1st paddle of the year!

Friday 1st January 2010

Weather-wise......A bit of everything!

So after a cold swim, we all went to the farm house and had a nice hot coffee, some made to to the jacuzzi! Very civilised, but not for me and Richard, we planned to get a kayak trip in somewhere.


The weather was glorious, and after a fairly rough couple of days prior, we were glad to have such cracking seas and skies to explore.

How wrong we were to be, it still felt quite good as we pulled on the spray decks and slipped away from the Porthsele beach.

Snow! It just appeared from nowhere.

It seemed to pass quite quickly, you can see it heading for the Porthsele beach.

I have been trying this setting on my camera now for a month or so, and have had some really nice results.

We thought we'd get some shelter in this cave from the now Sleety stuff that was bombarding us,
I needed to look down to protect my face, but it was bouncing up from the deck and going in my eyes, so with head down and eyes shut we paddle on.

I really like this phot, it captures the mood, and takes me right back to the moment, cold wet but fresh and still exciting.

Then the snow came in again, brought a bit of a chilly wind this time to boot.

Looking back and up as we passed Porthmelgan bay, I could see a very white Carn Lliddi

Having now passed around St Davids Head for my 1st time, we were in a mixture of choppiness from the sea, some overfalls as the Ebb tide ran past the submerged headland, and clapotis ( the effect of the waves having bounced back from the rocks hitting the ones still coming in), it was 'lively' but in the Valley Aquanuat I felt totally at ease.

Looking down into Ramsey Sound it could have been a summers day, the Bitches ( jagged rocks) looked very menacing. They were really stuck up out of the water due to the big tides, and this being a Blue Moon. Taken from Wiki:
Recent popular usage defined a blue moon as the second full moon in a calendar month, stemming from an interpretation error made in 1946 that was discovered in 1999. For example, December 31, 2009 was a blue moon according to this usage
Also: A blue moon is the "extra" full moon in years that have thirteen full moons. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each solar calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days compared to the lunar year. The extra days accumulate, so every two or three years (7 times in the 19-year metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon." Different definitions place the "extra" moon at different times.



We joined what was left of the South flowing ebb tide, and had a fairly easy ride to the North end of the island of Ramsey, we stopped here in the shelter of the bay and had a mince pie and a drink. As usual the sheep were defying death up on the cliff edges licking the salt.
Whilst we sat here Richard noticed the lifeboat out in St Justinians bay across the sound.
We were interested to see what it was up to, having noticed a couple of sit-on-top kayaks earlier in the snow storm, we hoped it wasn't out for them.

When we got over to the boat having passed over or very near to Horse rock, we discovered it to be an RNLI Relief boat the 'Lord Saltoun' a 47 foot Tyne class all weather boat.
I have absolutely no clues as to why it is there! Maybe Richard has been more succsesfull!
Note the wonderfull blue skies as we look over the Lifeboat.

5 mins later we started off the short 20min or so paddle around to the Porthsele beach, suddenly there was a massive rumbling of thunder out at sea, in the distance looking over in the direction of Southern Ireland.

A very sudden change in the weather and the sea happened now, firstly it went a fair bit darker, then wind, gusting at first then becoming relentless.

Wavelets appeared on the sea's surface, and then hail.

I hadn't replaced my paddle leash since it had fallen apart in my hand at home. I now seemed to be gripping the paddle shaft, and having to really battle the wind to keep moving forward. I did consider if it would be more sensible to go back to the Lifeboat station, and walk to the campsite for the car.

Rounding the last corner into Porthsele, the weather changed again, now the hail turned back into snow, the wind stayed, and I wonder if landing on the beach would be difficult.


After a safe landing it really snowed now, just to make sure we were definately wet. We hauled everything up to the field and I loaded up for the 300 mile journey home.

Whilst it looks very nice I'm hoping the snow won't be here next time I visit.
I had a long hot shower, and cooked a hot meal on the Trangia stove, and set off home.
I only just made it up past the cathederal of St Davids, and in the Square decided that due to the desperately icy roads, I'd be better off on the motorway.
The roads were completly snow bound all the way to Newport, and I was desperately fighting sleepiness from then on. I did manae to be in the house by 0100am so not too bad.
A cracking 36hours really, well worth the journey and the cold.