About us

Twenty Years on the Same Stretch of Water

The base started as a shed with four hire boats run by a family that had fished the river mouth for three generations. It grew because visitors kept asking the same questions — where can we go, is it safe, who can take us — and because the answers were always given honestly, including the times when the answer was that today is not a good day to go out. That reputation is the whole business. Every skipper and guide on the roster is either from the villages along this estuary or has worked here for at least five seasons.

The fleet is chosen for the conditions rather than for photographs: stable open boats with low freeboard for the channels, a covered launch for cold or wet days, sit-on-top kayaks that a beginner cannot easily capsize, and two larger craft licensed for twelve passengers. Engines are serviced on a fixed schedule, hulls are checked weekly, and every boat carries an anchor, bailer, throw line, flares, first-aid kit and a charged radio. Handovers include a real briefing, not a signature on a disclaimer.

We also act as the informal information point for the area, because somebody has to. The desk holds current tide tables, charts marked with sandbanks and no-go zones, weather printouts, bus times, a list of which restaurants are open out of season, and honest advice about which beach is worth the walk. None of that earns money directly; all of it is why people come back and send their friends.