More Storms and Assessed in Anglsey

With a day of playing and enjoyment under my belt followed by an evening of frivolity partaking in a mixture of the hilarious and sometimes down right embarrassing acts of the "Around the Stacks" quiz night, I devote the remaining two days to the sobering task I've set myself at the end of the week which is to be assessed for the BCU four star leadership award. This was to be the culmination to my thoughts started back in the spring of 2009. So to bolster confidence I begin by partaking in a leadership session headed up by Nick Cunliffe.  In strong southerly force 6 winds, but to look at the photos you wouldn't believe it, our small group take it in turns to lead the others as a group along the coast to various destinations. This tested our group management skills around headlands, rock gardens and landings.

consensus of opinion of ones current location is . . .

There was little bit of a swell running that made our rock hopping session quite fun, culminating in me getting the Cappella entirely airborne, and at one point taking a rocky swim. Shame there were no pics as I understand it was quite entertaining.

The evening shenanigans was started off by a very frank presentation delivered by Jeff Allen, "In to the Wind", where he recounted his and Harry Whelan's recent record breaking achievement of the circumnavigation of Ireland in 25 days. If you get the chance to hear Jeff give this talk, take it, as it is a very open and honest account of their experience. It has an underlying message of how not to undertake a paddling expedition, where uncompromising goal setting can undermine sound judgement and decision making.

The last day of the gathering I went to a rolling clinic run by the betrothed partnership of Helen Wilson and Mark Tozer to resurrect my drysuit bloated roll.

Watching Helen perform her rolls you feel the need to be whisked off to some far eastern country, shave off all your hair, begin to chant daily, only to return when you can transcend yourself into some zen like state of being. I really, really want one of her ultra cool stealth invisible paddles.

Returning to my tent I got into the lotus position to wait out the next two days, mentally preparing myself for the forthcoming four star assessment. Anyone might think I was apprehensive.

After 2 days R&R I joined Francesco (Sicily), Mikael (Sweden) and Beat (Switzerland), to form an international group of kayakers ready for assessment. 
By then the wind had subsided to just about force 5 and the sea state had calmed right down, this gave our days assessor, Axel Schoevers, a bit of a task to find us some challenging conditions in which to test our self rescue, towing, navigation and paddling skills. But he did.

The second day's weather had built up to provide excellent conditions for today's assessment which would consist of: leadership; group management; rescue skills; navigation and paddle skills, assessed by Kate Dufus. Kate had just completed an attempt at the current circumnavigation of Anglesey the previous day.
 

What if Mikael were to capsize (deliberately) right now, what would I do?

Kate kept us all on our toes during our turns of "leading", throwing in various incidents. It was actually very good fun. I think everyone managed to relax and actually enjoy the experience.

Sunshine even

Which way?

Beat enjoying a swell time

Kate incident planning or planning an incident?

Beat unflinchingly enjoys a bit of clapotis

Kate having a blast!

We all return to dry land to be debriefed individually by both Axel and Kate. After being given pointers for continued improvement we were all to be awarded with our stars. Happy bunnies all around, and a very satisfying conclusion to a few great days paddling "up north".

Storm Gathering 2011

It's was three years ago that I last ventured up to Anglsey. The island is situated at the north westerly tip of Wales and has some exceptional tide races to lure paddlers to play. It was stormy then, and it promised to be stormy again for the 2011 Storm Gathering. With the weather blowing a good southerly F6-7 there was to be no playing out on the races, and with pretty much everywhere having rough water and high winds I decided that a spot of surfing would be just the ticket to get me into the groove.

Rhosneigr for a spot of surfing

Surfing the plastic Cappella was fun - but turning around in all that wind was a bit of an effort. I took the opportunity to try out a P&H Delphin, it was a surf specification version. Shorter than the Cappella and with an excellent fitting seat and a lot of rocker it was just the job. Turning in the wind was so so easy, and surfing it was the most fun I've had in a long boat. I loved it so much I didn't want to give it up for the rest of the session. (Sorry Kate).

Surfing the Delphin in a bit of wind!

Oh dear, think I want one

I think the cheesy smile says it all

Surf pics thanks to Kate Dufus

Duh! . . . might be useful

Thought I'd pass this on as it might be of use - I know it's obvious - but it was so obvious I overlooked it.

Did a little rolling and self rescue practice last night - after a few dunkings I thought it prudent to let the coast guard know what we were up to in case someone phoned in thinking we needed some assistance.

"You are very muffled and broken up" 

was the gist of the their return call, together with a misinterpretation of my call sign.

"Try turning into the wind sir" - 

 what wind. I couldn't figure out what the problem was.

Then it dawned on me. I don't carry my VHF in a pouch, it's "waterproof`" :), and of course during the immersions the speaker/mike grill gets flooded and doesn't necessarily drain quickly - there is a function on the radio to blast out the water by emitting a tone for a few seconds - remembering the key combination I used this and hey presto transmissions were restored strong and clear.

It made me think how important this might be to remember If I needed to make that call in dire need after being dunked or still being in the water.

How something quite simple hindered communication.

Morning Glory

Thurlestone Sands has a very memorable feature - however I remembered the feature and forgot the name, so when I came to plan this trip I'd forgotten that I'd paddled part of this trip before with Richard back in 2009 as part of the SWSKM. (Note to self to get that written up!).

Thurlestone Sands with the tide out

Thurlestone Sands with the tide in.

This time we were going to make it an overnighter. Having traveled down to Exeter to visit the South West Canoe Show - it made good sense to get a nice paddle in - particularly as the weather was quite exceptional. I think it ended up being the hottest ever October on record.

By the time we would arrive from Exeter we wouldn't have much time to paddle on the water before wanting to set up camp and chill out. Luckily there is a nice little quiet sandy bay about an hours paddle to the west of Thurlestone at Soar Mill Cove.

