Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
This year, every time I've planned for a date to do the Anglesey circumnavigation, something would happen; mainly the weather ie. far too windy, or family stuff would clash. All the dates I had planned for this year just came and went. This year hasn't exactly been great for me getting to the coast...
The video says it all really, although the wide angle GoPro footage does flattens the sea. It was a pretty rough day, blowing F6+ when we got on at Trearddur Bay. The wind and swell did weaken throughout the day though, with even the sun making a welcome appearance a few times. Not long...
With holidays to use up before the year end, I agreed to meet Simon Williams on the Friday for four days of paddling. All week the weather had been looking extremely unpleasant, but surprisingly on the Friday it turned out not too bad. We agreed to paddle from Cemlyn Bay and to potter around...
So is it Harry Furlough's or Harry Furlongs? Ordnance Survey reckon it is "Harry Furlough's" as does Welsh Sea Kayaking, and yet the chart definitely says Harry Furlong's! Searching the internet I found: "Harry Furlough's Rocks, sometimes said to be a misspelling of furlong from the length of the rocks". I'll use both terms...
What a super day this turned out to be, with bright sunshine, lovely conditions and all in the middle of January. Having met up with Andy and Ann, in their new van, on the Friday, Andy and I set off from Porth Dafarch, on Saturday morning, with the plan of paddling to Rhoscolyn and...
Owain told me he had not paddled on the North coast of Anglesey, so I said I would see what I could do. Looking at the tides I could see that if we went from Bull Bay with the tide towards Middle Mouse, the tide would turn at 12:24 and bring us back again....
This was a short paddle around the Plymouth Breakwater and Plymouth Sound whilst on holiday. The breakwater wasn't as interesting as I had imagined, but was worth doing all the same. Interestingly, I was stalked by a motor launch (MOD?) for quite a while as I think they thought I had intentions on landing...
With the wind being f3-f4 NW and a reasonable swell forecast, I led a group of three paddlers: Keith, Spencer and Paul. This day I was paddling a Valley Gemini SP, lent to me by Valley. It is a lovely looking boat in nice metallic Blue with a funky white stripe down the middle...
Day 5 of Five Star training saw us do an out and back from Soldiers Point around the Stacks, taking turns to do leadership, have a play in the race at South Stack and generally have some fun.This was followed with us returning to Anglesey Outdoors to sit out in the sunshine, summing up...
After a good night in the Paddler's Return with Gareth and Sarah, Sunday morning arrived all too soon. Sticking my head out of my tent, I met Becka and Jules who had arrived in the night and had pitched their tent close to mine. It was raining and by the time I'd been to...
The weather forecast for North Wales was very poor, with high winds and rain for much of the day. So Michael Hargreaves in his new boat and I decided to meet up on the Menai Straits at Moel-y-Don. This allowed us to paddle up with the tide towards Menai Bridge, have lunch and come...
There was quite a swell forecast for 5th June coming from the North. Consequently South Landing was fairly quiet in terms of the car park and sea state. Setting off Stu (VE Paddles) and I immediately bumped into a group of kayakers who had been out to Flamborough Head, who told us it was...
Paddled with Plum Loaf and three ex-marines, so plenty of banter!! We ran a car shuttle, leaving one car at the start and two cars at Bull Bay. One of the marines was fairly new to sea kayaking, so we needed to ensure he was ok with the trip. Setting off from Cemlyn Bay...
Day three started with me packing up my tent and meeting with my paddle buddy at the usual spot for 10:00 am. Consulting the tide tables and the excellent Welsh Sea Kayaking guidebook, we realised that by the time we had run the shuttle, we could paddle From Puffin Island to Benllech. For the...
Day two started with us meeting at 10:00 am to decide where to paddle. The tides and wind combination were not once again ideal, with us ending up once again paddling into the wind, but with a little tidal assistance. We carried on from where we left off at Porth Eilian and paddled down...
The 2011 Wet West Paddle Fest (WWPF) was a bit of a turning point for me. Whilst I was happy paddling the Etive and other rivers in Scotland, the River Moriston had been playing on my mind for some time. This was due to all of the epic's I had experienced on this river...
