ron-t kayaking blog
06 February 2014 ............ Middle Mouse and Dinas Gynfor
Over the last few months I`ve been increasingly aware that my paddle blades are too big - they are fine when I`m playing around in tide races or rock hopping, but a longish paddle against the wind is quite uncomfortable, because my cadence is far too slow, as I don`t have the muscle power to maintain a decent speed through the water.
I took advantage of a rather grey but calmer day to head over to Cemaes - the first hour or so I was playing around with a different paddle, with smaller, differently shaped blades, and so I was doing rolling and self rescues, to see how I got on with them.
They worked okay, if I modified the way I did rolls, so satisfied with that, I headed out of Cemaes Bay, and along towards Dinas Gynfor - I think by now it was pretty close to high tide.
Out of the bay, there was a bit of roughness in the water from the wind, as well as a small but distinct swell coming from the west, with quite a long period - maybe it was the start of the next fairly deep low that was heading towards Britain.
Here is the swell rearing up at Old Quarry Point.
Across Llanbadrig Cove, round Llanbadrig Head, and you get the first view of Middle Mouse.
Then along the coast to the first un-named headland.
Somewhere along the coast I came across a cave I don`t remember that I`ve noticed before - with an interesting colour in the rocks on either side.
After the first headland, I had a bit of a change of plan, and decided to head out to Middle Mouse - there was enough of a sea to make it interesting, but not enough to make it scary.
Getting close to Middle Mouse, and the birds are starting to congregrate.
Since I had my camera out anyway, this is looking across to Dinas Gynfor - it is a big headland, and the most northerly point of Anglesey.
The birds mostly sit on the south side of Middle Mouse, so to avoid disturbing them, I paddled around the north side to the east end of the island.
The most noticeable thing about the north side of Middle Mouse was how green it was - not grass of course, but some kind of green growth all over the rock - is a rocky island in the middle of the sea affected by all the rain we have had ?
On the way out to Middle Mouse it dawned on me that heading out to Middle Mouse, then back to Dinas Gynfor wasn`t a very smart route - because I was now going to have to paddle against the ebb tidal current that flows westwards along the north side of Anglesey, and gets pushed out by Dinas Gynfor, so it heads out towards Middle Mouse.
During Springs, it is a very strong current, especially close to Dinas Gynfor, and in a big Springs, it is quite a sight - you can sit in an eddy just at the point of the headland and watch it rushing past.
However it wasn`t too far from Neaps, so the current affected me a bit, but not too much.
About halfway across, and a black fin powered across my path maybe 70 or so metres away in front of me.
Then it appeared again, so I grabbed my camera and sat and waited for the next time - but it never appeared again.
I couldn`t afford to sit and wait for too long, as I was getting washed in the wrong direction by the current.
I think that is now the third time I have seen porpoises in that same place - last time there were three of them, on this occasion I think it was only the one.
A bit closer in, and this is looking across to Dinas Gynfor -
Round to the west of Porth Llanlleiana, the very rugged coastline heading up to the next headland.
Back by the mainland, I headed round Dinas Gynfor against the current, and headed for Hells Mouth for a break.
Hell`s Mouth can be quite handy, as it can be quite sheltered in Hell`s Mouth, when the sea is coming from the west - more sheltered than Porth Llanlleiana.
The cliffs just beyond Hell`s Mouth are quite impressive -
After a quick break, it was time to head back - as you curve round the coast you come to a rather fun channel between the rocks - I came through it on the way out, and back through it on the way back.
The swell from the west was coming straight through the channel, and added a bit of interest - sorry about the blob on the lens.
After Dinas Gynfor, I stayed well out to pick up the ebb current, so it was quite fast to begin with.
However I soon started to slow down, as during the early part of an ebb tide, there is a massive eddy that runs I think all the way from Wylfa Head right back almost to Dinas Gynfor - I think it is possibly a remnant of the flood tide, but also the shape of the coastline is conducive for the formation of an eddy.
To begin with, you can stay out enough to get the west bound current, however it gradually gets further and further away from the shore, and you would be a long way out to stay in the current.
So you get bogged down in the east bound current in the eddy - very tedious.
Approaching the second un-named headland, and Llanbadrig Head is nicely framed by the headland and its outlying rock, with Wylfa Head away in the distance.
You can get some quite entertaining white water between that rock and the headland even when the swell is quite small, and you maybe need to choose your timing well for going through it.
It doesn`t look it in this picture, but Wylfa Head is actually quite high, with a big sloping drop down to the sea below.
Between Llanbadrig Head and Old Quarry point the eddy current can be quite strong, and it seems to take forever to cross something like 600 metres of water, but eventually you get there, and once back into Cemaes Bay, all is calm.
Having done the trip with these smaller blades, I reckon I can go smaller yet.
I can`t use these blades long term anyway, they are an ancient pair of splits, they weigh a ton, and have a wobbly joint, so the search continues.
I have another old paddle with even smaller blades I will try next time.
Years and years ago I dabbled in slalom, I did eventually manage it, but it took me so long to get out of div 5 that I decided slalom and me didn`t have a future together.
However during the time I was doing slalom stuff, I got a pair of Delapre paddles - huge blades on a cranked shaft.
I didn`t really like cranks, so I put a straight shaft on the blades, and used them a bit more.
However the blades were really too big even for whitewater paddling, so I started to reduce the size of them bit by bit, until I felt they were too small for whitewater.
By then I had an Enigma squirt boat, so a smaller blade size was useful.
Okay, the purists will say an Enigma wasn`t a proper squirt boat as it had too much volume, and wasn`t cut to suit the paddler, however compared to the Mountain Bats and Gamblers that were running rivers at the time, it was tiny.
But anyway, the blades ended up with a rather different and attractive diamond shape, rather than the more blob shape of normal euro paddles.
I`ll try them on the sea to see how they feel, and I also need to try Greenland paddles, as they are reputed to allow a faster cadence.
However I am concerned that they may not have enough bite for playing on tide races and rock hopping.
We shall see !
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