Sea Kayaking in Pembrokeshire

A sea kayak gets you to the bits of this coast nobody else sees: the base of cliffs you can only look down on from the Coast Path, caves that go a long way back into the rock, and arches you can paddle through if the swell is small enough.

The St Davids peninsula is the heart of it. Trips launch from Whitesands and Porthmelgan and work the coast towards St Davids Head, with Ramsey Island a mile offshore. Crossing to Ramsey is a proper undertaking, because Ramsey Sound contains The Bitches — a fin of rock that constricts the tidal flow into a race with standing waves. It is famous, it is used for whitewater play by paddlers who really know what they are doing, and it has killed people. That is the standing example of why Pembrokeshire kayaking is planned around tide tables rather than weather forecasts.

Further south, Martin's Haven is the launch for the waters around Skomer and Skokholm, with Jack Sound in between running just as hard. The Marloes peninsula cliffs are alive with guillemots, razorbills and fulmars from April to July, and grey seals haul out in the coves below all year. On the limestone coast, Stackpole Quay is a beautiful launch — a harbour barely bigger than a tennis court — with Barafundle and a run of caves and stacks immediately south. In the north, Ceibwr Bay near Moylegrove sits under the folded cliffs of the Witches Cauldron, a collapsed sea cave you can paddle into on a calm day.

For flat water, the Milford Haven waterway from Dale and the wooded Daugleddau above it are the fallback when the open coast is out of the question, and they are lovely in their own right rather than a consolation prize.

A guided half day is typically three hours on the water with a briefing and a beach landing somewhere in the middle. A full day covers real distance and usually includes a crossing or a committing cliff section. Expect to be taught how to get out of the boat before you get into it, and expect the guide to change the plan on the morning — that is a sign of competence, not disorganisation.

Come between April and October. May and June often give the settled, clear conditions people imagine, and the seabird cliffs are at their loudest. September has warm water and quiet coast. High summer is fine but busier and no calmer.

What catches people out: the assumption that flat sea means safe sea. Tidal streams here run hard in perfectly benign-looking conditions, and the danger is not waves but the water moving somewhere you did not intend. Second, distance is deceptive — a headland that looks twenty minutes away is often an hour. Third, sitting still gets you cold quickly; people underdress because they are thinking about the paddling rather than the waiting.

If you are not qualified for open-water sea kayaking, go with an operator. The learning curve here is unusually unforgiving.