Angelsey Easter weekend

Sunday 12th April 2009

A long one to finish take two!

After lunch we gathered a group og 8 kayakers who intended to paddle back to Porth Dafarch, there were 6 sea/touring boats and two guys in river boats, one of which being a short Pyrhana Burn, a tug boat shaped boat that would sap its paddlers energy!

We set off, and passed through a gap in the headland, or at least those who had plastic boats did, it was now just passable and even my fairly flat bottomed boat scraped as I passed through.

We set off North up under the cliff edge, and as we got into the slightly rougher sea, we were alerted to something going on by a shout behind, it seemed that they just needed us to wait so we hovered around, and eventually the guys caught us up. It turned out that actually, a new to the sea paddler had managed to take a swim whilst negotiating the rock channel!

I now discovered that the mild back ache I had experienced in the morning was going to be a problem, I had take a couple of Ibruprofen at lunch along with some paracetomel, it hadnt had the desired effect though.

I had printed some small maps of this bit of coastline before leaving home, but not knowing exactly where we would be paddling, I had managed to miss the early part off, so as we moved on, I had the challenge of picking up where I was on the map. This was proving to be more difficult than expected, the cliffs looked similar wherever i looked, and the houses and buildings on top didn't look anything like the ones marked on the map.

Eventually we had a rest in a little inlet, where a caravan site, and a slipway was situated, this turned out to be Porth-Y-Garan, and had two very expensive looking speed boats moored.

Two paddlers swapped boats here to allow the one in the shorter boat a rest, he paddled the clubs brand new P&H Capella.

A small group including dad set off ahead now across the final leg of the trip, the bay of Trearddur was littered with speed boats, jet-ski's and general noise and tom-foollery, I was quite concerned about getting mown down as the drivers seemed to spend most of their time looking back at whoever they were towing!

I looked ahead and saw dad and the others were really making a good headway on us, so I made it my mission to catch them, a good test of my stamina, and forwards speed. i kept stopping though to get pictures, and as I hadn't got a waterproof camera, it meant putting down the paddle, undoing the deck bag, undoing a dry bag, then another which the camera was in! take a quick picture, and re-do the process in reverse! (mental note: purchase waterproof camera!)

Holyhead mountain in the distance

Trearddur bay-speedboat city

I managed to get acroos to Dad before he reached the bay, but with a now very painfull back, Dad had done very well, I am actually really impressed by the way he has embraced this touring lark! On any previous trips we have done in the river boats, the have been stability issues, and nervousness when things get 'choppy' or challenging. Now, its head down - paddle through, and all totally at ease, and so far no drama's. - Keep it up, here's to the next trip!

A very frenzied hour and a half now followed packing the tent and all the gear away for the journey back to Dronfield.

The journey was trouble free, and made the weekend even more enjoyable thanks in part to the completion of the A55 from the M56 right through to Holyhead.

Angelsey Easter weekend

Sunday 12th April 2009

A long one to finish

After an evening of chat and food inside the Angelsey outdoors bistro lounge! (sounds posh doesn't it?), we had a good nights sleep and awoke bright and early for breakfast and to get packed up.

We were to do the days paddle and leave for home in the evening.

The plan today was to drive down to Rhoscolyn and set off from Borthwen bay, dad and myself needing to get away at the end of the day, took our boats and kit down early, and I took the van back to the finish and hitched a lift.

The beach and bay was a picture perfect setting, and was an enclosed bay with a narrow entrance, high tide was due in the hour so the beach was short, and congested with launch trailers as it seems there were lots of divers out today.

In contrast to the sea state on Friday when we had arrived, it was flat calm, and with a cloudless sky, promised to be a cracking day.

Dad raring to go.

The water was perfectly clear here.

We got everyone on the water, and today we managed 23 kayaks! the plan, much like yesterday was to take everyone out for a trip and then back for lunch, and then the longer boats carry on up to Porth Dafarch, a trip of abot 8 miles.

We went out around the island of Ynysoedd Gwylanod, the farther of the two isles has rhoscolyn beacon on it and had a steady tide race running between the two.

The begginers and guys in the shorter boats did really well around here, the currents were strong, and there was a fair bit of chop especially on the seaward side.

We gathered the group together and set off towards the clifs to try and have a look in a cave, the swell was picking up abit now, and meant that it was difficult to get near in. So we paddled around back to the bay and to the beach for a lunch stop.

Angelsey easter weekend

Saturday 11th April 2009

Lunch at Wylfa

Todays paddle would be far more leisurely, the drive there was not.
When we (me & dad) finally got out of the tent at 0915 we had a frenzied couple of hours or so of making and eating breakfast, and packing our gear together, so that when the guys decided it was time to go, we could just get moving.
We had travelled to Angelsey using our in-built GPS (in our heads) so didn't have a map of any usefull scale. (I need to send for a 2 1/2 inch OS of Angelsey.) When the club set off, we knew the name of where we were going, but not the exact location, so we found ourselves 2nd to the back of 12 or so vehicles. Now I can drive pretty quickly if I need too, (years of motorsports experience) but it never ceases to amaze me when someone gets either a trailer on their vehicle, or a kayak on the roof their acceleration, and speed increases to such that its almost immpossible to keep up, especially in a van.
Anyway, someone in front of us took a wrong turn and had us all in a shopping centre, by the time we were back on the correct route, the others had gone. Looking at our 4 miles to the inch atlas we hadn't a clue where we were going, or really where we were! As some of the guys pulled in with an OS map flapping around in the wind, I passed them and carried on, Luckily Cemlyn Bay was reached down a single track road and the others were still trying to get down it against traffic going the opposite direction. So we had caught them.


