Unexpected play Time :D

With a gentle forecast I was expecting a gentle lazy paddle today, nothing too hardcore & certainly not breaking a sweat. Boy was I wrong, Turned out to be a day of plenty of unexpected action if you looked in the right places :D

With my lovely ride 'Myvanwy' feeling very under the weather with a broken timing belt :( I had to talk nicely to my Mum to pinch her Skoda.
Looks kinda cool with a sea kayak on the roof.

We all met up in Sully with the intention of paddling to Penarth. It was a chance For Peter & Gareth to get some time on the water & for Peter to get used to his new Scorpio. Stuart decided to tag along too which is fab as I can pinch some of his images for my blog post. This image was my last contribution to the day as my battery went dead, (Whoops).

 Fun, fun, fun, that's what I wanted & hoped for. A quick ferry glide across to Sully Island & straight into the race off the West side :)

Peter pops ashore to stretch his legs. He's still trying to figure out how to adjust his boat to avoid dead legs, an annoying problem I had for ages in my Orca.
In the meantime I go for a play off the headland at St Mary's Bay.

 Yeehaa!!!

 I could seriously stay here all day, Loving it :D

With Peter back on the water we head off, I catch a wave close to shore & look back to see Peter swimming, whoops. a wave caught him side on & tipped him out though to be fair he was trying my paddle at the time & had about 45 degrees less feather than he's used to.

I really struggled putting him back into his boat. His deck was arranged with his spare paddles mounted on top of his deck bag which made it bloody awkward to get hold of. I suggested afterwards that he push his blades under the deck bag, trial & error I guess.

We paddle back for another play at St Mary's Bay & Gareth comes & has a look too.

After this we headed to the South side of Sully Island Where there was now some decent waves in the race, hence no pictures as it was quite lively. We played & practiced our surfing here for a bit to the amusement of the fishermen on the island. I think we all had a bit of a YeeHaa! moment :)

Approaching the West side of the Island we spot some nice standing waves forming as the tide ebbed. I've only seen this once before as the causeway is usually quite slack on the ebb. My theory is that as the tide picks up speed it pushes further off shore from Lavernock & St Mary's Bay with the main flow missing the causeway. We arrived just after the tide turned, hence the waves but as the tide picked up speed the waves died off & the causeway went calm again.
Its something I'm going to look into as we had a great time surfing the waves while they lasted.

One last ride on the dyeing waves & a few rolls before packing up content & happy...

Thanks again to Stuart for sending me some images to use ;D

Playing It Safe...

Interesting one this, I'd planned to meet Stuart at the Knap at 'Stupid 'O' Clock' & get a lift in his van to Rest Bay in Porthcawl & paddle back.

The weather wasn't great, strong winds, sea state 4 & rest Bay facing the action, hmmm?

Ready to launch into the surf at Rest bay. Its still quite dark hence the blurry image from Stu. In fact I got loads of images of me from Stu, Cheers butty :)

We dabbled in the surf for a while, not committing fully while we thought about what we were doing. The waves were breaking far from shore & it was well messy out there, we had to make a decision.

after a playful few minutes we decided to bail. The chances of a swim were quite probably & we would then of got swept onto the rocks, wouldn't be nice.

Also on our mind was Nash Point, it these conditions it was likely to be huge?

Plan B, after much deliberating we opted for launch at Llantwit, it was a good choice.

Stuarts obviously pleased we aborted the scary water.

 Though there still a good swell here & lots of surfing opportunities.

Going...

Gone...

See what I gotta put up with :)

My turn to disappear...

Aberthaw...

 Time to head out to the tower.

I'd left it a little late & it looked like the tide would push me straight into the side of the tower so I went left instead & missed most of the fun :(

The Rockfall at Fontagary...

Barry Old Harbor...

We were both feeling the cold during the break so we pushed on to bendricks Rock having an absolute hoot surfing the swells.

 Stuart thinking about it?

 Hmmm, not just yet.

 Go Go Go!

