Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
Saturday morning, I met up with Si, Keith and Ashley for breakfast in a little cafe at Valley. The reason for having breakfast here instead of in the Paddlers, was that Anglesey Outdoors and especially the Paddlers was heaving! If we'd had gone to the Paddlers, we would have been waiting for a very...
2022 was a bit of a weird year for me. It started off fairly normally, but from July I was increasingly busy with some family bereavements. Apart from my IOW circumnavigation and the Oban Sea Kayak Race which had been previously pencilled in on the calendar, if I did get any time to go...
I hate cold and wet, especially when you feel like you have just woken up and feel all warm. In fact, I had overslept and was still trying to wake up! The last thing you want (or need) is to get cold and wet. But we had decided to do a skills session at...
Today High Water would be at 10:28 Liverpool (British Summer Time). Hmmm.... Mid Morning HW's always makes for awkward trip planning for adventure seekers like Si and myself, due to the fact that the tide will be ebbing for much of day. For instance, the Stacks flood 4 hours and 50 minutes after HW,...
Six of us met at Rhos on Sea, or I should say, three of us met at the pre-arranged meeting place with free parking and slipway access, and three met a bit further away with pay and display parking and a different slipway. It didn't really matter as we all met up on the...
Sunday and another meeting up at the truck stop where some consumed their breakfasts and others looked on aghast! With the tidal flow timings, we decided to head to Bull Bay and paddle with the tide, taking in Middle Mouse and take whatever else we can get before the tide turns. The weather was...
This was a short paddle around the Plymouth Breakwater and Plymouth Sound whilst on holiday. The breakwater wasn't as interesting as I had imagined, but was worth doing all the same. Interestingly, I was stalked by a motor launch (MOD?) for quite a while as I think they thought I had intentions on landing...
Much of Monday was spent in the "classroom" marquee going through and discussing Leadership, Leadership styles and Qualities. There was some great content to take onboard and to put into practice. For instance, BCU Sea kayak leaders all know about the pneumonic C.L.A.P, which stands for Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance and Position. Well...
The deal was to meet at the Lighthouse cafe at 10:00. Due to someone forgetting their drysuit, then getting their partner, in mid hair dyeing mode, to drive halfway and meet with said drysuit, two of the party were, ahem, let's say a little late. Chris Fisk and I proceeded straight to North Landing to...
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 holiday in North Devon for a week, but unfortunately the weather was not playing ball. About the only option for a paddle was the Taw and Torridge rivers. So putting in at Barnstaple about an hour before high tide, I paddled up and through Long Bridge before returning downstream. and under Taw Bridge....
Having come home early from Scotland earlier in the week, my paddling buddy and I decided to do a paddle on the Humber. Originally our plan had been to paddle to the Humber Bridge and back, but with high water at 11:40 we would be pushing our luck. As it was, we didn't get...
After a very early start (I left home at 05:40) I arrived at Anglesey, just in time to see Rob emerging from his car at 08:30, parked at Porth Dafarch. Rob had traveled over the night/morning before, from Lincoln and spent what was left of the night sleeping in his car under two duvets....
Following a quick chat with Gareth Jones on Facebook, we decided to meet up at Bangor Services for 9:00am. The forecast looked ok, with N/NE winds forecast, so we decided to do Moelfre to Puffin Island. Having met Gareth in the services and watched him devour a full English, we set off to run...
This was definitely a weekend of two halves! The Saturday was a glorious day, but the Sunday was a complete change with gales of force 7-8! Someone suggested to me earlier in the year that I join Liverpool Canoe Club, as unlike my local club in Nottingham HPPCC, they are very active on the...
