Beachy Head - Sunday 29th June 2003.

Although I moved the start time back by 30minutes, congratulations and thanks to those who managed to be on Seaford beach for the 9.30am launch!

The weather was good, although the customary SESK wind was blowing again, and the early start didn’t seem too much of a problem. My thanks to Clive though, for making us give up and go to bed sometime around midnight on the Saturday!

It was another good turnout with 9 paddlers on the trip. Some I knew and recognised but pleased to see some new faces again. I hope everyone had a good day and enjoyed the best coastal scenery on the Sussex coast.

The sea was officially “slight” but was ok and we all bounced along quite nicely. Dennis was the proud owner of a brand new Mega and was finding it a little tricky settling down the way it felt against his old boat. The Cuckmere estuary always bounces a little at the top of the tide, either flooding up the river or as it ebbs back out towards low water. Here the water looses any sort of pattern it has and just does it’s own thing for a couple of hundred yards. It can be a problem in stronger winds but today it was fine (and the sun was shining).

The cliffs of the Seven Sisters don’t change much from year to year, probably recede a few hundred millimetres, but I still love them. Despite Vera Lynn claiming otherwise these southern cliffs are not the “white cliffs” but varying shades of colour that change in different lights and at different times of the year. Seeing gorse bushes clinging to the almost sheer chalk faces a couple hundred feet down and still growing is amazing. A true indictment to Nature’s resolve to maintain its position. Biased? Possibly but this is on my doorstep!

At Birling Gap, Dennis felt it was time for a rest and whilst he and Julie stopped here, the rest of the group made for the Lighthouse. Rounding the headland past Birling Gap, the wind was a little more in our face and the sea a little more choppy. It was, perhaps, a good idea that Dennis had stayed behind, as these were not ideal conditions for him to try out his new boat.

The slightly later start, turning tide, headwind and unhurried pace meant that we had left it too late to actually make the Lighthouse. Richard made a valiant attempt to get there solo but only because he was at the front and didn’t hear us shout out!

Turning back, we met Julie & Dennis back at Birling Gap for the usual ”Kayakers Lunch” of stories of previous trips and wished for destinations in the future, with a little bit of food thrown in for good measure.

By 2.30 the tide was falling nicely and we re-launched back towards Seaford. The wind was producing a small following sea and for some this was a new experience. With the push of the tide and the chance to surf down waves, swift progress was made back to the Cuckmere Estuary.

Clive, Raquel and I had thought about doing some rescue practise on the Saturday afternoon but the warm weather and promise of a barbeque had talked us out of it. Now the Cuckmere river was emptying, the wind was blowing and Dennis hadn’t quite mastered the stability of his new boat. Why practise when you can do it for real?

Although we had never done it before as a group we all knew what to do - grabbed the Mega, grabbed Dennis and soon had them reunited for the rest of the trip home. Or so we thought!

I remember being taught that the most likely time for a capsized person to do it again is when you turn your back. They were right! Dennis had tried to pick a line closer to the shore but the breaking waves had him in their sights and set him out again. This time we swapped him over to Jims’ more stable Klepper ( more stable being the technical term for “flat bottom bucket” *)

And we soon landed safe and sound, if not dry, at Seaford in the late afternoon sunshine.

A few of us had a quick rolling and rescue session before retiring to the top of the beach for a well deserved ice cream and to reflect on another great day on the water.

My thanks to all those who turned up
Us, Richard ∓ Raquel, Clive, Giles ,Jim, Axel, Andy and Richard.

* Jim – it isn’t really a “flat bottom bucket”!!