Tea, custard doughnuts and cake

Tim could only manage a couple of hours, and Rich is supposed to be taking it easy after his knee op, so rock hopping from Cable Bay (Porth Trecastell) was the choice for a late afternoon paddle

Cable Bay - Porth Trecastell

I don't think I have ever seen the water this calm here, or the beach so quiet.

A calm and sunny afternoon

With the addition of sunshine, a slight dilemma was created - dress for paddling or immersion ....

.... but you only had to dip your hand in the water to know what the sensible option was.

Snow in Snowdonia

Superb views on the way round to Cwyfan for tea, custard doughnuts and cake.

Tim paddled the Tahe Greenlander on the return leg which included enough chop to make you feel as if you were in a sea kayak.

Tim in the Tahe

Approaching Cable bay from the South, the entrance is maybe not as obvious as expected

Approaching Cable Bay from the South

but we fought our way through the customary, massive surf landing to the beach

Back on the beach

Calm at Carmel Head

The fine weather offered a chance to paddle a bit of the Anglesey coast that I had 'missed' - Cemlyn to Holyhead. Met Rich in Holyhead to arrange the car and kit shuffle, and set off by road for Cemlyn which seems to get further away each time I go there.

Forecast was for sunshine all day, with light Southerly winds (S2) so no surprise that the wind was coming from the North (veered Easterly later).

Cemlyn

 

Setting off about an hour before slack at Carmel (last of the flood tide), we were soon paddling in glorious conditions and made relatively good time with the help of an unexpectedly large back eddy.

Sunshine

 

Carmel head itself was a bit of a non-event - in a positive way of course - in rather different conditions, you can get 15 metre waves here, and we were soon turning the corner into Holyhead bay.

Skerries

 

 

 

 

The skerries are your constant companion on this trip, and today were just inside a fog bank that was hiding the larger shipping. Seemed very quiet on the water - just one fishing boat out checking his pots, the Harbour Porpoises, and an odd seal.

Porth Swtan - Church Bay

A quick stop for lunch amongst the holiday makers on the beach, then straight across to the breakwater ....

Heading for the Holyhead breakwater

... keeping a lookout for ferries and any other large ship movements. Impressive bit of tidal action near the end of the breakwater (you would not want to get the wrong side by accident) before crossing the harbour to the marina slip.

About 20k paddled in a bit under 3 hours - seemed nearly as long on the road specially the trip back to Cemlyn to collect Rich's car. Just one little bit of coast left to do, and I will have paddled all the Anglesey coast in under 3 years - just slightly slower then John Willacy's record.

Surfing the Sound

27th Jan – Benllech to Porth Penmon

A short blast on the cards, due to both me and Rog having a time limit on a trip. We decided given the westerlies to head over to the east coast of Anglesey and paddle south from Benllech to Penmon. We dropped a car off in the layby at SH 6274 7955, which has great access to the water with plenty of space. There’s also a larger layby a few hundred metres further down the road for more cars too, but without access to the water.

The car park on the beach in Benllech was quite sheltered from the wind, and once loaded up we got on the water. We made good early progress, and once we were far enough off-shore, the wind really started to come into play. It was creating clean, quite sizeable swell that meant we practically surfed across the whole width of Red Wharf Bay. It was great fun too, and meant we sped across the bay not dropping below 9km/h covering 7km in 45minutes.

Red Wharf Bay is a huge bay, measuring nearly 6km in width and 5km in depth at high water so you quickly feel that you’re a long way offshore even after only a few hundred metres of paddling. Once the bay had been crossed, we stayed fairly close to the shore. This part of the Anglesey coast is littered with disused quarries with rocky beaches for the first kilometre or two.

Landing on them wasn’t really an option today given the size of the swell dumping on them, but they’d make a good spot for a picnic if the conditions were a bit calmer.

We maintained a fairly good pace along here as we approached and could now see the Penmon lighthouse. Once round Trwyn Dinmor we could see that the waves were still running through. I don’t think I’ve ever surfed past a lighthouse at such close quarters before.

