CSCC Reports 2011: Sea Kayaking Trip - 27-29 August 2011

It has become something of a tradition for the club to paddle on the Dorset coast over the August bank holiday.  For a change, this year the club travelled to the Gower Peninsula, south Wales instead.  Eleanor, Leila, Colette, Fi, both Marks, Tom, Richard S., Gordon, Stephen, Rob, Chris S. and Dan all paddled on one or more days.

The forecast of moderately strong winds for Saturday meant that we needed to find a sheltered location for paddling.  We drove to Horton on the south west of the peninsula to practise rescues in Port Eynon Bay.  After notifying the (very helpful) RNLI Lifeguards on the beach, and the coastguard of our plans, we paddled out into the bay.  The wind (of about F4), spring tide and moderate swell made for realistic practice in deep water rescues.   We introduced a tip picked up from the FSRT course that some paddlers had attended the previous weekend – and made sure that every rescuer had another kayak rafted up to them for added stability.  It soon became apparent that whenever there are enough paddlers to allow a “two on one” rescue this technique makes the process of retrieving a paddler from the water much easier.
Unfortunately the wind began to pick up around lunchtime (with increasing white horses).  The rescues were becoming too authentic and so for safety reasons we called an early halt to the proceedings.

Fi and Mark booked a table at the Kings Head pub in Llangennith (only a couple of miles from the campsite).  There we had nicely cooked meals and entertainment laid on in the form of a fancy dress party with a superhero theme in the main bar.

By the following day the wind had begun to drop, allowing a longer trip to take place.  We drove to Oxwich Bay (the next bay along the coast from Eynon) and paddled east to the attractive Three Cliffs bay (cut off from Oxwich bay at all but low tide) for lunch.  Some of the group paddled a bit further east to another small sandy bay where they landed in moderate surf and had a snack before re-launching and joining the others, including Chris and Richard who had walked along the beach to Three Cliffs Bay.

The return paddle to Oxwich was against the wind and tide.  Making progress required good forward paddling technique and there were choppier waters around one of the mini headlands.  Everyone coped with these conditions really well.

After identifying the weakest link (me, squeezed into what was meant to be “the supertanker”!), Gordon and his trailer returned home on Sunday evening.  Those who remained went to the King Arthur Inn in Reynoldstone for dinner, live music and musical chairs.
On Monday we paddled one way from what had been our starting point on Saturday to our starting point on Sunday.  The wind had dropped further, we had the tide with us and the waves had flattened out so this was a relaxed paddle past pleasant hills.  We arrived in time for a spot of towing and rolling practice near the beach.  After a late lunch we loaded up the boats and headed home.

Here are a few other trip details.  We had all stayed at the Kennexstone campsite, not far from Llangennith.  The campsite was huge and busy but was flat and had reasonable facilities including a shop, clean toilets and showers and a space for rinsing off wetsuits.  Most of important of all we were blessed with dry conditions and sunshine!  

The car parks at Horton and Oxwich both had plenty of space, but cost £5 for the day.  The beaches are sandy but flat, so if you launch or land at low spring tide there is a long portage.

Our thanks go to Stephen for organising this trip.