Finally!

12th December 2009

Paddling the other bit of the 'Mac'

Look at the link for the earlier trip.

Now, after having not being able to paddle because of the horrendous back trouble I've suffered all the autum/winter this year, I was exited to be finally heading out with the boats on the roof.

We had loaded the boats the previous night, so managed to get away nice and early for a 1 hour drive over to Congelton.

We started this time as far South as we could at Bosely Top Lock. When we got out of the car it was absolutely freezing, although to our surprise, there was no ice to break on the canal.

Completely flat water on the canal is very different to the sea, but it was so good to be back in the kayak. I would have to go steady, and test the situation with the old back carefully.

Its was good to know Dad was with me, if I'd had a problem with the old back, I'd have needed a tow.


Once on the water the back felt as good as it had ever been, this picture was taken with a new setting I found on the camera.


Hovis Mill, Macclesfield. It made brown bread in its hey-day, now its flats!


The near-perfect still water gave some brilliant photographic oppertunities.

On the way back we took a rest here, behind Dad in this picture was a bus depot, and nearby a council vehicle park. In front was a main railway, and above the flight path from Manchester airport, of course we were sat on the canal, transport through the ages!


We waited......and waited.....and finally a train came past for this photo, there's probably a plane in the sky somewhere.

If you look closley at my kayak deck, you can see the bow is starting to freeze up. It only did it in the starage area's at the front and back. I presume the heat I was now starting to loose was preventing this.


At Bridge 49 on the way back there was a que of cars waiting to join the main road.

Just near to the end, the sun had dissapeared, and the temperature had really plummeted.
We got out, got changed and went back to the waters edge for the boats, it was absolutely baltic now, and whilst the sea is a dangerous place, I think here would have been a very uncomfortable place to be if we were much later.

A weekend in a Napoleonic fortress

Fri 13th November to Sunday 15th


Still no paddling

Fort Belan guards the entrance to the Menia Straights just South of Caernarfon, it was constructed in the late 1800's to thwart any invasion by the French, fortunately they never got this far North





Standing right on the waters edge, it looked as if it were possible to throw a stone over to the Angelsey side! The standing waves out side on the South flowing tide were amazing just here.





When we arrived the weather was stormy, and extremely wet!
FRUIT-SHOE???

The pebble beach Just South East of the Fort was littered with plastic rubbish, most of which seemed to be fruit shoot bottles.




Some of the guys from Sheffield canoe club braved the weather on Saturday afternoon, and managed to complete a Fort B to Bangor trip! They went with the flow of course, but even so, a very challenging trip up the straights.




On Saturday night we had fireworks, some of which were fired from the canons!



On Sunday after packing up, we headed up to Puffin Island which is situated off the Northwest of the Straights. As I was not paddling (on my physio's advice) I ended up having a cream tea, how civilised!
Puffin Island looked very inviting, will definately return here when the back is better.
With regard to my back....We (phsyio and myself)decided, that whilst it does seem strong enough to go paddling, it might not be a good idea to test that theory in the sea! I will be going on a canal trip very soon to try things out.
Watch this space.

Not much happening at the moment

A dodgy back

Wednesday 30th Sept

Well, after hurting my back at Easter, and going all summer without a hint of trouble......

I was loading the van with heavy concrete fence posts and.... bang! The back just went into lock-down!

I have been going to physio twice a week and still working with light duties, it couldn't have happened at a worst time, I have got a massive list of work and a lot of it is heavy stuff.

Any way, there is light at the end of the tunnel, the physio says I can probably go kayaking at half term week, and I've paid a deposit for a weekend at Fort Belan which gaurds the Menia Straights in North Wales. This is for 13th November so hopefully I can paddle.

In the mean time, and as special gift to Connor for being so good when he started at school, I have made hime a trials bike.

Some pictures:

Connor not happy I had ordered a girls bike from ebay! £20! Bargain

We stripped it down to bare metal


Added some fancy strengthening gussets, and capped off the seat tube


Then painted it with acid etch primer

We painted it Rover Pageant Blue, 4 coates and 2 laquare

I made up a 'bash gaurd' from aluminium

Also made up this 'anti trap' seat from an Ikea chopping board!