Turning the corner round Trwyn Penmon into the strait we could see a large ship moored at the opening of the eastern end of the strait. It was a UK Border Agency 42m Customs Cutter with their RIB being lifted onto the back. Me and Rog weren’t carrying any contraband or classified substances so nothing to worry about for us!

The tide was running fairly quickly in the strait and we were quickly gaining on our trip end, crossing the bay of Porth Penmon reaching speeds of over 20km/h. We could see some more signs of Anglesey’s past here, passing some more limestone quarries and workings as well as the 10th Century Priory and 17th-Century dovecote.

A few more hundred metres of paddling before back to the car; 15km in just under 2 hours.

Anglesey Tides

When planning trips around the Anglesey coast, tidal stream information is important, but difficult to estimate from tide times alone.

There are or course, useful sources of tidal stream data such as tidal diamonds on nautical charts and within pilots such as "Cruising Anglesey and adjoining waters"

Tidal stream data is usually presented with reference to High Water Dover (HWD), and the actual flow at any given time identified by calculating how long before or after HWD that time occurs.

All very helpful, but you still have to work out what that means for you, on the water, on the day - this is where the TidalFlowAnglesey App comes in.

TidalFlowAnglesey

 

More information on the SeaKayakWales website.

Rich goes 'Into the wind'

19^th Jan – Foel to Llanddwyn and back via Caernarfon

Another trip planned, this time to ride the tide from Caernarfon to Llanddwyn and back. Force 4 westerlies were forecast for most of the day. I decided to start from Foel to avoid driving to Caernarfon, and as Roger had an optician appointment there, I had time to kill at the start of the day. 

Setting off from Foel

Setting off from Foel I noticed that a large amount of the sandbanks were visible so had to pick my line through them quite carefully as a walk is on the cards if the wrong line is taken. My line was good apart from a brief stint of paddling in water no more than about 30cm deep. Once over the strait I headed past Caernarfon towards Coed Helen to the meeting point where Roger had just arrived and was busy unloading his boat and kit. Just as Kev arrived, the weather took a turn and we were forced to seek shelter in Roger’s van whilst the shower passed. The photo below was taken just before the shower hit!

Rainbow on the Menai Strait

 We got on the water to catch the last of the ebb out of the strait towards Abermenai Point and Fort Belan. For the whole of this section of the trip we were subjected to Force 4 or 5 winds more or less on the nose and over the tide which made for some very lumpy conditions. It appears that a low-volume, Greenland-style kayak didn’t like these conditions very much. I spent the majority of the time rebuilding my speed back up, having lost it all every time I was sent crashing off the back of a wave. It was tiring work, but we still made steady progress averaging between 6km/h and 8km/h. 

Rough conditions start here

Once round the corner, passing Abermenai Point and Fort Belan on the way, we then caught sight of our destination, Llanddwyn Island. 

Approaching Fort Belan

Our destination - Llanddwyn

Sun was poking through the clouds, but we were now heading directly into the wind which slowed our progress down a bit. Once the flood had started we were back into wind over tide conditions again. It was made worse by the numerous sandbanks and channels that exist off Newborough Beach, some of the waves reaching well over a metre in height.  Our progress was now quite slow, with the choppy conditions and wind limiting our speed to about 5km/h. 

It felt like a fairly long crossing to Llanddwyn in the end, and we had a bit of excitement on our final approach to Pilot’s Cove, where fairly big surf was forming. Kev gave me one of the funniest sights I’ve seen, pulling a hilarious face whilst bursting through the back of a wave. Once into the calm waters of the cove, we landed and dragged our boat up towards the wall where we stopped to have a well-deserved break. We’d paddled 12km in just over 2 hours into the wind, tide assistance being our only help. 

Once we’d dispatched our coffee and food, as well as waving like lunatics to a group of ramblers by the lighthouse, we got back in our boats to begin the return journey. We paddled in a north-westerly direction out of the cove taking advantage of some surf for a few minutes of fun. The swell had grown considerably by now, and with the wind now gusting F6 we were paddling in a fairly challenging, quartering sea once we’d stopped surfing and were heading back to Caernarfon. 

