ron-t kayaking blog
11 June 2015 ............ Not the Skerries
This trip was a bit of a gamble which didn`t pay off - I wondered if I could get out to the Skerries, but the tide timing wasn`t the best, I could have done with another hour or two before the tide turned.
As it happened, there was also a bit more wind than what XCWeather had suggested might be the case, and it was from the north east, so a bit of a problem for a trip along the north coast of Anglesey.
I left Cemlyn maybe about 30 to 40 minutes before low tide, and did get a bit of a ride from it along the coast, but then started meeting some contrary tidal flows - I am not sure if they were eddies or what they were, but as I got along to roughly opposite West Mouse I met quite a strong east flowing current, then I was through that, then I met another of the same, so my forward progress was getting a bit slower.
Eventually I got towards Carmel Head, and had to think about whether I should head out for the Skerries - here they are, looking out from a bay a bit before Carmel Head.
Whilst I was sitting there thinking, this little fellow came cruising by -
Two thoughts were going through my mind - the first was that the tide had turned, so it was going to be quite a struggle paddling out to the Skerries against the flow, even though it was Neaps.
The second was that if I did get out to the Skerries, I was going to be coming back with the wind against the tide, and the wind generally gets stronger in the afternoons.
However I thought I would head out, and see how I got on - but as I headed out, the sea was getting bigger and bigger - it wasn`t a normal tide race type of sea, and it wasn`t a wind blown sea - large, irregular, deep and steep green waves with some white tops - and it was becoming quite a struggle to survive in it.
It became increasingly clear that I wasn`t going to the Skerries - not in this - and I tried to head back in - but that in itself proved to be even more of a struggle - both the oncoming current and the waves coming in behind me were conspiring to push me outwards.
It took quite a long time to get back in.
I subsequently realised that what I had got into was the leading edge of the flood tide, the high pressure front at the start of the flood tide, where the east flowing flood tide was pushing against the static or west flowing ebb tide.
As I wandered around Carmel Head, I watched as this front headed off to the east towards and past West Mouse, and behind it came the more normal wind against tide tide race.
Carmel Head has some quite interesting bits - I believe it has the oldest exposed rocks in the whole of Wales.
This cave would be a bit more accessible at high tide.
The tide race out from Carmel Head didn`t come right into the rocks although there was quite a current in places, so it wasn`t too difficult to get round Carmel Head, and go down towards Ynys y Fydlyn, a sort of semi-island which in itself has some interesting rock features.
Just before you get there there is a bit of a headland, with a nice cave in it - here is the outside view of it.
At the back of the cave there is a narrow passageway that goes through to the stoney beach somewhere round the back, but the picture didn`t work.
Looking out from the cave -
In the middle of the cave at low tide there is a handy table if you want to have lunch without getting out of your boat.
The inner end of Ynys y Fydlyn has an arch in it - if there are incoming waves it is a seething mass of white water in it - I have seen it from the shore.
Heading back now, and somewhere a bit past Carmel Head I came across another cave - quite a big one.
I headed in, but could see a couple of seals - one of them up on the rocks. If seals are already in the water I reckon that`s okay, but I don`t like disturbing them if they are pulled up on the rocks, so I backed out without exploring the cave any more.
By the time I was back opposite West Mouse the sea had calmed down quite a lot, so I headed out to West Mouse - I didn`t quite get there, as West Mouse had its own race around it - actually it might be more correct to say it is an overfall, as it is caused by the rock plateau that is all round West Mouse a few metres down.
When it is a calm day and the tide is flowing well, either flood or ebb, you can see the overfall from the back road that runs between Cemlyn and Llanfairynghornwy - and that`s over two kilometres away. So it can be quite meaty.
Back at the Harry Furlough`s rocks, and the tide is quite well in now, so there isn`t much of them showing -
A final view taken from Harry Furlough`s rocks looking east towards Middle Mouse and Dinas Gynfor.
A bit of a dissappointing day - by the time I was past West Mouse, the wind had dropped, and the sea was virtually flat - and I would have had an easy paddle back from the Skerries if I had got out there.
Sometimes I get pissed off with myself for being a geriatric wimp, and I don`t really know how to get past it. But at the same time I guess that it doesn`t matter how good you are, there are going to be times you have to turn and head in - I`m not sure how you learn when to go on and when to go back.
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