ron-t kayaking blog
15 October 2013 ............ Porth Dafarch to Penrhyn Mawr
The strong and cold North and East wind finally died down, and it was forecast to be a much quieter day before the next front came in sometime after dark - with winds up to force 8.
Anglesey had a beautiful day, you could have sat on the beach and sunbathed.
I hadn`t been out to Penrhyn Mawr since July, and I have done quite a few changes to the boat since then, so the low water just after lunch and a flood tide all afternoon meant it was a good day to go to Penrhyn Mawr for a play.
It doesn`t matter how many times I go to this bit of Anglesey, it is still a stunning bit of coastline.
Once you are out of Porth Dafarch itself, you see across to Dinas Stack, the first bit of the whole Penrhyn Mawr peninsula that sticks out into the flood tide tidal current. There can be quite a significant current flowing past it on both the flood and the ebb tides, and the sea can be quite chunky.
Here it is, with its outlying rocks still showing.
At this level, the smaller outlying rocks are still exposed, and if there is any swell coming in from the west, they can provide some good rock hopping.
This is looking back at Dinas Stack from the inner part of Penrhyn Mawr.
I played around in the various parts of Penrhyn Mawr for a while - from the outer race you get a great view across to the Lleyn Peninsula - in this picture you can also just see the two rocks known as the Fangs, over on the right hand side of the picture. They only appear during quite low tides.
After playing around for a while, I decided I would head further out to see how South Stack was looking - it was of course just as magnificent as ever.
The coastline along there is fabulous - here are a few pictures taken on the way back to Penrhyn Mawr.
It is difficult to get a sense of the size of some of these cliffs - in the first picture, the wee black dot just right of centre, just below the beach, is a man standing. I don`t know what he was doing, but it gives a sense of scale.
Back at Penrhyn Mawr, the current was building up a bit, and I eventually headed out to the outer race, where there was now quite a distinct wave train.
Here is what it looked like, the waves were up to about 1.0 - 1.2 metres or so - a lot smaller than the size of waves you can get at Penrhyn Mawr, but they were a good level for me to take my first steps out into the main wavetrain.
I got a few wee runs - it is very different from surfing on a static wave. I think it is the first time I have ever surfed on that kind of dynamic wave.
For a start, the run is only going to last as long as it takes for the wave to reach the head of the wavetrain.
It is all reactive - I can`t sit an analyse what the waves are doing, because every wave is different, and they only last a few seconds.
The process of sitting and staying on a wave is just the same as on a static wave, but there the similarity ends.
It was quite a strange feeling when I managed to stay on a wave right up to the head of the wavetrain - suddenly there was no wave, and I was sitting on flat water.
It is going to take a bit of getting used to.
After that, I played around a bit on the inner race, but it didn`t really have much bite to it, and I headed off to the shore, to sit on some seaweed and have a tea break.
Here is a view of Dinas Stack from close by where I was sitting.
After I had been sitting there for a while, I saw two sea kayaks heading towards the outer race, so after I had finished my tea and cucumber sandwiches, I headed out to see what they were up to.
Sadly, well for them anyway, by the time they had arrived the discrete waves had gone, and the outer race was now a rather mushy, lumpy, confused tidal current.
Here they are trying to make something out of it, but it wasn`t up to much, and they headed out to another tide race running out from the Fangs which looked a bit more meaty.
I had had enough excitement for the day, so didn`t follow them, I played around a bit more on the inner race, which had grown a bit.
I also found a lovely whirlie bit off to the side which produced some good 360`s - my boat is very manouverable now, so it responds really well to this kind of whirlies.
On the way back to Porth Dafarch, this is looking along the coast towards Dinas Stack.
Just before you get to Dinas Stack, there is quite a deep cave, which you can paddle into at most tide levels. The low angle of the sun meant that the inside of the cave was mostly lit up.
Here is the outside of the cave, and then this is me right inside the cave - still in sunshine.
In the dark bit right at the back there is a steep stoney beach, I could see it quite easily, but the camera doesn`t have enough light to show it.
I think that in a few weeks time, a bit earlier in the afternoon, the sun will shine right into the very back of the cave, and light up the beach.
A bit like the sun shining into Maeshowe on Orkney during the winter solstice.
On the drive back from Porth Dafarch, I took this picture of Trearddur Bay - it shows up Trearddur Bay as being quite an interesting place to do a bit of sea paddling, whilst avoiding the worst of the tidal currents that flow round Anglesey.
I was very happy with my trip out to Penrhyn Mawr - the weather was great, the boat performed excellently, and I had my first time out on the main wave train at the outer race.
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