After four years of kayaking in the UK, I finally experienced the most picturesque weekend on sea. While most people enjoyed the scorching sun inland and talked about how its never been this hot this early in the year, I headed to the coast for some sea kayaking.
It was a weekend of many firsts and I was fairly nervous. My other half was braving the sea for an entire weekend for the first time and being a novice, we had a lot to consider. I had been quite worried about the weather and whether the conditions would be hard enough to put off the already hesitant novice.
My other concern was us camping together for the very first time. What if he hates it? What if he can't sleep and consequently can't paddle the next day? My anxiety levels were moderately high when I checked the weather forecast a week ahead of our trip.
I checked and re-checked the app to make sure I wasn't seeing things. 20degrees celsius and negligible wind on the Saturday. "What do you mean there's no wind???". I had resorted to talking to myself at that point thanks to the disbelief. Sunday was a bit windier but warming up to 23C according to the weather app.
When I reached Studland Bay for our first day of kayaking, I could hardly believe my eyes. I looked over towards Old Harry Rocks to see if the tide races there were creating a lively playground for paddlers. Unlike the last 20 times, I saw no waves crashing onto rocks and I saw no mist. The sea was calm, the beach was busy and the sun was shining!
Our group got split into two groups of those who had never paddled before and those who had. Unfortunately, this also meant that I wasn't in the same group as my other half. I saw the opportunity to practice some coaching skills and decided to ask our group leader if I could join the other group. Alas, my cunning plan was foiled when our leader got me to coach and guide the group of experienced kayakers instead!
Having never done any trip leading or coaching on sea, I felt quite nervous doing this for the very first time. We were fortunate that the weather was so nice that everyone felt comfortable. I led the group from the beach towards Old Harry Rocks and managed to provide some coaching on forward paddling on the way. No one complained and no one fell in- success!
The second day of paddling was a slightly different affair. We planned to paddle on the Solent, which is a bit more demanding on any day. A busy shipping channel in all weather, the warm spell meant that it would be busier than usual, creating new hazards for kayakers to consider. Splitting up into three groups this time, we each made our way from Hurst Point to Lymington Marina.
The more experienced paddlers crossed over to the Isle of Wight for some ice cream while the less experienced people paddled along the marshy coastline looking for seals and sea birds. Apart from the seagulls, we saw some beautiful coots and cormorants while paddling along the marshes. The sunshine had turned the sky and the sea into a delicious shade of blue that looked like they were part of a Monet.
We ended our leisurely paddle at Lymington marina where we found some of our faster friends waiting for us. It was so hot that the girls had decided to take a dip in the sea, so as I paddled towards land I saw three bobbing heads looking very happy with themselves swimming towards me. As they hummed the Jaws theme, the humans thought of themselves as sharks (but actually looked like seals) and tried their best to capsize the kayak, thankfully without success. There were a lot of cameras pointing at us at the time and that would've been embarrassing!
The end of a long paddle is never a glamorous affair. Someone (usually me) has at least one dead leg so I get out of the kayak in a very sloth like manner and someone capsizes as they lose their balance on the beach. There was none of that this time as we all managed to exit our kayaks very gracefully, hoyed everything back in the van and had some ice cream by the sea.
Hopefully that's enticed at least some of you to give sea kayaking a go. As I always say, the weather and conditions are only a part of the experience. Its the people you end up paddling with that make the trip worthwhile :-).