 Yeehaa! He seems pleased with that :)

I wanted to practice my rolls but Stuart wanted pretty pictures & asked me to go by the lifeboat. Strangely there were two lifeboats here today?

 The eery calm of a downpour.

 Then back into the swells off Nells point for some more surfing :)

And a postcard view of Nells Point coastwatch station to finish an absolutely awesome day out...

Come Hell Or High Water...

Having recently got back from a rather long road trip I took the time to look through my blog & can't believe just how much I've done in the last couple of months let alone the year.
Without doubt the highlight for me has to be completing my solo navigation of the beautiful Welsh coastline.

So this brings me to the question of what to do next year?
I've been here before, the nervous anticipation of announcing a paddle that's going to set my nerves on edge though ultimately bring wonderful memories.

Back in 2010 I set myself the challenge of paddling out to & around Flat Holm Island whilst wearing a wedding dress. Not a huge challenge but I was much less experienced back then & I was very nervous of the challenge.
This year I challenged myself again with what seemed a crazy dream to paddle right around the Welsh Coast. I remember sitting at the computer grinning & thinking 'shit, now you've done it' as I clicked the 'make live' button on my charity web page.

So here I am again, apprehensive & wondering if I'm biting off more than I can chew?
But isn't that the point of life, to live by our memories & learn from our experiences. Better to live with a little fear than stagnate though life never experiencing it wonders. Live life for the moment & run like hell from the bailiffs when the time comes.

So what is it I got in mind? Well if you haven't recognised the image above then its the outer Herbrides. I'm thinking of circumnavigating the main chunk running from the Butt of lewis in the North down as far South as Berneray, around 300 miles.
Its still very much in the planning stage at the moment but the idea seems sound enough. I'm hoping to have a paddling partner or two on this expedition & have asked a couple of friends if they fancy it, so I'll see how that pans out. They were interested but agreeing dates is an interesting challenge & I know that not everyone has such a flexible work-life as me. I'll keep my fingers crossed as it'll be wonderful to share such an experience with friends not to mention having someone to tell me to get out of the tent & go paddle when its a bit choppy :)

I now need to look at the access & exit points & do some research into the tidal flows around the Islands. As always the weather is likely to be an issue & I'm concerned about surf landings on the west coast, especially as I'm planning on doing the trip around mid March. The tidal flows in the Sound of harris look interesting too & will need some thought.

So here we go again, that dreaded moment when I click the 'make live' button :)

Sea Kayak Meditation...

My heads been a bit busy since getting back in South Wales having totally blown the budget on my travels I now find myself constantly looking for solutions to the problems i've created :O.
Time for a bit of headspace & the 5 mile crossing to Flat Holm seemed the perfect solution :)

Arriving at Sully Island the conditions were unusual, the wind was hardly noticeable though there was a decent swell running, a remnant of the storm last night I guess.

A small amount of fun on the causeway playing in the shallows & then onto the cute, ickle standing waves.

 Approaching the tip of Sully Island, shall I go or shan't I?

Hell yeah, I'm going. I loved the paddle out, leaving the shore behind, the swells passed like wraiths in the calm waters, drifting under the kayak like a memory of a thought.

I passed the south side of Flat holm, the chop & clapotic waves bringing a smile to my face. Above on the West side however it was perfectly calm & a burst of sunshine in the distance was illuminating Cardiff.

 Time to go walkabout.

 Fine looking ladies :O

 Time for some more fun.

Seal Launch Heaven, wish I could of filmed this, I hit the water like a torpedo & grinning like an idiot :)

 Through the gap at castle Rock then onwards to Lavernock.

I made it to Lavernock Outfall in quick time. I had swells hitting from my left rear all the way back from Flat Holm & made good progress pissing about & surfing them back to shore with many a grin & whoops of joy.
I didn't head straight for shore though, the tide was running at lavernock Outfall & the swells were running straight into the tide in the race at lavernock, time for some more surfing :)

I was rather hot after my tide race surfing so I pulled into the calm of the eddy & practiced my rolls & before finishing for the day I did another lap of Sully Island.
I had a wonderful few hours on the water & my heads all the better for it!