It was imperative to keep paddling as each wave came and maintaining a sensible direction was very difficult. The conditions were up there with probably the toughest I’d faced. A few minutes later Kev was capsized by a large wave and only narrowly missed out on a roll. A wet exit ensued as neither me or Rog were able to get along-side him quickly in the swell. Once Kev was back in his boat (and we’d retrieved his perpetually-floating sunglasses case [it’s another story – ask Kev]) and paddling away again we were making good progress, paddling in excess of 7km/h downwind against the tide. 

However, our progress was halted by Kev being capsized again by a large wave as we crossed some of the shallower water opposite the Newborough Beach car park. This time, Rog managed to get alongside him quickly to Eskimo-rescue (whether Kev wanted to roll or not!) and got him upright again fairly quickly. We then carried on making steady progress towards Abermenai Point, and once within about a kilometre of the point entered some relatively calmer waters. 

Calmer water

This made the final bit of paddling into the strait somewhat easier, but offshore we could see that the Caernarfon Bar sandbank was taking a real pounding by the waves. Once into the strait, the conditions calmed further, and we were now in a following sea, with tide and wind working with us. We made excellent progress towards Caernarfon, surfing small waves and reaching speeds of 15km/h. We were glad of some assistance from both wind and tide for the first time in the day. 

Once back in Caernarfon, I said my goodbyes to Rog and Kev and proceeded to ferry-glide back across the strait towards Foel, once again negotiating some very shallow water. The tide was running pretty quickly now, so I had to adjust my bearing on the final stretch to accommodate this, making back to the car in just over an hour and a half since leaving Llanddwyn. I was exhausted by the time I reached the car and once I’d changed, had to sit down for a few minutes before loading the boat onto the roof. 

24km paddled in rough conditions in just under 4 hours. I slept well that night!

I'm not superstitious - more from Rich as guest blogger

Friday the 13th – A trip to the Skerries

Paddling to the Skerries is seen as a bit of a rite of passage for sea kayakers and can be a fairly serious trip in the best of conditions. Deciding to paddle there on Friday the 13th may not seem like the best idea for a lot of people (I’m not superstitious though). 4 black cats crossed my path on the way there (I’m not superstitious).

I arranged to meet Roger, Simon and Kevin in Porth Swtan for 09.30 to get on the water for 10:00. Kevin couldn’t make it so it ended up just being three of us. Once we got the kit and boats down onto the beach and loaded up, we headed up along the coast towards Carmel Head on the still flooding tide. We were making very good time so engaged in a bit of rock hopping as well as some cave exploration. There are a number of big caves with a few stacks and arches on this stretch of coastline worth exploring.

The tide was running fairly quickly, and with a light wind blowing against it the water was fairly choppy.

Once at Carmel Head we sneaked into the small inlet and landed on the beach. We climbed up onto the headland to have a cup of coffee and a snack, and took our time to observe the conditions as well as the rescue taking place off the coast of North Stack.

We all confirmed our course to steer (courtesy of Roger’s vector) and began paddling. The tide had slowed considerably in the 30 minutes or so we’d spent at Carmel Head but was far from slack. I always find paddling on a bearing slightly unnerving, having to put all your trust into a calculation especially when you can see your ultimate target but aren’t paddling towards it! I had this same mistrust of sorts when I was learning to fly light aircraft, but experience has taught me that the calculations are usually correct and that you have to trust them fully.
 

We were aiming to land on the island exactly at slack water, and after consulting the charts and all the planning documentation, it was time to head back down to our boats and begin crossing.

Our crossing time was 40 minutes (which, incidentally, was exactly the same as my planning) and we ended up being slightly to the south of the island (much better than to the north given the state of the tide) and therefore had to paddle for the last 5 minutes or so directly towards the island. The tide was becoming slack exactly as we got into the sound in between Ynys Arw and the main island (again exactly as planned). There doesn’t seem to be an easy egress point on this side of the island, so we got out just to the north of the lighthouse.

We spent about 20 minutes on the island, refuelling, taking photos and watching the seals (around 15 of them). It is a magical and somewhat eerie place, where we enjoyed fantastic panoramic views of the north-west of Anglesey and the Isle of Man.

