Archive for the ‘wales’ Category

We all have choices in life. I feel lucky that most of my choices are between 2 ‘good’ options. For example do I take the low road or the high road? Should I stay or should I go? Given those options – I usually take the high road, and I usually go. Right now I’m on a train down to Oxford at the start of my journey along the Aleutian island chain and the Alaskan peninsula. It promises to be as big and bold an adventure as any I’ve undertaken. I thrive on these wild, unpredictable voyages of discovery where I have to rely on my wits and a few carefully chosen possessions to safely travel through a magical landscape. I even enjoy the hardships – at least when I relive them ‘afterwards’. These experiences where I have to work hard for my comfort, food and propulsion definitely make me happier, calmer, nicer.

The other side of the coin is the people and places I chose to be apart from for sometimes long periods of time. Wales has been so beautifully summery this last week. The countryside oozes with the promise of new life. A paddle with Barry along the gorgeous coastline of the “Stacks” felt poignant as my ‘last’ Welsh paddle until August probably. I’ll miss the people I care about and I’ll miss the explosion of spring flowers, the noisy return of nesting sea birds and friends having babies, bbqs and burgers.

 

We’ve had a proper Summer in Wales the last few weeks! The pull of work has often lost out to the pull of paddling and I’ve been out with friends quite a bit enjoying some calm days on a sparkling sea. I’ve had Several trips to Puffin island to see the curious seals.

Puffin island – always a winner!

We saw hundreds of guillemots, razor bills, shags, cormorants and a couple of Puffins.

The obligatory team shot!

A lovely paddle topped off by a picnic.

A spot of rolling in the Lake one evening

Straits return paddle from Menai Bridge to Caernarfon

I’ve been wanting to kayak around Anglesey as quickly as I could for 2 or 3 years but good weather, a big tide  and me being at home haven’t coincided until now. Over 10 years ago, I paddled around with Fiona Whitehead in 14 and a half hours and I knew I could do it quicker with different tactics. Since then the record time has been slashed by John Willacy to 9hours 55 mins.

I was hoping to start about 3am on Tuesday morning, but the forecast changed and stronger winds were due. On Monday morning, I made the last minute decision to leave that afternoon. I’d have the luxury of starting in the day light and I ‘should‘ reach the Menai Straits before dark. Hopefully there would be enough ambient light to make paddling at night through the swirly waters of the Swellies not too daunting.

Barry drove me to Llandwyn island and helped me carry my Rapier 18 down the to sea. I leisurely paddled a mile to the end of the island, briefly caught my breath, pressed start on my two GPSs and started paddling at 2.40pm. My start time and place was based on hoping I could ride the helpful flood tide for 35 nautical miles from Rhoscolyn round to Penmon Point. If I wasn’t quick enough then I’d end up fighting the current. Before reaching Rhoscolyn, I’d need to paddle 10 miles against the tide at the end of the ebb but there’s not much tide on the SW part of Anglesey so I hoped this wouldn’t slow me down too much.

I maintained a disappointing 4.4 knots for the first 3 miles but I knew this would be the slowest part of the trip. I had a force 2 wind against me which doesn’t sound like much but it didn’t help. At least I could get the slow bit over with at the start when I was fresh. After 3 miles, my speed picked up to over 5knots – happy days. A buoy with a slack rope showed  no tide, and a bit later, I had a smidgen with me which continued all the way to Rhoscolyn. I’m not sure whether it was a big eddy (I wasn’t close in shore), or whether the tide turned much earlier than I expected.

It took 57 minutes to Ynys Merion & 2 hours to get to Rhoscolyn. From here the tide slowly picked up and my speed reached over 6 knots and then over 7 knots. It peaked at over 10 knots a few times over shallow ground. I stopped every hour for a brief break – just long enough to have a drink and cram some food in my mouth. It was hot and muggy, even in just shorts, a Kokatat destination paddling shirt and lightweight buoyancy aid, so I drank water with rehydrating tablets in it. I think this was pretty essential to me feeling good throughout the paddle, as I struggled to eat much. After 2 and a half hours, I was really thirsty and took my only extra break for a drink. The wind had dropped by now and the sea was at times glassy, but I could hear breaking waves at Penrhyn Mawr. I was much further out to sea than if I was going for a play but the waves were still over a metre high and breaking. I tried to pick a line to minimise my bow crashing into waves and losing speed. The messy waves continued for a mile before another swirly, but calmer stretch to South Stack. Another stretch of breakers off South Stack saw me do my only brace of the trip and I watched my speed drop by 2 knots as I bounced up and down.

