Dydd Gŵyl Dewi (St Davids Day) and the Pirates of Penzance

March the first is St David's day in Wales, the day on which our patron saint died in 589AD.
One of the ways we celebrate him is to wear one of our national emblems. Traditionally a leek (being St David's own symbol) being worn by men, and the daffodil by women. The Welsh name for both plants are similar Cenin Bedr (Peter's leek - daffodil) and Cenin (leek).

Ready for school

Historically the Welsh and English have not been the best of mates, the invading Saxons in 633 met the Welsh at a battle in Heathfield. The fields here were filled with leeks, we put them in our hats to distinguish ourselves from the Saxons, and we won the battle.
I remember wearing a leek to school and we generally chomped our way through the raw veg all day. Maybe the smell of raw leek was enough to drive the Sasanachs away!
It was rather fitting therefore to arrive in Cornwall and be greeted by fields amass with commercial daffodils.

I digress. I am down in Penzance being a guinea pig for Richard Uren, a change from being a surfing hamster, (check these surfing rodents out). He is running a level 3 assessment and had put out a request for some student volunteers for his candidates to work on. Jim and I did not want to pass on the opportunity to get out on the water somewhere new, and perhaps we might learn something in the bargain.

St Michael's Mount

The first day we play around in general purpose boats in the safety of the harbour going over some personal skills. A visit later to the Dolphin pub for some ale and the search for smugglers passages.

The second day saw us on a short trip along the coast to Mousehole, via Newlyn Harbour.

Tidal Observatory on the south pier at Newlyn

You could pass the above building and not know it's significance. It is the site of Ordnance Datum the datum height for all our Ordnance Survey maps. I was looking for a shiny plaque, but there is nothing here, not even a description of the important work that was carried out here. A tide gauge was sited inside the observatory, where hourly readings of the sea level were recorded from 1 May 1915 to 30 April 1921.

At the foot of the old Penlee Lifeboat slipway. A tragic tale.

Penlee Severn Class Lifeboat, moored at Newlyn Harbour

Jim is generally not an Isolated Danger Buoy!

Jim looks for sunken treasure

We didn't get to see any pirates.

Some like it rough

Looking at the colour of the water you'd be thinking that this is not close to home. You would be correct. Praa Sands in fact, Sydney Bay to be precise, near Penzance. No brown water down here.


A nice bit of wind and some white water (mixed with the blue) and I'm ready to get some tentative practice in boisterous water with the sea kayak.
Even manage to surf the old girl.


It handles like a bus with my driving skills.


I have a very enjoyable time none the less, and feel exceedingly battered after a good workout.
Thanks to Simon for taking the time out to show me the ropes, so to speak, the beach and for taking some pics.

Son and Surf

Had a great time taking Taliesin out for a short surf session. He took a while to thaw out though.


I borrowed a Mega Impulse and a Neutron to try out. Impulse did it for me (the bigger version). Resulting conclusion I now have to face, is that as from today, I must be a large paddler.
The rest of the day I had that afterglow feeling you get when your body finally returns to operating temperature.

I am lusting

Let's be clear about this. It is the boat that takes my fancy. Made by Glyn Edwards out of cedar strips. It is dead gorgeous to look at and to feel it's curvaceous body is just the dogs blokcols.
It has 5 fin boxes so various combinations of fin set up can be used. Sadly it will have to remain an object of desire, as will some other extremely nice toys at the CanoeExpo held at Stonleigh this weekend. I thought it was a great venue, central, free car parking, a fantastic lecture program.
I hope Brookbank find a beneficial solution to involving other companies that they don't act as retailers for. Some of the stands stocks were restricted to Brookbank stock items, which was a bit annoying for me as all the stuff I wanted to buy wasn't there.
The talks, however, did it for me (as well as the ceder surf kayak). Inspirational and educational.
The show had a great buzz about it. A great opportunity to see and talk to many great people in the kayaking world.
I hope Brookbank come away thinking it was a success, as the last time I remember going to a show like this was over 25 years ago in Crystal Palace.
Hopefully next time the weather will be really bad. I felt guilty for losing a fantastic day for kayaking.

Local Knowledge . . .

Lesson 1: You can't get it all from charts, but it does help if you use the right charts.

