Report - Kayaking the Maunsell Seaforts - Sept 14

[Do Not Eat]

Amazing!!

 

[Benton]

Excellent write up !

 

[GG]

Nice work. Tell me you took a GPS.

 

[Lancashire lad]

fantastic report lads , some nice piks and a great original location enjoyed reading that one

 

[Zippy]

Excellent rePORT! See what I did there? ;-) Seriously - great account of your explore - it's made me want to do it myself!

 

[adzboarder]

Absolutely amazing adventure! Great write up and photos guys, thanks for sharing!

 

[Adam X]

Can't believe I've only just seen this - absolutely breathtaking. Sensational work lads, and thanks so much for sharing. WINNERS!

 

[GRONK]

Well done lads, that is fucking fantastic.

 

[floyd7418]

Awesome explore, bloody well done - this was great fun to read. Thanks for sharing

 

[jcreedy]

Great stuff. Well done fellas.

 

[steveekay]

holy momma! the mother of all explores!

 

[Dangle_Angle]

Amazing. Loved that report

 

[Luke Stanmore]

Top report! And the blog post for that matter!

I heard about this place a few weeks ago (can't believe I, nor my parents, have ever heard of them), and instantly wanted to go there myself! I'm relatively new to kayaking, so I'm a bit apprehensive to two of us heading essentially 10 miles out to sea. Just so I know what to expect, and take with me, I know it's on a sand bank, but how deep are we talking? I assume a fair bit more than paddling depth? How did you place the rope up high for ascending? Didn't you try/was it obviously not possible to access any of the other towers? I'm sure I had more questions, but can't remember for the life of me! Though most importantly, did you catch your tea out there?! Haha cheers

 

[m9]

Top report! And the blog post for that matter!

I heard about this place a few weeks ago (can't believe I, nor my parents, have ever heard of them), and instantly wanted to go there myself! I'm relatively new to kayaking, so I'm a bit apprehensive to two of us heading essentially 10 miles out to sea. Just so I know what to expect, and take with me, I know it's on a sand bank, but how deep are we talking? I assume a fair bit more than paddling depth? How did you place the rope up high for ascending? Didn't you try/was it obviously not possible to access any of the other towers? I'm sure I had more questions, but can't remember for the life of me! Though most importantly, did you catch your tea out there?! Haha cheers

alright man? I know I come across pretty insouciant when I write about my adventures and stuff, but generally, most of it is well rehearsed and backed by quite a bit of experience. If you're asking how we got the ropes over, I'm guessing you're not too experienced with rope access so that would be a place to start practising. With the kayaking, don't even think about going out in an unpowered boat without the tide charts, planning your route and also knowing how to rescue and right yourself if you capsize. It's so so easy to fuck up once you're out on the ocean.
You could access the other forts, but they dont have bbqs and wood burning stoves on them.
This is gonna sound outrageously condescending, but if you're asking a random dude on the internet how to sea kayak 10 miles and rig a safe ascension line from ground over a 20m drop into a sand bank full of random detached chunks of rusty sea fort you probably need to back to basics to make sure you dont drown..


and no, you cant stand on the sand bank without drinking the sea.

 

[Luke Stanmore]

alright man? I know I come across pretty insouciant when I write about my adventures and stuff, but generally, most of it is well rehearsed and backed by quite a bit of experience. If you're asking how we got the ropes over, I'm guessing you're not too experienced with rope access so that would be a place to start practising. With the kayaking, don't even think about going out in an unpowered boat without the tide charts, planning your route and also knowing how to rescue and right yourself if you capsize. It's so so easy to fuck up once you're out on the ocean.
You could access the other forts, but they dont have bbqs and wood burning stoves on them.
This is gonna sound outrageously condescending, but if you're asking a random dude on the internet how to sea kayak 10 miles and rig a safe ascension line from ground over a 20m drop into a sand bank full of random detached chunks of rusty sea fort you probably need to back to basics to make sure you dont drown..


and no, you cant stand on the sand bank without drinking the sea.

Cheers for the reply.
I have no intentions of rushing into something like this, but you gotta start somewhere! Rope access, no, not much experience with that. Climbing on the other hand, no problem! Both I and my partner in crime have plenty of experience with most other aspects, the actual ascending of the rope would pose no issue. When climbing, there is no reason to anchor the rope high above you, you either climb and clip in to protection as you go, or top rope if you have access to the top, neither of which are an option here. I don't quite fancy shredding any of my ropes on old rusted girders, which may or may not take my weight without knowing if there's a more appropriate way.
Kayaking wise, I personally have probably only spent 25-30 hours in one, my buddy on the other hand, has spent countless hours in one. This is the skill I plan to work on whenever time permits until I would feel comfortable with this task. I am handy with navigation though as the family did used to own a small powerboat until a few months back.
BBQ and fire sound nice, a fair bit of extra weight/bulk to take fuel out too though! And I'm sure the other forts would be good to see too, but they're all even further out to sea Thanks again for the info/warnings