It was misty crossing Holyhead Bay and I couldn’t see Carmel Head or the Skerries for several miles. I was glad of the GPS and compass. The seas were still and I could hear the hum of a ferry for a long time, but thankfully it passed behind me. The biggest waves of the trip were off Carmel Head and West Mouse. My speed picked up to 10 knots as I approached the race, then dropped to 9 knots when not in the waves, or 7 knots when crashing through them. The confused water seemed to continue for a few miles and I began to think the whole of the North coast would be like this. Thankfully it calmed down a few miles after West Mouse and conditions were pleasant. My average speed increased to 6.5 knots and I realised that if I could maintain that then I would beat the existing record for paddling around Anglesey. I knew I had some slower sections ahead and wondered how things would turn out.

At Point Lynas, I headed SE into the mist, knowing Puffin island and Penmon Point lay 10 miles away in that direction. A couple of moored container ships, lots of curious shearwaters, and a lone seal made it a bit more interesting. I still had a reasonable amount of tide with me & stayed above 6 knots for the entire crossing. Flat calm water made progress easier. I wasn’t that aware of the time – only of how long I’d been paddling but a glance over my shoulder at a pink sun a few inches above the horizon reminded me it would be dark soon. After 7 hours 2 minutes, I arrived at Penmon and landed by the lighthouse for a few minutes. Barry was there and helped me transfer water from a bottle behind my seat to the 2 bottles I could reach on my deck bag.

It was 9.45pm – a bit earlier than planned for entering the Straits. As darkness fell, I rode half a knot of current around the corner, then found slack water and a persistent force 2 headwind for a depressingly long time. My Epic wing paddles glinted with phosphorescence. I put my head torch on so I could see the GPS. It wasn’t until I got close to Menai Bridge that the conveyer belt started and whooshed me along. Perhaps I was too early, or maybe I just couldn’t see the tell-tale wind against tide waves which would allow me to stay in the strongest current?  As I whizzed under Menai Bridge at 11pm, cheers of encouragement from the bank picked up my spirits. Barry, Phil, Dan & Kay were waving me on.

10 knot confused currents in the Swellies grabbed at the Rapier and pulled her in all directions. Fortunately I’ve paddled though here enough times in the daylight to not be too worried about it. I just kept paddling and used the rudder to correct my course. The scariest moment was when my paddle hit an unseen hard floating object – I may have let out a squeal!

After 8 hours, I had about 14 miles to go. If I could average about 7 knots then I’d have a chance at going sub-10 hours. I dug deep and tried to guess where the fastest current was. I constantly checked the GPS to see if my speed was dropping and headed right or left a bit if it did. The red and green channel buoys were useful too – if in doubt I headed for the next flashing light. I was very close to a 7 knot average as I was spat out of the Straits at Aber Menai Point. Here my speed jumped up to 9 knots and maintained over 8 knots for a few hundred metres in the direction of Llandwyn Island. Wow -what if this current continued for the last 2 or 3 miles?

I couldn’t see Llandwyn and I relied on my GPS and paddled in the direction of my start point. My speed soon plummeted to 5.5knots. Without being able to see any tell-tale signs of current in the dark, I just decided to paddle in a bee-line for the island. It took forever and I knew I wasn’t going to get under 10 hours. It was also a mile further than I was expecting (judging from  John Willacy’s record circumnavigation of 63.4nautical miles). As I got closer I saw the flash of light from Barry’s torch. He was on a sandy beach close to where I started. I kept digging hard, looking down at the GPS to try to judge when I was at my start point. Finally when I thought i was there, I checked the elapsed time on the GPS. 10 hours and 8 minutes (I initially thought it was 10 hours, 7 minutes, but that was ‘moving time’).

Could I do it quicker? Possibly – with no wind and swell. And I’m sure my ‘line’ could have been better in places.
Will I try? Not in the next couple of months, but never say never!

Thanks a lot to Barry Shaw for driving around after me all afternoon, dropping me off and picking me up.

Monday 22nd July 2013
HW Liverpool 11.35 (9.3m)
LW Liverpool 18.19 ( 0.8m)
HW Liverpool 23.56 (9.8m)

Start time: 2.40pm
Finish time: 12:48am Tuesday
Distance: 64.4 Nautical miles
Av speed: 6.4 knots

Today was meant to be the day that I beat my time in the Menai Challenge, and hoped to beat the times of a couple of other people who are just ahead of me on the leader board! I was quietly confident because on my first attempt about 2 months ago, I paddled the 10.5 mile distance in about 1 hour 40 minutes in the Valley Etain. The Etain is a fast boat for a touring seakayak but it’s maximum speed can’t compete with racing boats like the Valley Rapier and the Rockpool Taran. This morning was a 9.9 metre tide – bigger than the last time I did the race. Barry lent me his Rapier. The Straits were calm. I was feeling fit. My aim was under 1 hour 35 minutes & I reckoned I could do it. So what went wrong?

