax) but is also available from the Coastguard (see the South West Region Small Craft Sea Touring Guides or the phone book) pertaining to the area you are interested in. The best way to get this is from a marine band VHF radio (broadcast every four hours) but if you are new to the sport you are unlikely to have one of these so try phoning the Coastguard. (Be prepared for them to ask you to call back later if they are busy.)
To Contact You Regional Sea Touring Representative
Andy
Proctor
Coles Farm
Coles Lane
Axminster
EX13 5SB
Tel 01297 32380