Having arranged to paddle Harry Furlongs on Saturday, I headed to Cemlyn bay in my van, late on Friday night, arriving at around 11:30pm. Next morning the weather was lovely and sunny and the sea state smooth. No sooner had I taken my boat of the van and carried it to the beach, I received a message saying to contact Dave or Gareth. Typical, we were now meeting at Porth Dafarch. After a quick reload and tidy up (throwing everything in the van any old how) I headed off to the arranged meeting point for 10:30am.
At Porth Dafarch there was Dave Blake Gareth and Sarah Jones. The sea looked lively and Sarah wasn't that happy with the conditions, but decided to set off to Rhoscolyn and see how it would go. The swell was forecast to be lessening thought the day. After we set off the conditions were certainly entertaining as we made our way across the bay to the Beacon. At Rhoscolyn head we could see a group ahead of us going inside of the outlying reefs. We took a look at it and decided going around the outside would be the best bet. As we neared the beacon Sarah expressed a wish to land soon. A wish we happily all agreed to as we were all getting hungry for some lunch.
We landed a Porth y Corwgl, the little bay just before Borthwen. Jimski and a few others were already there, along with a German lady who told me her name was Freya. I had no idea who she was or what she had achieved - paddling solo around Australia and also South America. We sat had our various lunches and chatted before Gareth suggest a little beach clean. In about five minutes we had collected several bin bags of plastic/rope/rubbish from the beach and my rear compartment was full.
We all headed back together with Jim's group heading for Trearddur Bay. This time we all went inside the reef so we could all experience the spicy conditions. Sarah wasn't too happy by the time we reached Porth y garan and decided to stick with Jimski's group going back to Trearddur Bay. Gareth, Dave and I then headed back to Porth Dafarch.
At Porth Dafarch we had a play on the surf, although by now the swell was much smaller than in the morning. It was just as we entered Porth Dafarch, my left paddle blade broke! I'd better ring Celtic on Monday morning. So I got off and took photos of Gareth and Dave ripping it up!
A Fab days paddle, with paddling Royalty to boot! 9.1 Nm