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.
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