Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
With Gare Loch looking nice and calm, I thought I might as well do another training run in the Taran to Kilcreggan. All was nice and calm until I passed Rosneath Point, at which point I was, as per usual, slap bang into the wind and swell. The nearer I came to Kilcreggan, the...
Another training run in the Taran to Kilcreggan, this time without cake and coffee! On rounding Rosneath Point, I nearly didn’t bother. The wind was blowing strongly from the west, with occasional gusts. Not only that, but the swell was rather large and, along with the wind, was coming directly at me. I decided...
It was raining when I left home to travel the 6 miles to the "A Frames Dive Site" at the now-disused Finnart Oil Terminal on Loch Long. By the time I reached the car park, the rain had eased off a bit, but it was all a bit misty. At least it was nice...
Having spent the morning with my chainsaw and chipper, chopping trees and processing the branches, I decided to take the afternoon off and head out in the Taran. It was a beautiful day, after all. With no particular plan in mind, I headed across to Clynder to gain some shelter from the wind blowing...
Waking up at about 4am in the morning, I stuck my head out of the tent – it was already light. The view of the Sound, "Caol Rona", didn't look great from a paddling perspective. Looking at the wind and swell coming through the Sound, I could see that going around Rona would be...
The 6 mile trip to Kilcreggan from Shandon is always a nice trip, with the added bonus of having a coffee and cake at the cafe. With clear blue skies and next to no wind it was certainly a lovely day. Before setting off I telephoned the Kings Harbour Master (KHM Clyde 01436 674321...
The weather forecast for Saturday morning was looking not too bad, despite gale force winds of 50-80mph forecast for later on Saturday evening into Sunday. Storm "Dave" would be making itself felt across much of Scotland. Looking at the various forecasts, I knew if I was going to get a paddle in, I needed...
Another training paddle out in the Taran seeing as the weather was set fair. I'd been thinking about paddling to Kilcreggan for a while now, but this was the first day where the weather made it possible. With next to no wind at times and with hardly a cloud in the sky, it was...
After such a brilliant time in Looe yesterday in the Taran, I wasn’t ready to head home just yet. I booked into a campsite for two nights, giving myself a full day to make the most of paddling before driving home early Friday morning – and crucially, avoiding the dreaded Friday afternoon traffic. Eddystone...
First Date with a Rockpool Taran I’ve had a bit of a hankering for a Rockpool Taran for a while now — probably made worse by scrolling through the blistering times that Taran owners post on the Performance Sea Kayak pages. For the last few years, I’ve been paddling a Tiderace Pace 17 Tour...
A nice little trip around Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli). I've been eyeing up Bardsey Island for a while. Now I was staying in Aberdaron and the weather was looking good, I had my chance. I had looked at the tides and studied various tidal stream atlases. But I had another parameter to account for,...
Holiday Paddle on the IOW. Ok so it's really called Yaverland, but due to me misreading the paper map, it became Jaberland and so it will always be (to me)! The photos and video captured the day really well Distance 10.5 nm Time: 2 hours What a fab paddle...
The photos and video captured the day really well Distance 10.5 nm Time: 3.4 hours Paddlers were: Ashley Si and Si What a fab paddle...
The photos and video captured the day really well. Not including the incident (reported to Canoe Wales - say no more) Distance 20 nm Time: 6 hours Paddlers were: Si and Si What a fab paddle...
The photos and video captured the day really well Distance 11.5 nm Time: 6 hours Paddlers were: Andy Ian Si and Si What a fab paddle...
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 wind forecast was for a moderate Easterly breeze. For some crazy reason, we decided to head up to the north coast to see how far we could go into the wind from Cemlyn Bay. The flood tide was due to start around 09:40, so we were going to be in wind over tide...
Liverpool Tides for 09/06/2023 BST M 03:27 8.67 HW 10:29 1.75 LW 16:01 8.05 HW 22:50 2.35 LW Penrhyn Mawr (PM) floods about 3:30 hours after HW Liverpool. Consequently, it was already flooding from about 07:00 (03:27 +03:30 = 06:57). As we were setting off from Porth-y-Post at 09:15, well, it would be rude...
Meeting on a Tuesday for a change, Si and I decided to paddle the North Coast. We love paddling the North Coast of Anglesey, as there is always something to see. Not to mention the large tidal movements you experience along this stretch of coast. High Water (HW) would be at 11:16 am Liverpool,...
Sunday, the weather was not looking too promising. The forecast stated conditions would deteriorate with strong winds increasing throughout the day. So, after a hearty breakfast in the Paddlers, we decided to head for Trearddur Bay. Initially, we talked about heading around the coast towards Rhoscolyn, but soon after setting off from the beach,...
