2019-12-16 Cemaes Bay – Monday

Cemaes Bay

Simon and I had arranged to set off from Anglesey Outdoors at 8:00am, for some breakfast, before heading up to Cemaes Bay. Cutting a long story short, someone (ahem me!) forgot to pick up their kit from the drying room at Anglesey Outdoors. I guess a combination of still being a bit sore about damaging my van the day before plus Simon being ready to go at 7:45, led to me rushing... excuses excuses, whatever (but definitely a Simon's fault). This meant we were not on the water until 10:30! An hour later than planned.

From the bay, it looked calm enough, but it wasn't long before, as we approached Llanbadrig Point things started to get very lumpy. I suggested to Simon not to go any further as with the tides running strongly, we may not find it so easy to get back again. We headed across the bay to Wylfa head. Again here the sea was pretty rough. As we started to go around Wylfa Head, the seas became heavier and once again we decided to turn back. So we took out time and explored the bay. This was some thing both Simon and I had ever spent time doing before. The coastline between the Harbour and Wylfa head is quite interesting. There are caves, gullies to paddle through and a couple of nice bays to explore. We even found the remains of what turned out to be an old lifeboat slipway. There is a good description of the historic lifeboat, the Charles Henry Ashley and a photo of the old station here.

By the time we reached the harbour in Cemaes it was virtually local HW. I saw Simon disappear through a tunnel under the road and swiftly followed. We were paddling on the River Wygyr. We followed the river up to a small foot bridge. The bridge effectively blocking our way, but beyond the bridge you could see there wasn't much point in continuing any further. It was evidently very shallow.

Back out, under the tunnel back in the harbour I went to look at the HW bell. I've seen the bell a few times at Cemaes and have wondered what it was for. Well having just looked it up and can now reveal it is a Tide and Time Bell, part of an art installation by Marcus Vergette. The bell in Cemaes is known a St Patrick's Bell and was installed in 2014. For more info click here.

As I needed to set off early to get home, I got off the water at this point. Simon Stayed on the water with him agreeing to call me once he was off the water safely.

A shorter paddle than planned, but it was nice to take it easy and explore.

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