Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
Anglesey or Ynys Môn is an island off the north west coast of Wales. Two bridges span the Menai Strait, connecting it to the mainland: the Menai Suspension Bridge designed by Thomas Telford in 1826 and the Britannia Bridge. Formerly part of Gwynedd, Anglesey, Holy Island and other smaller islands now make up the Isle of Anglesey County.
Almost three quarters of the inhabitants are Welsh speakers and Ynys Môn, the Welsh name for the island, is used for the UK Parliament and National Assembly constituencies. With an area of 714 square kilometers (276 sq mi), Anglesey is the largest Welsh island, the fifth largest surrounding Great Britain and the largest in the Irish Sea.
The start of the day saw us meeting around Simon Beasley's caravan at Anglesey Outdoors looking at options for a paddle. The group of ten was going to be of mixed abilities and with a strong southerly wind blowing, our options were going to be limited. In the end it was decided to paddle...
Meeting with PDCC at 9:00am it was soon settled with the weather forecast and tides, a trip out to the Skerries was most definitely on. So off we went to meet again in the car park at Camaes Bay. It was only a couple of weeks ago Helen, Gordon and I paddled to the...
First trip in our new van "Bobbie the Murvi" and I brought my wife along for the weekend too! Arriving late on Friday night, with just enough time for a quick one in the Paddlers, Mrs T and I settled down for our first nights sleep in the van. It was pretty quiet until...
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...
A trip to the Skerries practising leadership navigation skills with a great group of paddlers. Another fabulous paddle with lots of learning from James Stevenson...
After a better nights camping, Wednesday came with Open Water Navigation in the morning, personal skills in Penrhyn Mawr in the afternoon, followed by an excellent moonlit night nav exercise in the evening....... a very long but productive day. Monday seemed like a long long time ago! The night navigation was great fun. Hand-railing...
After another rough nights camping, day 2 saw us head off to Penrhyn Mawr from Porth Dafarch for some excellent paddling and coaching by James in good 5 * conditions. I think at the end of the day we were all pretty tired and we had all identified areas we needed to improve. For...
After a very wet and windy night that saw me getting up at 4am to dismantle my tarp, that was trying to leave camp, we I met with James Stevenson of Adventure Elements and the other trainees in the paddlers at 9am. The other paddlers were Helen, Yorkshire Dave and Gordon. Having made our introductions James...
Having bumped into Abo in the Paddlers the night before, followed by a solid nights sleep (thanks to Abo showing me the delights of a Welsh Pale Ale which I cannot remember the name of, and err the green and yellow label was it?), I joined Abo and PL at Rhoscolyn. Both Abo and PL...
After seeing my wife and daughter off on Saturday morning to see the ballet in Sheffield, I set off for Anglesey. Leaving home, near Nottingham at this time would mean not arriving to Anglesey until 1300-1330 in the afternoon. But seeing as I am away for the week, to do my 5 star training,...
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...
Having arranged with Gareth and Sarah to meet at Parc Cybi Truck stop at 09:30 on Saturday morning, I decided to head over on the Friday night rather than a very early start on Saturday morning. With the usual Friday night traffic, I arrived at Anglesey Outdoors just before 11:00 pm, just in time for...
The photos below say it all really. Andy and I arranged to meet at 10:00 am at Cable Bay (Porth Trecastell in Welsh). Setting off from home at 6:00 am it was a chilly -2 C. The temperature didn't change much on the trip to Anglesey. Needless to say it was pretty cold.On the...
On day 2 of the NWSK end of Season meet, I decided I fancied some more lumpy seas to play in so I paddled with Sue's group, which consisted of Graham Cooke, Alan Tonge, and Alan. We messed about in Penrhyn Mawr for a bit before setting off for lunch stop in Abraham's Bosom....
Meeting up at Anglesey Outdoors early on Saturday morning, we split ourselves into groups depending on the weather/swell/tides/conditions and what we wanted to do. I Paddled with Jimski, Graham Cooke, Sue Couling, Dez Watson and Alan Riggott. Jimski lead the trip. After the overnight storm, there was lots of swell and fairly lumpy...
Day 1 Skills with Roger Chandler. We paddled from Cemlyn bay and did skills on Harry Furlongs tidal race before heading towards Carmel head. I saw some Dolphins over lunch and thought I was seeing things. Roger later identified them as Risso Dolphins. This was a tough day with me making mistakes as...
Rhoscolyn towards Trearddur (Porth Diana) and back with Phil Clegg, Andy, Khrista and Annette. The wind was slightly NE, force 4 gusting F5. We went out to the Beacon and had a play in the tide race against the wind. A few surf waves were to be had downwind, but then required a huge...
Penrhyn Mawr and South Stack with Phil Clegg, Andy, Krista and Annette. Krista was from Canada and Annette from Sweden. Phil asked Andy and I if we would join him to make the numbers up. We set off from Porth Dafarch and headed to Penrhyn Mawr. I practiced my roll in the outer race,...
Once again a visit to Penrhyn Mawr, this time with Tani and Seda. Both are doing their 4 star with me next weekend. We did lots of skills - rescues self rescues rolls in the flow, on a fairly lumpy Penrhyn Mawr as swell was coming across the waves. On the way back we...
The start of my four day weekend saw me doing a chilled out solo paddle from Rhoscolyn down to the Airfield for a bit of surfing, then back up to the Beacon. The weather was excellent with light winds and a clear blue sky. Near to the Cymyran straits there were some fairly reasonable...
