A tiring slog in the wind
With the decision made to paddle on the North of Angelsey today to try and avoid the wind (a South Westerly) we ferried a car to the the get out at Cemlyn Bay, and went over to Bull Bay.
A very convienient place to park. The carry was short, the water was flat calm, a little drizzle, but looking up, the sky looked like it might be brightening up.
How decieving!
Looking back at the launch slip, these houses were very nice, bet they're not cheap!
Whoever built this house had read his bible, he was a very wise man! (Matthew 7:24-27)
Out on the water the conditions were reasonable, we knew we would get the wind along the journey somewhere. Here it was gentle on us.
Porth Wen brick works with three Beehive Kilns, no longer in use!
A lovely natural arch, connected at the top with the tiniest of faces of rock. How long will it stand??
Neil passes through whilst Phill looks on.
Leaving Porth Wen, this shoot under the cliff had what felt like the begginings of some tidal flow passing through, it had started to ebb now, and should be helping us to proceed along our route.
Middle mouse island in the distance, its 3/4 of a mile out from the cliffs and right in the tidal flow.
We had lunch here at Porth Llanlleiana, and all the time we were there a big bull seal was watching our every move.
The group gathers together after lunch to paddle around Middle mouse, it was a fairly easy ferry glide into the westerly flowing ebb tide.
the last little bit was a bit of an effort as we had got a little too close to the island to early.
The following sequence of stills are from an on deck video I took.
Bow splitting the wave
Submerged
Splash down!
All in all I think I would have stayed around the other side of the island if I had seen how big these overfalls were, made bigger of course as it was wind over tide.
I had to put the camera away now, the confused water and the now constant head wind made it impossible to let go of the paddle. It runs at 4 - 6 knts here, and what with the wind, I just stood still unless I paddled hard into it.
somewhere between Middle mouse and Wyfla Power station, I started to get a pain in my right arm, I let John know as he was close by, he paddled on to let the others know.
It was a real nasty slog now, going with the flow as long as I dared so as not to miss Cemlyn Bay.
When I eventually turned in toward the Bay, there were foot high waves being blown up by the wind, and now as they broke on the bow, the sparay was hitting me straight in the face, I had to close my eyes now. everytime I opened them the veiw was more and more disapointing, the beach didn't seem to get any closer.
Eventually i landed, and after ferrying the vehicles, went back to camp to rest.
Should we have set out? Err, yes. Am I glad i went - YES! Another adventure under my belt.
Approx 12km paddle
1 comment:
Looks like you had a better paddle than your trip to the East coast, hope there is no lasting damage to your arm.
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