This trip I did something different to my normal planning. I thought I'd plan the trip from a land map. (After all, most people I know use OS maps when they paddle). Besides, I hadn't laminated the chart and the GPS software was OS based. (So I guess I was just too lazy to plot my waypoints by hand).

The 48km trip from Penclawdd to Tenby was an ambitious trip, but with perfect timing for an early morning spring high tide, and equally perfect weather forecast, what could possibly go wrong. We would make easy meat of the Carmarthen Bay crossing. (Thinking back on it, Jim did mention something about a really big swell, but it didn’t really register).

8.20 am

Penclawdd is, a tranquil place, on the Lougher estuary. Famous for its cockles and laverbread, harvested here from before Roman times.
None of that this beautiful morning, cockle beds were well and truly covered by seawater.

Any one for fresh cold cockles?

Jim sets off

After a quick call to Swansea Coast Guard, we're on the water just as the tide turns.

Ripping along now at over 6 knots. Sun on our backs, perfect. As we approached Whiteford Lighthouse the ocean swell became noticeable.

Now you see the lighthouse.

Now you don’t.

Where did this surf come from. That wasn't in the plan.


How did we get in front of the surf zone without really going through it? Strange.



I like using the spray deck I was using to day as it has a handy front mesh pocket to carry my day and night flare on my person, it is also easy to put on. I hadn’t anticipated any surf. It is not the spray deck of choice for going surfing, easy on – easy off.


We headed out towards open water, the surf increasing as we progressed.

Two rather large waves, one from the left, other from right, joined together and seemed to rise to twice their individual heights and broke on me broadside. No problem, I can deal with this, just dig in and bongo slide. (Always works in the surf kayak, not so today). I was over. My thigh had dislodged itself from its grip, so I pulled my bum back in to the seat and orientated myself for my roll, waited for the aerated water to die.

Nearly made it! Nearly isn’t good enough good boy!

The surf dump had popped the spray deck – I’ve practiced rolling with a boat full of water, so that chestnut doesn’t wash. I can think of excuses, whatever, with lungs newly filled with air I sat upside down and decided to bale out. I had failed and was in the drink. Deal with it. It, was cold!
Jim came along side and I was very quickly back in my boat.

Lesson 2: Adapt to changing circumstances.

Feeling a little bit taken aback by events we decided to land and assess our situation.
Not knowing how deep the surf zone extended on this weird beach, or how many more of those big fellers we might encounter before breaking out, we decided on a change in plan.

Paddling just inside the break amongst waves we could comfortably handle, we would make progress along the coast (10 km) until we came to the Towy river mouth and break out there.
Ha, ha that was the plan. The strange "captivating" beach of Pembrey, however, had other ideas.

After a reviving hot drink of chocolate we got on our way. It was going to be slow hard work now and the effort soon had me warmed up. I was glad to be moving, standing around would have let the cold get a hold.

The effects of the second highest tidal range in the world is best seen on spring tides. Particularly on flat beaches. Both Pembrey and Pendine Sands are very flat. As a consequence the tide goes out at a walking pace. Jim floated his kayak in the water, jumped in, by the time his deck was on, the tide had receded a good 8 feet!

OK, who nicked the sea then?

This was to become a real pain. We were constantly being land locked, and often suddenly paddling in less than a foot of water. Quicker to jump out and push the kayak into deeper water or over the sand bank that had appeared from nowhere. Time is ticking by, we are not making the distance anticipated. No assistance from outgoing tidal stream and we are almost pushing our kayaks along the seabed with our paddle blades in places. A quick call to the coast guard to let them know we will not be making Tenby, but are aiming to complete at Pendine. (Ironically the location of many land speed records).

We are paddling (walking, dragging) inside a Ministry of Defense firing range. Notices, (we notice on our arrival at Pendine), warn of not touching any objects on the beach as they may be unexploded munitions. Someone is having a laugh.

It turned into a 21km trudge with some compensation being a days worth of broadside practice.
We arrived at Pendine feeling the need for a well earned rest.
At least I had finally tested in anger the suitability of my paddling gear. No dry suit, but a wicking layer system I had borrowed from my MR days. Wet suit boots for feet, fleece trousers under Palm Cobra pants for lower half, on top a long sleeve wicking shirt under a long sleeve thin fleece, under Palm Yukon cag.

