BRACKLESHAM TO SELSEY BILL, 19 JULY 2026
On Sunday 19 July a small group of four CKC-ers, led by Liza, headed to Bracklesham beach on the south coast, for a lovely paddle on the sea. There’s a car park right by the beach, but on a beautiful sunny weekend day in the summer holidays, it fills up quickly and there were no spaces left at all by the time we arrived just after 10.00. We unloaded the kayaks near “The Beach” café (with adjacent public toilets) and drivers Liza and Mary had to go find parking spaces in the streets nearby.
After a briefing from Liza, and with the tide coming in and a light north/north easterly breeze from behind, we carried the boats down the steep shingle bank and launched in light surf, heading out from the beach to catch the flow. We headed southeast, following the coastline towards Selsey Bill, making good progress. The Windmill at Medberry soon came into view, and the cardinal markings off Selsey Bill became more clearly visible ahead.
As forewarned by Liza, we headed away from the shore and out towards the further cardinal markings as we got closer to Selsey Bill, to avoid the roughest area of water where it suddenly becomes pretty choppy as the current pushes it over the shallow bar. It was indeed rather bouncy with short steep waves coming from various directions, and the bows of the kayaks plunging ahead. It required some extra concentration as we pushed through the turbulence, but it didn’t last long and we were soon in calmer waters again, albeit with the occasional gusts touching force 4.
We headed close to Pagham beach for lunch, below a row of beach houses, some pretty plush and a few adapted from old railway carriages that had been moved there during WWII to accommodate soldiers ahead of the D-Day landings.
After lunch we were back in the kayaks for a short burst to Selsey to get an ice-cream.
Having scoffed those, we were back in the kayaks and did a seal launch, sliding down the shingle in our boats into the water. With the flow still with us, although we found ourselves pushing against occasional gusts of wind. We didn’t need to move out much to navigate Selsey Bill on the way back. It was only mildly choppy and perfectly manageable.
Back in Bracklesham Bay Liza demonstrated a self-rescue, which Emmanuel then tried a couple of times, nail-bitingly close to fully executing it. Fionna then tried and failed, and was rescued mostly ably by Emmanuel.
The fun passed all too quickly, and we headed in, with the 4pm high tide accommodatingly well up the shingle, making landing surprisingly easy. A great day out, excellently planned and led by Liza, with a nice of mix of leisurely paddle, focused concentration around the Bill, and some rescue practice.
