ron-t kayaking blog
14 October 2014 ............ Morfa Nefyn to Penrhyn Glas
Heading down to Neaps meant the flood tide would turn mid afternoon, and the weather forecast seemed to think that this was going to be last of the settled ( ? ) weather for a week or two.
There was an east wind, but I thought I would take a bit of gamble and head down the Lleyn Peninsula to Morfa Nefyn, and see if I could get up to Penrhyn Glas.
It turned out that it wasn`t the best of days to be doing this bit of coastline - the east wind wasn`t blowing offshore as it should have been, it was coming from the northeast, and was blowing right down the coast.
So it was a bit of a struggle from the very start.
The sea was coming from a similar direction, maybe a bit more from the north than the wind, so it was wind against tide until the tide turned.
Heading out from Morfa Nefyn it wasn`t too bad - here are a couple of pictures - firstly looking back to the small bit of beach at Morfa Nefyn - most of the village is away from the actual coast, so there are very few houses visible.
Round to the right, and this is the peninsula that ends in Trwyn Porth Dinllaen - the OS map doesn`t seem to give the hamlet a name, I don`t know if it has one or not.
And this is where I am headed - looking up the coast past Penrhyn Nefyn, then Penrhyn Bodelias, then the distinctive cliffs of Penrhyn Glas which are nicely lit up by the sun.
In the background is Trwyn y Gorlech and the two very distinctive peaks of Yr Eifl.
They were the last pictures I took for the whole way up to Penrhyn Glas - the sea got more and more lumpy - sometimes in the upper part of Slight, sometimes well into Moderate - and there was no shelter anywhere.
Going past Penrhyn Nefyn was particularily rough - it was clear from the colour of the sea that there was a long shallow area out from Penrhyn Nefyn, and it was causing a lot of disturbance to the waves.
Out past Penrhyn Bodeilas, still no shelter.
Right up to Penrhyn Glas, and just in the corner, there was some shelter - I think, but I`m not certain of this - that these outlying rocks are what the OS map shows as Llech Lyden - there were quite few cormorants living there.
Between the rocks there is a narrow passage -
However before heading through it, I took the opportunity to land on the beach and have a bit of a break.
When I was packing up again, I looked up and there was a seal just offshore looking straight at me - but by the time I had dug out my camera, it had got bored of me and had gone.
By the time I left it was clear that the tide had turned, and things appeared to be quietening down a bit, so I headed through the passageway -
Mistake !
At the far side I met the most evil looking sea heading straight for me - oops - there was no way I could turn around and head back through the passageway, and it was also clear that I wasn`t going to be sightseeing round Penrhyn Glas - so I just had to bash through it, then ferryglide out until I was way out beyond the Llech Lyden rocks and away from the sea piling up against the rocks, a quick turn, and headed back down the coast.
I really love having a boat that can be turned so quickly, it is so much safer than having a boat that takes forever to turn around.
Back past the Llech Leyn rocks, and the sea had now changed character completely - the lumpy sea caused by a mixture of wind and wind against tide has been replaced by longer waves, but of a similar sort of size as before.
Looking back to Penrhyn Glas -
This is looking down the coast towards Penrhyn Bodeilas -
There isn`t much about Penrhyn Bodeilas to write home about - there is a quite large concrete platform which I assume by the piles of stones on it was used as a pier for exporting stone from the adjacent quarries - there are old quarries all the way down this bit of coastline.
I bypassed Porth Nefyn on the way out, - the village of Nefyn is mostly away from the coastline, and is quite spread out - this is the east end of Porth Nefyn - it looks as if there could be a launching point from here.
Round at the other end of Porth Nefyn, and a bit more of Nefyn. I couldn`t see a road going down to this hamlet, it looked as if the beach was used as the access route in.
In behind the sea wall - the headland Penrhyn Nefyn would provide very good shelter from the westerlies and southwesterlies, the sea wall faces out to the northeast.
Heading out around the sea wall, and a rather impressive view of Trwyn y Gorlech, Yr Eifl and Penrhyn Glas.
Now at Penrhyn Nefyn things got quite interesting - as I observed on my way out, projecting out from Penrhyn Nefyn there was a shallow area - well it was now partially exposed - and the waves were causing mayhem over the rocks for quite a distance out.
I eventually rock hopped my way through it - it was fairly challenging rock hopping, as it had to work !
Back at Morfa Nefyn it was a bit quieter, so landing wasn`t too much of a problem.
It had been an interesting trip - it was very tedious fighting against the wind the whole way up the coast - one of the things I find when paddling into a wind is that because of the wind, the boat speed through the water is slower, and as a result my paddling cadence slows down.
I`m trying to generate the same forward power, but the cadence has gone down - so I have to use more force - so I`m driving too high a gear, and I find it quite uncomforable.
I really must try a greenland paddle - I think it should be easier to use a greenland paddle so that only part of the blade is in the water than it is to use a euro blade in this way - if only part of the blade is in the water, less force is required, and my cadence increases again, and I can actually end up going faster.
But on the plus side, apart from that, I was quite comfortable in the sea conditions, which is good news.
Just as an aside, one thing I did notice is that there is a significant tide race just off the point of Twryn Porth Dinllaen.
As quite often happens, by the time I was off the water and all packed up, the wind had died down quite a bit, the sea had died down quite a lot as well - looking along the beach towards Trwyn Porth Dinllaen.
A long focus view of the new lifeboat station near the point of Twryn Porth Dinllaen - I wonder if the new lifeboat station at Moelfre will end up the same as this one.
Finally, looking up the coast to where I had been - part of the shallow area off Penrhyn Nefyn is quite visible now, Penrhyn Glas is somewhat picking up the low evening sunshine, the Welsh National Language Centre is just visible below Yr Eifl, and you can even see the Morfa headland just down from Trefor.
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