We launch from the sandy beach and head west.

Rounding Bolt Tail we get the full on low sun bringing out the fantastic warm colours in Paul's kayak :)

 

It's not long before we arrive at the evenings diggs.

Looking down on Soar Mill Cove

Chris enjoys the last of the days sun

We set up camp and cook our grub, washed down with a bottle of beer or three, watching the sun going down.

Bliss.

View from my tent early in the morning - you can just make out a white dot on the horizon -
it's my old friend the Eddystone Lighthouse

Doesn't look like it but the tent is perched close to a fair sized vertical drop!

A quick breakfast and we are packing our gear for an early morning start.

 

It's not long before we are on the water and heading east to catch the first rays of morning sunshine.

 

 

 

Rounding Bolt Head we enter the mouth of the estuary that leads past Salcombe and up towards our destination at Kingsbidge. It's only going to be a 2 hr paddle, but get the timing wrong and miss the tide, you will be having a long wait on mud banks waiting to refloat!

Early morning sunshine catching the headland near Sharp Tor, Starehole Bay

 

 

 

 

 

We arrive at the top of the tide to land on the public slipway in Kingsbridge.

 

Conveniently located at the other end is a very reasonable cafe where we managed to have a big boys second breakfast.

Waiting for our big boys breakfast :)

Not a very arduous trip, but one that hit the spot precisely.

 

Bishops and Clerks - West Wales Day 3

This has been a trip I'd like to do for a little while now, so was quite pleased that the weather and sea conditions looked conducive to being able to pull it off. The idea of this trip was to paddle around the small group of islands that lie between one and two miles offshore, west of Ramsey Island. Collectively they are called the Bishops and Clerks.


The principle is fairly straight forward - time the paddle to drop down with the tide to arrive at the South Bishop for slack water, and then come back up with the flood. Easy right? 

As I stop to take a photo, Richard rapidly disappears as I'm swept away from him,
during our ferry glide across to North Bishop

Richard and I paddle out to Saint David's Head, arriving about two hours before the north going stream start. We manage a 4.5 km ferry glide against the south flowing water maintaining a fairly respectable 5 knots across to North Bishop. 

Carreg Rhoson, with the South Bishop and it's lighthouse in the distance

As our transit starts to slip we engage a bit more umph and finally start to gain ground and make it across to the North Bishop.

Richard with North Bishop to right and Carreg Rhoson to left

Going down the west side we experience a bit of swell coming in from the Atlantic - it must get quite serious out here on a rough day. Looking at the chart you can see why as the water depth shallows quite rapidly causing large areas of overfalls.

Seals on North Bishop, with St Davids in the far distance

North Bishop

In the calm eddy behind North Bishop looking down through Carreg Rhoson and South Bishop in the distance

South Bishop and it's lighthouse gradually get bigger as we drop down onto it

Arriving at  South Bishop

Tempted as we both were, the swell was a little bit to big to make for a safe dry landing

 We have a good look around the rock, and then with the little bit of time we had of slack water make our way east towards Ramsey. Within about half a nautical mile off the rock the north going tide suddenly kicks in like a switch had been flicked and we go from just under 3 knots to maintaining a good 6. 

Daufraich in the background as Richard goes to play in some waves just north of South Bishop

Fairly rapidly we are at the north end of Ramsey and repeat the eddy riding trick to get back to the mainland across the Sound, to arrive back at Porthsele, well satisfied. Could have done with a bit more sun though, but that's being picky.

13.2 Nm 24km in 3.75 hrs

Ramsey Circumnavigation - West Wales Day 2

It's Bank Holiday Monday, and a wonderful hot sunny day is promised. While we wait for the tides to come into alignment with out intended circumnavigation of Ramsey Island, Claire, Ian and I head off to the Blue Lagoon at Abereiddu. Claire and Ian swim around to the abandoned quarry, while I take the easy option and paddle around.

Ian takes to the water in the Blue Lagoon

The lagoon isn't quite the sun trap we had hoped for, with still quite a breeze blowing in.
This young chap seems to have found a little sheltered spot though.

Bank Holiday's are made for for lazing in the sunshine!

Returning to Porthsele to launch, Richard takes us around Saint John's point towards Ramsey Sound. The north going flow causes a big back eddy that starts near St Justinin, which we utilize to take us down to the southern most tip of the mainland. It is quite strange to be paddling easily with the back eddy going south and seeing the main flow moving rapidly north just a few feet away from you. Water flow is seriously on a grand scale here as the water flowing in from the Atlantic is constricted through the Sound as it begins filling St Georges Channel between Wales and Ireland.

At Pen Dal-aderyn we begin a ferry glide across the sound, losing ground rapidly and watching The Bitches getting closer as if sucking us in for a good tossing over. We make it of course over to the east side of Ramsey without incident.

Looking back across Ramsey Sound to the mainland

Here we explore the caves and arches and get followed by numerous seals. 

Approaching Ynys Cantwr and the Midland gap - this is our point of no return, as once entering the gap there there is no returning and we are committed to going up around the island's west coast. 

Continuing up along the west coast we get to explore various caves, cracks and play with a little bit of the swell.

South Bishop lighthouse - though not today's destination . . .

South Bishop lighthouse appears below the clouds

Looking out westward toward Grassholm on the horizon

It really was quite a mellow evenings paddle. The tide now taking us fairly swiftly north.

Rounding the northern tip of the island we continue paddling now against the tide using the back eddy to take us some way into the sound. This gained ground we've "banked" in order to lose as we cross over the main flow, heading back to the mainland.

Thanks to Richard for the "Introduction to Ramsey Sound Back Eddies - easy conveyor belt seakayaking".

Circumnavigation of Ramsey Island