Battered and a little bruised from my surf kayak exploits at Rhosneigr the day before, I met Brain as pre-arranged at the Anglesey Truck stop 9am Saturday. We both acquiesced to decline breakfast at the truck stop and get on with paddling. As it turned out both of us are not exactly fans the truck stop fodder. No one else had turned up, so we quickly hatched a plan to run a shuttle and do a one way trip across the top of Anglesey. This was mainly due to the tide flooding most of the day. We would therefore, paddle from Cemlyn Bay to Point Lynas. The north coast sheltering us from the f4, occasionally gusting F6 wind left over from Storm Lorenzo.
Having left a car at Point Lynas, we were surprised not to see any other kayakers doing similar runs when we arrived at Cemlyn Bay car park. The only car there was for a guy picking litter off the beach. He told us he is paid to keep the beach clean at Cemlyn by the council. Having just had Storm Lorenzo pass through, he had just been up and down the bay picking up all the rubbish brought in with tide following the storm. The weather was actually a lot better than forecast. This was a big factor in putting a lot of people off from paddling today.
As we were approaching Porth Wen I said to Brian, "this is normally where you get to see Porpoises"... and virtually straight away Brian said "oh there's one"! It wasn't far away at all. We watched it as it slowly moved off, blowing the occasional spout of water.
At Porth Wen, one kayak group were just leaving, having paddled from Bull Bay. We stopped to stretch the legs and have a bite to eat before heading over to the far side of Porth Wen, where we encountered another group heading along the coast against the tide.
All too soon we were rapidly approaching Point Lynas on the flood tide. But it was too early to stop, so we decided the would carry on around the point. If the tide was too strong to get back around the point, we could always wait a bit for the tide to slow down. When we got to the "point of no return" there was a a big eddy right under the lighthouse. Entering the eddy you could see that the only problem we would face would be ferrying out from the eddy. Whilst the water was moving swiftly, it was not going to be too difficult. So we headed around the point, exploring the various caves as we went.
There are some great caves not far from Point Lynas on the eastern side of the island. Some of these are old mine workings, if you look carefully you can make out steps cut into the rock to allow access to the tunnels.
Heading back around Point Lynas was easy and it wasn't long before we were heading back to Cemlyn Bay to fetch the other vehicle.
What an excellent paddle. Thanks Brian for your excellent company.