Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
With another weekends weather forecast for Anglesey still not looking too good, I didn't think I would get a sea boat trip in this weekend. Then Kris posted on Facebook "how about a trip on the Mersey"? There was a flurry of responses and we agreed to meet outside the Ferry Pub on Tobin...
With the wind being f3-f4 NW and a reasonable swell forecast, I led a group of three paddlers: Keith, Spencer and Paul. This day I was paddling a Valley Gemini SP, lent to me by Valley. It is a lovely looking boat in nice metallic Blue with a funky white stripe down the middle...
At this years NWSK end of season meet, Jimski suggested one possible trip would be to do the Stacks. Four of us decided to join him, along with his friend Ashleigh. The paddlers were Jimski, Ashleigh, Alan, Chris, Graham and moi. Everyone else decided to go to Rhoscolyn. Setting off from Porth Dafarch we...
Ages ago I booked myself onto Sea Kayaking Cornwall's incident management week, not realising this was part of the courses week following their symposium weekend. At the time of booking, I thought I can travel down on the Saturday, taking it nice and easy, stopping overnight in the van if I need to. And...
I put out an email to all the sea kayakers I know saying I was running this trip. In the end we had a nice group of Royanne, Bill, Keith, Simon B, Mick and Ron.I chose to do this trip as the tidal streams are weak in this area and with the tide time...
I've never paddled the Farnes before, but I remember years ago watching very enviously a group of Sea Kayakers setting off from Bamburgh, when my kids were little and we were on holiday in that part of the world. Happy Days! Mike Robson put out an email saying he was running a trip on...
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...
As this was a solo paddle I called up the coast guard on my new DSC VHF radio . This was the first time I had actually called the coast guard using dsc to provide trip details and having prepped all my responses, ready for the coast guard (ie. where departing from,...
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...
Penrhyn Mawr again with Brian, Andy Sloan and Dave Blake's group. We all got there far too early. We (Brian and moi) told them it was far too early after the night before, but they insisted on a 9:30 on the water. Hey ho. Another hour in bed would have been nice. When we...
Although it was neaps, Penrhyn Mawr outer race was rather pleasant with some good surfs to be had. Middle wasn’t that good for surfing, but good for skills etc. Managed a Reentry roll in the outer flow along with some rolls. My first roll was incredibly slow and I had to pull the boat around...
The Skerries off Anglesey, is one of those magical places in our world. It's not easy to get to, especially from a kayakers perspective as it is surrounded by strong tidal streams. But it is well worth the effort. Especially when the Terns are nesting. I have to say, I have long admired Tern's...
Sunday saw HW Liverpool being at 12:59, so we decided to paddle out to Puffin Island. This paddle works well for getting home at a reasonable time, as it is err... "sort of" on the way home! From studying the guide books, Cruising Anglesey and Welsh Sea kayaking we could see that leaving from...
Sunday 20th March. My last day of paddling on my long weekend before heading back to the daily grind. I paddled this time with PL and Brian. Brian had a brand new boat to christen. We decided to paddle from Porth Eilean to play in tidal race as the tide would be ebbing. We...
The day after the four star training with Roger Chandler, I met up with Plum Loaf for a paddle. We decided on paddling to North Stack as the tides worked well for this trip. The tides were Mean Neap tides. Before setting off, I did some more fiddling with my boats outfitting. Penrhyn Mawr when...
Paddled with Plum Loaf and three ex-marines, so plenty of banter!! We ran a car shuttle, leaving one car at the start and two cars at Bull Bay. One of the marines was fairly new to sea kayaking, so we needed to ensure he was ok with the trip. Setting off from Cemlyn Bay...
This video says it all really. Fun times... https://youtu.be/iBLo4rrDI4k...
When you've made plans for a weekends paddling in Anglesey and the weather turns really bad, what do you do? Well, there is always some messing about in tidal currents at Four Mile Bridge. This was about the only place on the island we could have found to paddle in the 50mph plus winds....
Setting off from Oban Harbour on pan flat seas, I decided to circumnavigate the island of Kerrera. I've circumnavigated Kerrera three times in the Oban Sea Kayak Race, but this time I would take my time and enjoy the sights. This day was the lull before the storm, with high winds forecast for the...
Setting off from Oban harbour, less than a hundred meters from our apartment, this 16.5 miles solo paddle proved to be a great days paddling despite the weather not being at its best. The wind dictated my direction as it was blowing F4-F5 from the South East. Also the tide, for once, was on...
