19th
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.
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| Setting off from Foel |
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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!
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| Rainbow on the Menai Strait |
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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.
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| Rough conditions start here |
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Once round the
corner, passing Abermenai Point and Fort Belan on the way, we then caught sight
of our destination, Llanddwyn Island.
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| Approaching Fort Belan |
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| Our destination - Llanddwyn |
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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.
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| Calmer water |
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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!