Now the challenge was parking the car park appeared full, but we managed to get all 12 or so of us in.
This tidal lagoon and shingle ridge is a North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve, particularly for its nesting sandwich, arctic common and (occasionally) roseate terns which occupy islands in the lagoon with black heded gulls. There is a public right of way along the spectacular shingle ridge, but visitors are required to keep below the crest during the breeding season to avoid disturbance to the colony.
We all got on the water and when I counted there were 21 boats, most of which were younger people with short boats, by far the oldest though was Hugh, who at 71 was the most experienced paddler there, and has been all over the world paddling, including an 18 day trip to greenland.
I paddled with him for a while, an asked him about his kayak, it was clearly not new, and looked as though it would tell some great tales of adventure. I was right, it was the 2nd fibreglass version of a mould made from an origonal Greenland fabric over timber design, it was moulded in 1978 and is still going strong.


As we rounded the headland of Cerrig Brith I got a glimpse of Wyfla Power Station.
Construction of this Magnox station commenced in 1963 and ended in 1971 when it produced its 1st electricity. On a typical day, Wylfa supplies 23 million kWh of electricity – enough to meet the needs of two cities the size of Liverpool or Manchester. Wylfa is responsible for the management and operation of the Hydroelectric power station at Maentwrog in the nearby Snowdonia National park.

I looked back across where we had come from to see a small group of kayaks still away off from the others so I paddled over to see what was going on. Everyone seemed to be in control, but there was a young girl who was in the sea for the first time. The perception Sparc she was paddling was spinning from side to side, exagerated by a slight following wind. I hooked her up to my new towline and helped her towards the beach we were heading to for lunch, the 'sparc' still wouldn't go straight, and another paddler had to paddle across her stern to push it strait.

A very nice lunch was had on this little beach in Porth-y-Pistyll, in full view of the reactor.

Now we paddled back to Cemlyn Bay, and some paddlers had a rest, others climbed the rocks, others just chilled out, some of though went over to the headland Trwyn Cemlyn. Here we found overfalls had started running as the bay emptied into an ebbing tide, they seemed quite freindly so I paddled through, the Venture Easky felt very good through here, so I had a paddle out over to the overfalls at Harry furlough's rocks, here there was a good 2 feet of water running over the rocks, I got the camera out and managed a couple of shots, then heard someone shout out ' watch behind you'. I quickly packed the camera and paddled forwards, looking back i realised it was not me in the immediate danger, but a paddler in a shorter play boat now with arms like bees wings sliding slowly backwards towards the over falls.

Overfalls at Harry Furlough's Rock in the back ground of the picture.



The paddler struggled on, and i sat in the falls off the main headland, i had the Gps on, and as I paddled fairly hard to just sit still it read 0mph! So i think they were running at 4mph ish.



I now headed over to the car park for a rest, and a go in Dads Tsunami, I did a couple of nice text book rolls to see if i still can, and then had a blast around in the Tsunami, This boat still surprises me everytime i get in it. it is stable and moves quickly and easily, and now ive got better at edging boats, it turns very well, I pushed a little too far though, and over I went! Managed another roll OK though, and called it a day

A nice short easy day, made a lot of freinds, and played around a bit.

Angelsey Easter Weekend paddle

A Gentle introduction

Moelfre

10th April 2009

Arriving bright and early at the Angelsey Outdoors campsite on Good Friday, we found that none of the Sheffield canoe club guys had risen yet!


So we set off for a look around to familiarise ourselves.




We reached the bay of Porth Dafarch, there was a fair swell and big dumping surf that didnt look very freindly!


We drove down the coast a mile or so and came to Treaddur Bay, a nice little village, with loads of parking, and lots of slips for boats.




We headed up the coast now to South Stack Lighthouse, an impressive building on an island, linked with a small footbridge, we didnt head down, as it was blowing a very cold wind striaght at us.








Heading back to the campsite now we found Phil our host for the weekend was up and about so we introduced ourselves and got the tent up. By lunchtime, a good number of other campers had arrived.



The plan was to head to the main Angelsey isle, and got to just South of Moelfre to Traeth Bychan.



This little bay was in contrast to the dumping surface this morning 'like a millpond'. we got ourselves sorted and carried down to the water, there were numerous groups, some learning sailing, others in kayaks.



We paddled out of the bay and around the small island of Ynys Moelfre.



Both mine and Dads boat were now on their maiden sea voyage! Mine felt quite good, moving forwards and tracking really well. Dad looked the most comfortable I have seen him in a kayak! His boat is only 12' long but doesnt struggle to keep up. I experimented with the skeg a little to see how it felt with the moving water, its definatley worth having, although its worth paddling in different conditions both with and without to learn more about the effects of weather cocking etc.



We headed for a bay that seemed close but was actually quite a slog, and had a following wind to make it more interesting.



At Traeth Lligwy we beached for coffee, and had a rest ready for the return journey, it was windy enough to blow hats off wasn't it Dad!



On the return we hugged the cliffs and rocks and managed to do a little rock hopping. A bird on an island was drying its wings for what seemed an eternity, it only put them away when I got the camera out!



We passed Moelfre life boat station which has a Tyne Class, and a D-class inshore boat, always good to see the stations and reminds me of what I'm actually doing and how potentially dangerous a place I am.



Heading back around to Traeth Bychan all the kayakers were out practicing, we stopped for a couple of pictures the one below showing the dried private harbour, it was now Low tide on springs


We paddled back to the beach, and faced a short but steep walk up the road to the carpark, Phill from Sheffield canoe club produced a very simple set of wheels which he attached to the stern of his boat and just dissapeared to his car, 'make mental note, 'need one of those!'
All in all a very enjoyable afternoon, back at the Angelsey Outdoors campsite we had dinner, and dropped into the Paddlers Return bar, and almost fell asleep, (we did leave Sheffield at 0355). so it was off to the tent for 12hours sleep!