ron-t kayaking blog
12 March 2014 ............ Cemlyn to the Skerries
Right in the middle of several days of high pressure, absolutely no wind, and ideal Neaps tide timing all combined to produce a perfect set of conditions for a trip out from Cemlyn bay to the Skerries.
The last couple of hours or so of the ebb tide made it easy going out to West Mouse.
There was a surprising speed of current around West Mouse, and I gave it a bit of a wide berth so as not to get tangled up in it.
In light of the current around West Mouse, I anticipated there would be a lot of current all the way across to the Skerries, so from West Mouse I headed pretty much north - effectively in a ferry glide across the current, and slowly the Skerries got closer and closer.
Not too far to go now -
Around the Skerries, particularily at the north east end, there were a lot of seals, either pulled out on the rocks or swimming around.
Some of the seals were a bit camera shy, and I had to be quick to catch them.
People pay thousands of pounds buying high speed cameras to capture this kind of shot - I got this picture for nothing as a reward for being old and slow !
Round the far side of the Skerries, and into the bay beside the lighthouse.
I headed out, and paddled right around the Skerries - here is the lighthouse again, from down at the south west end.
Somewhere around that end, and I think that this is a pair of Great Crested Grebes, with their long erect necks and the tufts on top of their heads.
Up the landward side of the Skerries, and the lighthouse makes yet another appearance.
Being low tide there were no passages through between the various islands that usually make up the Skerries, it was all one long continuous island.
So it was right round the north east end and back down to the bay beside the lighthouse, to where I had seen a good place to land earlier on, and time for lunch.
It was idyllic sitting in the sun in this sheltered bay, and a few seals came quite close in whilst I was sitting there, to have a look at me.
However it all came to a very rapid end when a bank of fog came rolling in - and in minutes I was in a cotton wool cloud that obliterated everything more than 70 to 100 or so metres away.
So I packed up and headed off.
The paddle back to Carmel Head was a bit of a surreal experience paddling through the fog seeing absolutely nothing - it was an uneventful trip, apart from a largish boat which passed behind me.
I eventually got to Carmel Head, and turned left, to follow the coastline back to Cemlyn - which felt like a very long way - and with visibility down to about 50 metres or so, nothing was recognisable.
So the first half of the day was excellent, the second half of the day - no, that wasn`t much fun.
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