ron-t kayaking blog
03 November 2013 ............ The Swellies
It is getting quite hard now to get access to the Swellies wave due to lack of daylight, so my two trips on Saturday and on Sunday were both a bit of a gamble.
On Saturday, it was three days before the Springs, and the tidal range was only 4.5 metres, a range which is generally too small to generate a wave.
XCWeather was showing strong southwest and west winds for the whole day, but I reckoned the Swellies would be a bit sheltered, so I went to see what if anything would be happening.
The first thing that I met was the wind - now if the Swellies were sheltered, I hate to think what it was like elsewhere.
I found out later that the Met office was forecasting force 8 or 9 - I think most of it was in the Swellies. It was wild !
The sea was quite flat, but the wind was blowing straight through the Swellies, and it was a major problem to get anywhere.
The second thing that I found was the tidal current - it was the strongest current I have ever seen in the Swellies.
I assume that what was happening was that the southwest / west wind was pushing water across the Atlantic, up into the lower part of the Irish Sea, up past the Lleyn Peninsula, and into the Menai Straits.
The water level at the South Cardinal Marker was as high as it was when I was there a while ago, three hours into a Neaps flood tide - almost up to the concrete base.
So against the wind and the tidal current it was a nightmare to get up to the South Cardinal marker.
The big patch of seaweed was of course well covered, and the small amount of rocks showing meant that there was little shelter from the current.
The Swellies wave didn`t ever develop. There was a small wave beside the cardinal marker, but not big enough to be of any use.
So after fighting the wind and the current for about 20 minutes. I gave up, and paddled over to the rocky islands on the Anglesey side, to see if there was anything over there.
It was magic !
Imagine a wide, fast flowing, grade 2/3 river, with a line of islands across it.
Between the various islands there was a drop of 500mm - 600mm, two nice rapids, and very nice looking stopper - with a sloping run down, and a classic V at the bottom.
So this all provided a bit of fun.
I also found that with a lot of effort, I could head further towards the Anglesey side, and get up and around the islands, and come down the rapids.
I was a bit wary about the stopper - its width was a bit less than the length of a sea kayak - maybe about 4 metres.
With that V it was going to be sticky. I know what a 2 metre river boat is like in a stopper - what would a 5 metre sea boat be like ?
Hmmm.
I gave it a miss. Even if I hadn`t got stuck in it, I would have been doing rather a lot of rock bashing.
At one point I was crossing a quite innocent looking current, and it suddenly grapped me and whipped me over, and it would not let go.
I skulled and tried to roll up, and skulled and tried to roll up, for quite a long time before it finally let me go and I could roll up again.
However it soon got dark, and I had to give up, but while it lasted it was all good fun, and made the trip worthwhile.
On Sunday, the weather was much better, the tidal range was 4.9 metres, and the tidal current was back to normal.
However daylight was going to be a problem.
I got up to the cardinal marker in good time, and while I was waiting for the wave to start, I took this not very inspiring picture of the South Cardinal Marker, loads of seaweed, and the Britannia Bridge.
I had to wait maybe 10 - 15 minutes for the wave to start, and as soon as it started, I hopped on.
I only got the one shot on the wave before I had to leave because of lack of light.
But I didn`t mind - in fact I was quite happy about it.
I don`t know how long my one shot lasted - maybe 20 minutes - maybe 25 minutes - maybe 30 minutes.
Who cares - it was great !
Back beyond the Menai Bridge, it was by now quite dark - as you can see in my second picture.
The metadata for the two pictures shows that they were taken exactly one hour apart.
So if you add up the 10 or 15 minutes for the wave to start, then 10 or 15 or so minutes to get back, it nicely confirms my one shot surfing duration of 25 - 30 minutes.
I was well chuffed.
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