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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Skerries | | | |
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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.
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| Porth Swtan - Church Bay |
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A quick stop for lunch amongst the holiday makers on the beach, then straight across to the breakwater ....
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| Heading for the Holyhead breakwater |
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... 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.