With everything we had assembled we now had to wait for a delivery of parts from Ireland, it seemed to get lost for 5 days in the post!

Finally we got the ordered bits, and fitted the cranks. They were from a unicycle shop, and had no chainring mountings, I had to make them up myself.

Its nearly done, we are awaiting a new back wheel, as it turned out the hub is no good! Just need the handlebar grips sorting and a good spanner check then its off to the woods for some trials riding! (at least for Connor anyway).

Last day! Had to squeeze another in!

Friday August 14th 2009

A whipped up sea and a dead shark

With us leaving Pencarnan in the morning after another perfect couple of weeks in the best place in the world, we were eager to get that last paddle in.

Looking out the window of the caravan though did not look encouraging, a South Westerly wind had picked up throughout the day, and now the sea looked 'a bit lively'.

As the kayaks were down on the beach, and we really needed them up by the caravan ready for the trip home in the morning, we decided a one-way trip to Porth clais would be best.

Leaving the beach we set off around to St Johns point, I had decided that if the weather and the sea state here was looking a bit dicey, it might be better to go back.

Dad was up front, and he just passed straight through the rough water, I was thinking that if we carried on through the sound and turned East toward Porth Clais, the SW wind would be picking up the sea and potentially give us a hard time.

A grey sky with mist hanging around Carn Llidi, it was slack in the sound, but the water was confused, loads of wavelets coming at us with the wind and the occasional swell starting to build.

Gower Ranger had just left St Justinians with a fishing trip, the boat was being thrown around a bit and I wondered how many 'green' passengers there would be.

You can see the spray from a breaking wave on my bow that is bucking right up out of the water!

It seemed Dad was being thrown around quite a bit as he paddled on into the now seemingly constant SW being funnelled up through Ramsey Sound.

After passing through safely there was a rough ride across to Carreg Yr Esgob, here we got a little rest, but as I predicted, the wind was really starting to batter us, and the swell was getting quite regular.

Passing through the now familiar gap in Carreg Yr Esgob, I could see across to where we were heading the other side of Carreg Fran.

We just had to keep paddling, the waves were big, and the clapotis from the cliffs was making a very lively ride!

The outcome of the last shot of Dad just behind the wave was far better than it looks!

I couldn't take many photo graphs as I daren't let go of the paddle long enough to get it out of the deck bag.

Just after I took the last shot and had put the camera away, I passed a dead shark floating on its back, its head was about 18" wide across the mouth! I thought about getting the camera out and going back, but the swell was big, Dad was now getting quite far away, and he wouldn't have known what is was messing around at, so I headed in.

We reached the mouth of Porth clais harbour drenched, my face was sticky and crusty from the salt deposits and my ears ached slightly from the wind - absolutely amazing!

So glad we didn't turn back at the start.

The tide was still very low in the harbour, so I drove the car down the river bed to load up, back at Pencarnan we loaded up all the gear, all in all an amazing couple of weeks, I've learned loads.

My tide timing has been spot on, the timing estimates have been accurate, but most of all, I have got the first 'self led' Ramsey Sound crossing under my belt! I pretty certain that on a couple of occasions the weather conditions would have allowed a circumnavigation of Ramsey Island, I thought I'd save this for another time though. More time on the water, and the vhf radio course completed, I aim to have done it by this time next year.

A cracking trip, great conditions for a final trip! Glad it wasn't like that all holiday though!

A chat with the coastguard!

Thursday 13th August 2009

Some clothing on the rocks

I managed to pry myself out of bed a bit earlier today, and was actually on the beach ready to depart at 0825!

The weather had again been a little unstable earlier this week so it was good to get out. Today I was doing a solo paddle just for practice etc.

The plan was to go around to Porth Clais and see how things were, and await the Flood tide and return back to Porthsele.

