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!