ron-t kayaking blog
29 September 2014 ............ Moel-y-don
For over a year now my very ancient Anas Acuta has been hanging up in the garage gathering dust, because I didn`t really know what to do with it.
The trouble was - I haven`t been able to do a self rescue in it by my preferred method of re-entry and roll-up. I could roll the boat fine with the spraydeck on, but when it is full of water, I just couldn`t get it to roll up.
After some discussion about it on UKRGB, I dug it out, and headed along to Moel-y-don, where there is a handy place to launch into the Menai Straits.
I did eventually manage to roll it up with water in it, but it is clear that the cockpit rim is too high, and I can`t layback properly.
There is also a problem in that because the cockpit rim sits high above the foredeck, every now and then the paddle shaft catches below the rim right at the front, and it is very jarring, and completely breaks the paddling flow.
So either I have to sell it, or renew my acquaintence with glassfibre and polyester resin, and do some modifications to it - I think that means putting in a keyhole rim, sunk down into the deck.
After I had finished with that wet session, and proved without a shadow of doubt that I need a new drysuit, I went for a brief paddle around the Menai Straits to warm up again.
First stop was Y Felinheli - I didn`t realise how much Y Felinheli is interconnected with the sea - There are at least two boatyards, and also a substantial harbour hidden away behind a stone wall.
Paddling along from one end of Y Felinheli to the other, the most obvious sight is the sea walls - there are some interesting different types.
First of all, here is a section of the sea wall that encloses the harbour - with big rectangular blocks of, I think, sandstone, interspersed with slate.
The harbour is quite a size, and packed with a lot of expensive looking boats - sadly for the owners, they can`t just put their boat on the roofrack and take them home !
The other end of the harbour - and lots more expensive looking boats.
In at the back of the harbour, and a slightly different wall construction.
The edging along the top of the wall is red slate - I have never seen red slate before - it must have come from one of the North Wales quarries, I don`t think it would have been imported or brought in from afar.
Just beyond the harbour there is a set of lock gates - I couldn`t really see, but it looked as if there is a boatyard hidden away beyond the gates.
Further along, and here is another type of wall construction - the bottom is a fairly normal random stone wall using slate.
However the upper part is masses of slates laid flat - I don`t know if there is mortar between the slates, there certainly wasn`t any sign of it, it looked as if it was a dry construction.
Further along, the whole wall was like this -
Past the houses now, and the slate wall reduces away, but now there is another wall presumably built by the estate decades or centuries ago - and yet another type of construction.
On this one, the base of the wall is built up of well dressed stone blocks laid upright, then there is a random stone section, and the edging along the top is slate.
I wonder if a long time ago Y Felinheli was used as a port to ship out slate from the various slate quarries that are not too far away inland.
A rather nicely done opening in the wall, with a slate lintel. You can see that there is another wall inside, also with an opening.
Enough walls - sort of - I paddled back across the Menai Straits to Plas Newydd - a huge house now owned by the National Trust.
I find it difficult to imagine why anyone would want to build a house that big - what would with you do with it ?
Back to sea walls again - in the lower left of the pictures there is a very fancy opening in the wall - I think it might be a boathouse.
Now rather than being a boathouse, it may be a dock - I gather that there was a dock that connected to the basement of Plas Newydd through a tunnel, and all supplies to Plas Newydd came in by sea.
However there is another opening further along - you can see it in the first picture, so it could be that that one is the dock.
I couldn`t see what the outer windows were for, or what lay behind them, but here is the inside of the big opening, looking in.
I hope the National Trust doesn`t mind, I sneaked in -
Back to Moel-y-don, and looking across to Y Felinheli after quite an interesting wee paddle out.
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