Well firstly, I think I started a bit early. I was on the water at Gallows Point (by Beaumaris) just before noon, close to HW at Liverpool. My chart of tidal speeds in the Menai Straits showed that by now a strong ebb current should be whoosing me down towards the 2 bridges. I did have current with me, but not as much as I expected. I set off at 5.5 knots in the eddy, and by the time I got into the tide I was only doing 6.2 knots. Bangor Pier didn’t exactly fly by and there was no water piled up on the pillars, which there sometimes is. My speed stayed constant until just before Menai Bridge when it shot up to 7.7knots. It had taken me 28 minutes to get there, and I think it took me 25 minutes last time I did it in the Etain (although my memory isn’t what it used to be!). Not a good start and I briefly started paddling towards the slipway at Menai Bridge, with the idea to ask Barry to drive me back to the start again….. so I could do it all again with a bit more flow. But I changed my mind and zigzagged back into the main current… I was here and I should see it through.

The speed in the narrows between Menai & Britannia bridges was impressive. I whizzed along at between 8 and 11 knots, trying to decide where the fastest flow was and stay in that. The ‘long course’ on the Menai Challenge includes a lap of the 2 bridges, so I knew I had to turn around the pillar on Britannia Bridge & head back upstream until I reached Menai bridge for a 2nd time. Finally I needed to fight the current to get under the pillars at Menai Bridge before jumping back on the tide and heading to the finish line at the Anglesey Sea Zoo, another 5 or 6 miles downstream.

I was nervous of trying to maneouver the Rapier across the strong eddy lines and through the standing waves that were formed there. It was only my 2nd time in the Rapier and my first time paddling it in moving water. Many people say it’s easier to paddle a kayak with a rudder – but I would now say that that’s only true if you know how to use it!

I am used to edging my kayak to get over eddylines but now I was trying to use the rudder pedals to turn the kayak. I thought I’d lined myself up well but as I got close to Britannia Bridge pillar I realised my angle was too sharp and I was going to hit the pillar with my bow unless I put the brakes on. I did a reverse stroke and lost the speed I needed to get across the eddy line easily. I ended up  being swept 100 metres downstream of the pillar. I fought my way back upstream, looking with wide eyes at the standing waves formed on the rock just north of the pillar. In my regular seakayak, I wouldn’t have been worried but I wasn’t sure how to handle this long skinny kayak with a rudder! I needn’t have worried as the current caught my kayak and turned me towards Anglesey. I had intended to paddle back up the Straits on the mainland side but now I was going towards Anglesey, I decided to go with it. Despite struggling to fight the tide in a couple of places where it swept round corners at great speed (and swept me into the middle of the flow), I made it back up to Menai Bridge in 20 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad considering I didn’t feel that much in control in the rough stuff.  48 minutes on the clock. I saw Barry there with a camera and smiled and shouted that I was struggling with the rudder.

Nervously, I lined myself up to try to get up through the  middle gap in the pillars at Menai Bridge. Again, I thought I was well lined up but my bow went left towards the pillar and I had to loose my speed to avoid a collision. Now at a near standstill & unsure whether to try to edge or which way to turn the rudder, I had no chance  trying to paddle upstream against a 6 knot current. It swept my bow downstream and I was suddenly facing the wrong way. I struggled to get up against the tide in all 3 channels, trying both sides of the flow and up the middle. The water level was much shallower when I did this in the Etain and it was far easier to get up the gaps ( another consequence of being too early). Today, I had to try to paddle up a 40 centimetre rise and once the current swept my bow away, I couldn’t get the kayak back on track. After a few attempts, I put the rudder up as it was confusing me but I found I was still pressing on the pedals and expecting the kayak to turn (doh!). After much cursing and lots of heavy breathing, I finally made it up the middle of the flow in the gap nearest Anglesey. I glanced at my watch – 1 hour! It had taken me 12 minutes to get past Menai Bridge!

By now, it was clear that I wasn’t going to break any records and I briefly considered stopping. But if nothing else, I don’t give up easily, so I had a word with myself, put the rudder back down and headed off downstream. I flew back down to Britannia Bridge and settled into a rhythm for the last 5 miles. I had more tide with me and was moving at 7.3 – 7.7 knots. My speed didn’t drop below 7 knots until I got to within half a mile of the sea zoo and had to come close to shore. I could see Barry waiting for me and stole another look at my GPS. I’d covered 11 miles with all my being swept off course. The final time was 1 hour 46mins and 46 seconds. That’s 6mins 28secs slower than last time…. BUT if I learn how to paddle a kayak with a rudder in moving water then I should be able to knock off some of that 12 minutes that I spent (cursing) under the pillars at Menai Bridge! So maybe next time….. I still enjoyed it, I like the Rapier and it’s good to be humbled sometimes!