Looking out from the beach the sky looked as though it couldn't decide what to do for the day, it was feeling a little blustery, the beach however was deserted!

Rounding St Johns point and heading into Ramsey Sound the last of the Ebb tide made for an easy going with only a little swell, and a gentle breeze.

Before I passed through the sound I allowed the Southerly flow to carry me and had time to reflect on a great couple of weeks down here at Pencarnan.

Then after passing around Pen Dal-aderyn in the last rocky inlet before Porthlysgi bay, I spotted what looked like a Lacey top or a bra hanging on the rocks. I got in close and was sure that was what it was. When I set off again, just around the corner there were two more items of clothing, a pair of jean shorts, and a coral coloured shirt. Just 20 ft up on a natural ledge there was another item I couldn't make out.

My mind was racing now, I was convinced that this was clothing, and although I could not see up onto the ledge, there appeared to be no-one around. I had a good look around, but as I sat still in the kayak a back eddy was spitting me back out towards Ramsey Sound. I figured that if anyone had been in the water for whatever reason, then they'd be long gone from here.

I tried not to worry too much about the clothing, and as I paddled through Carreg Fran towards Porth Clais, I just had lobster pot marker bouys and the odd sea bird to keep me company.

I reached Porthclais and hauled up onto the shale to have some breakfast.

Plenty of people seemed to be launching sit on tops from here.

Whilst here TYF took every one of their sit on tops out of the storage rack and took the worlds biggest group out on the water!

I was just back in the boat and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a dragonfly floating past in the flow from the stream, I managed to get him out, and layed it out on the deck in a hope he'd dry out.

I passed him on to a family who were crab lining before setting out to sea, I didn't think taking him with me would be fair.

With Carreg Fran in the distance I started thinking about the clothing again, I decided I would Go back to Porthsele via the life boat station at ST Justinians and let them know what I'd seen.

Passing through Carreg Fran, I wondered if I would get through the slanting natural arch today.

When I went for a look there was quite a bit of swell coming through from the sea side, I went around for a look.

It didn't look possible, so I paddled back to the sheltered side, and then adventure took over and I just went through. As I set off it seemed like I had made the wrong decision with 3 big rollers one behind the other coming straight at me.

I had a bit of a bumpy ride, but managed to get through without either banging my head or the kayak. I ran the camera on video, and it is good to watch, but won't upload here, so here's a couple of stills from it.

After passing through the arch, I had just a short paddle to where the clothing was on the rocks.

I took another photo showing the layout, and checked my grid reference. Nothing had moved, and there still seemed to be no one around.

I then had just the overfalls to contend with, last time I had encountered them here on Pen Dal-aderyn, it was the beginnings of a southerly ebb tide, now it was mid flood, and the standing waves were biggish!

I had again set the video on the deck, but the still captures above show the excellent conditions!

After passing through without incident, my next point of call was to be the lifeboat station to report my findings, I hoped there would be someone there, as I took the hard route up the eddy line and across. I could have stayed in the Northerly flow for a while otherwise, but I still need to learn a little more about the whereabouts, and the effects of 'Horse Rock'

I hauled up under the slipway at St Justinians, and found the worlds supply of boat passengers waiting to go on their trips.

I climbed up to the operations room in the Lifeboat station, and reported what I had seen to the coxswain and another lifeboat crew member.

We called the coast guard, and let them know everything, and they decided it would be worth sending out a land based mobile team for a look. They noted my phone number and left it at that, saying they would call if they needed any other information.

I then had to get back into the kayak on the crowded slipway, and make my way back to Pencarnan. That afternoon during another scorching burst from the sun, the coastguard phoned me, and let me know they had found the site, but that the clothing was in fact 4 towels, apparently discarded by some young lads who'd been spotted fishing from that point the day before.

I was really pleased that the coast guard had called me back, as I would have been wondering what had become of the situation forever otherwise.

I did feel afterwards that maybe I had wasted the time of the coastguard, but really I know that if someone had been in trouble, then I would have felt terrible not to have done something.

A trip of around 11 miles, very enjoyable.