But, it is important not to enjoy the island too much as the tides here are some of the strongest around the UK, so we had to get on with crossing back to Anglesey. We went round the northern tip of the island given how calm the conditions were and cut back through in between the main island and Ynys Berchen.

On our return leg, we just pointed our kayaks towards West Mouse to start with, then as we approached half way across, directly at Porth Swtan. Me and Roger stayed offshore here to make the most of the tide, whereas Simon headed closer to the shore and engaged in some more rock hopping. The crossing from The Skerries back to Porth Swtan took about an hour and when we arrived back at the beach, Kevin was there to greet our huge grins. He was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to come out with us, but we promised to take him there very soon!

I’ve read several accounts of trips to The Skerries and it is not a trip to underestimate. It is an open crossing exposed to the prevailing south-westerlies we so frequently get here on Anglesey, and as I have already mentioned some very strong tides (5 knot spring rate)! Our conditions were favourable to say the least – light northerly, easterly and southerly winds accompanied by very little swell. We did paddle over there just off spring tides so the flow was strong but sound planning and efficient management of time on the day served us well.

I’m very happy to have got this big trip done as it has been on my wish list for quite some time. Simon and Roger had been to the Skerries before, but only Roger had been there by kayak so a big day for all of us. I’m still working on Simon to start using an Anglesey Stick – maybe him having to work hard to keep up with me and Roger may persuade him one day to convert!

No one told me it was fancy dress - another entry from Rich

 New Year’s Eve, 2011 – an open invite from John Willacy arrived a few days before to take part in a social paddle (no racing allowed) as a finale to the year’s Menai Challenge. An early (0900 at Gallows) start to arrange the shuttle, and once everyone had arrived (20 paddlers in total!) we headed off to Foel leaving some cars behind. I had the pleasure of the company of Jim Krawiecki and John Bunyan in the car and we started chatting about various things, especially about the fancy dress.

JB had brought along a monkey mask, and on arriving at Foel discovered that Pete Baars had brought along his infamous chicken suit, John Willacy had a penguin suit, and a few others had made token fancy dress efforts in the form of silly hats and masks.

Once on the water (it’s amazing how long this process takes the more people there are involved in the event!) we made our way first towards Y Felinheli and once alongside the village, we all rafted up so that JW could pass around a dry bag full of chocolates! A very welcome surprise and because of the tide, we still managed in excess of 5km/h even as an unpowered raft.

We broke off once we rounded the corner and discussions began (started by Aled Williams, of course) about who was interested in doing the ‘advanced’ loop (an extra loop of the bridges). About 6 or 7 volunteered to take part including me, and once the group was formed, we left the rest of the paddlers to enter the Swellies. My pace grew considerably, reaching a maximum of 17.7km/h in the tide between the bridges.

A reasonably tricky break out under the suspension bridge was good fun and now it was time to paddle against the tide back towards the Britannia Bridge. This isn’t as difficult as it seems at first; a number of eddies form in this part of the strait and it is possible to make fairly good progress towards the Britannia eddy hopping.

There are a couple of difficult spots where one has to break into the main flow and attempt to ferry glide into another eddy; my speed on the day rarely got above 4km/h doing this, however these ferry glides are infrequent (thankfully) and the most difficult of which on the day’s tide was between Ynys Gored Goch (the island with the house on) and a large eddy just short of the bridge. Once round the pillar, we got back on the tide and rode it towards the suspension bridge again.

Once past the suspension bridge, we quickly caught up with the rest of the group where we settled back into a ‘bimble’ pace passing the town of Menai Bridge, Bangor Pier, the Gazelle and on to the last stretch to Gallows. An interesting patch of following sea between the pier and Beaumaris provided some entertainment in the form of surfing practice to arrive at Gallows 2 hours and 20 minutes after departing Foel.

The process of getting 20 kayaks loaded up and people packed into cars was another sight to behold, before departing for a stop-over at the Anglesey Arms for a drink for more chatting and socialising. I think enough of us hassled JW to force him to organise the Menai Challenge again for 2012, as it has been very popular. A quick trip back to Foel after farewells to collect the remainder of the cars ended the day. With 19.6km paddled, I headed home to begin preparing for the evening’s festivities.

Photos courtesy of John Willacy and Jimski