A very high heartrate
As the kayaks were already up by the caravan today, we hitched a lift with Adele to Solva by car. The sun was hot, I knew there was going to be a headwind until we turned up Ramsey Sound later, what I didn't expect was the sun in our eyes all the way West
Leaving Solva, we turned West and immediately had the sun straight in our faces.
With the sun beating down, it was shirts but no cags again today.
I love this bit of rock, it looks as though it melted in the sun and cooled as it touched the water.
The wrecks were almost submerged when we reached them. High water was 2 hours away, and there would only be one slightly higher this week.
Paddling on, the sun started to get lower and gave lovely reflections on the water
We hugged the coast, the water so flat and calm it would be a shame to pass by without taking it all in.
Looking toward Carreg y Barcud, we started to feel the effects of the constant head wind. The sun was also starting to give me a headache as well, even with sun glasses on.
I must say again though, it was producing some good photographic conditions.
Passing around the point and into Caer Bwdy Bay, we really needed a leg stretch, but with no beaches here due to high tide, I suggested we went around the next point into Caerfai Bay. It would be crowded on such a hot day, but we'd get our rest.
Caerfai Bay beach, or lack of it! I wasn't expecting that! No rest, so we sat in the boats instead.
And then on past St Nons and toward Porth Clais.
At Porth Clais the water was high, very high. I 've never seen it like this, it had drawn the crowds that should have been on Cairfai bay beach. They were crab lining, and lining up for a bit of diving.
It was tempting to dive in for a cool down. I didn't as we really needed to press on.
I checked my tide predictions, and found that if we left now we would be heading through the sound at exactly high water, mid-flow and all this the night before HWS.
Bad planning.
Expecting to get some spray or worse, we put on our cags for this final leg. I didn't speak out at the time, but I was seriously considering turning back to Porth Clais at this time and walking over land for the car.
Passing through Carreg Fran, and into Porthlysgi, the skys had lost the blue, clouds had decended and the whole atmosphere seemed to have changed. I was still worrying over the ride we were going to get around the corner into the Sound.
Passing Carreg Yr Esgob, the arch looked do-able today, but with the wind, it probably would be a bit bumpy around the other side. My mind switched bak to the Soung again.
I have been around the corner a few times at various states of tide and flow, but today was going to be er.....well, interesting to say the least. Dad hadn't been through with much flow. Today there was a swell, wind whipping up crests, tired arms and nervous paddlers.
As we approached the point of no return, we had a safety breifing. I was flapping a bit actually. normally quite relaxed I found myself running through possible scenarios in my head. 'Fasten your neck seals up', 'attach the paddle leash'
What really struck home was the fact that if we both ended up in the water, could we get each other back in, (or one of us at least, in order to tow the otheraway from danger) before we got anywhere near the swirling torrent that was Horse Rock?
I let Dad go first, and sorry, but I had to put the camera away!
This photo was taken at 19:35, we paddled in.
Dad seemed to go straight into the big stuff, the standing waves were massive, and with the swell coming through quite regulary they made a real turbulant ride. The speed was immense, I had said to Dad that we didn't want to be going down the eddy line, rather we should aim at the end Bitch, and go with the flow.
My heart was really beating now.
Wow! We really rattled along, both of us still upright, the surface was flat enough to get
this quick snap of Horse rock to our right. 18:37 hrs
18:38 we were flying, I had to call out to Dad that we needed to head over now to St Johns Point. I remember doing this with Richard once before when the flow was a lot less. He said if you miss the point and stay in the flow, you can be at Carreg Garfeiliog before you know it.
We set off crossing the flow, I think we left it just a tad too late, we really had to paddle to get across. We did it, just arriving at St Johns as the overfalls were flattening off.
The time on this phot was 18:46hrs. I reckon we had travelled down the sound, and around St Johns Point to here in well under 10 mins. I've not been using the Gps recently as it seems to eat up batteries.
My rough calculations have us at over 10 knots, the distance in blue on the map below is 1.65 nautical miles.
A cracking time had I Pembrokshire again.
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