UKH

Heading down to the South West this weekend, however the tides look a bit rubbish.

Plenty of non tidal areas available, but would be good to visit some of the sea level crags. 

Is it fairly straightforward to abseil in at places like Berry Head Berry Head - The Old Redoubtand Chair Ladder   Chair Ladder when the tides in?

In the guidebook it mentions a non tidal ledge at Berry Head and there appears to be options at Chair Ladder to scramble down and start a bit higher up.

Berry Head has options at high tide, but does depend specifically what you want to do. You can down climb into the the Great Cave at any state of tide. You can also traverse round to the start of Moonraker unless the sea is rough and/or tide is very high, but traverse through back of Cave is about 5c (and if you fall off you'll end up in the sea, potentially with all the gear/rope).  

You can ab to the Moonraker ledge at high tide with a long rope (probably 80m but check pitch length, tie a knot in end of rope, and have an escape plan, etc etc).

Alternatively go deep water soloing, as that's all much better on a high tide!

Chair Ladder not sure, as only been there at low tide. Probably can ab or downclimb to some higher ledges, but a fair bit of the crag base will be under water. Again helpful to know where to ab from (or be with someone who does), as you cant really look down on the crag from the top.

Sennen and Bosi are obvious none tidal alternatives.

In relation to Chair Ladder there is a number of ledges well above high tide level but it helps if you're already familiar with the crag! At the west end in the Pegasus area there's a big ledge you can ab down to and just do the upper halves of several routes. You can also scramble down one of the gullies (Ashcan?) which takes you down to Wolverine area and access to upper pitches of Aerial. Then you can access ledges near Terrier's Tooth and traverse onto upper pitches of The Mitre. It may also be possible to ab down to the ledge below South Face Direct where a number of popular routes start.

It's neap tides so things won't be too crazy, although there is a swell forecast for the weekend. As mentioned above, the moonraker ab is pretty long and into a semi / hanging belay. Worth doing if you have a long rope and are competent, I'd much rather do that than the horrible greasy traverse through the cave. When I did it we traversed low and 'wade climbed' using underwater footholds, but it wasn't straightforward, the high traverse is serious -slippery and 12ft above semi-submerged boulders.

Thanks for the replies, I've noticed since that there is a note on the Moonraker log book page which mentions the use of a 60m ab rope:

UKC Logbook Description
Memorable approach by sea level traverse which can feel hard on humid days. Alternatively approach by a 60m abseil FROM THE LIP (use another rope back to the pole). If you abseil remember to kick out or you'll end up hanging over the sea like a dummy.

Traverse does sound interesting! As the low tide is so early each morning, an abseil in could get us a few more routes.

Will pack some swim shorts as a back up, the DWS looks really good too.

"If you abseil remember to kick out or you'll end up hanging over the sea like a dummy."

Forgot to do this on the way down to start Dreadnought. Thankfully my mate had gone down first and was able to throw out a line and haul me back in.

Some years earlier my mate fell in with the ropes when doing the Cave traverse, which was terrifyingly slimy after a very very high tide...and where we were still an hour too early... because I didn't know that BST isnt UTC... And when we got to the Moonraker belay a huge unexpected squall had come in soaking the whole cliff (the waterfalls were great). So we had to escape. He swam across (he was soaking anyway), set up a Tyrolean for the gear then I swam after.  All was good. Except for that damn Brixham seal circling round the Cave like a Russian sub... 

Hi

Tide is potentially perfect for Magical Mystery Tour, Magic Seaweed is showing flat for swell, forecast dry so ideal all round.

On such a flat neap tide if you start at the blue grotto end just as high tide starts to drop, and work back north to finish at the great cave you get deep water under all the harder sections, and probably a grade easier in that direction. That level of tide also keeps you off the barnacles and on much better rock and climbing. It does mean you have to swim the 20ft of the green grotto but all part of the MMT adventure. On this tide if you are quick enough you can do the high level Traverse down the side of the great cave with just enough water to still be DWS. Locating the blue grotto from above is not that easy particularly in a first visit, even more so now if the rockfall.

Moonraker start belay is an easy walk round on a big spring low tide but you need to get up the first pitch quick.

have fun 

Chris