As I paddled, the clothing began drained itself of the water, collecting at my feet and at the cuffs of my paddling top. To be emptied every time I got out to drag the kayak across the sand! The water ingress is mostly through the jacket neck which doesn't have a seal. The ankles and wrists have very effective seals. Most importantly, although wet, I wasn’t cold. However I wonder how effective this set up would be with a strong wind blowing and less mild temperatures.

Tenby is just a little bit further around and across there!

Lesson 3: Admiralty charts are good at showing things under water. 

OS maps are good at showing things above the water.

Trip stats: Distance 21.2Nm (39km) Time: 7hrs 50min. Max speed: 6.6knots Av speed: 3.2knots

Murky Waters

A familiar throb throb throb was in the air as I left the house before first light. Looking out to sea I spotted the light hovering over the bay and assumed a search at first light was in progress. As I picked Adrian up, Atlantic College ILB was being made ready to assist, confirming my bleak thoughts. Not a great start to the day.

Neal rounds Lavernock Point

Penarth were launched their lifeboat (another Atlantic 75) for its regular Sunday practice as we met up with Hywel, Neal and Jim for the put in. Our objective today was to return along the coast to the west finishing back at St. Donats. A nice trip with the ebb (we thought!). Forecast was 4 to 5 in our faces, dropping off to 4.
As we were in the shadow of the high cliffs we checking into Swansea CG by phone. They informed us that a missing persons search was in progress and to expect some radio chatter.

Hywel enjoys a moment of calm (water)

Crossing Sully Bay towards Nell's Point became quite exciting for a while, the waves pitched up by the tide going against the gusting head wind. Even so we seemed to make a good 5 knots.

Catching the rays at Ffontygary Caravan Park

Jim - all smiles in his shiny new boat
(before he christened the hull on the rocks)

The Green Green Grass of . . . Aberthaw Power Station

Nice view of the 1500 megawatt coal burning, with gas turbine back-up, power station that sits on the estuary with the second highest tidal rise in the world. So I can see the logic of rather than tidal they consider it a prime site for a nuclear power station.

Water intake tower at Aberthaw
(a great place to store the radioactive by-products perhaps)

Jim plays with the cooling water being returned to the sea
from the power station condenser

We find a sandy spot to stop at Limpert Bay for our well earned lunch. The tide rapidly drops off leaving us with a short carry to get back on the water. Powering on we pass surf breaking off Col-huw Point and continue along the Heritage Coast towards St Donats.

Arriving well exercised we are faced with the sobering scene of the local constabulary maintaining a "body watch" outside the lifeboat station. The college lifeboat had had the grim task of finding and retrieving the body of an apparent suicide jump at Southerndown.

What ever the reason for such an incident, my thoughts are with all those that have had to, and are left to, deal with the aftermath.

Trip stats: 31km; Av 3.4 knots; 6.5 knots max; 5.5 hours.

Blue Tips in Wales

Well that's how they felt anyhow.
And my feet were like:


The extremities suffered today, strange as I was surfing for half an hour less than Friday, with no significant difference in wind. But then there is no steelworks next to Southerndown. That could be it.
Some stonking great waves today, a few forward and reverse loops, (not by design, but must have looked very impressive), unfortunately no photos, so unashamedly for self-gratification purposes I post another picture of the surf on Friday.

Together with this hamster photo I had previously refrained from posting.

I've spent the last hours thawing out and walking like some hunched up troglodyte, moaning about my pummeled and over worked muscles.
A sorry sight, but a good reason to get back out again.

Surfing Aberavon Brrrrrrr!!!

I have been bottled up like a champagne cork waiting for the chance to go surfing again. With large swell predicted and a long period I was really looking forward to this years first proper surf session. (I'm excluding the last trips surfing as that was in the seakayak).

I was expecting to be frozen.
So it was rather a nice surprise that after 3hrs I could still feel me extremities. I tried a skull cap for the first time which probably helped things a bit. Did nothing for appearances though – there should be a warning on the label to the effect that all wearers faces will look like hampsters.
Who cares. Generally not a problem, but today Chris C was able to take a few photos up close and personal. Here are a few with the hampster shots taken out as you would expect.







Sets were coming in regular and the small amount of wind was offshore. Every so often some nice big waves came in.
Thanks for taking the pics Chris.