ron-t kayaking blog
10 October 2016 ............ Cemlyn to the Skerries
A very carefully evaluated trip - there were two things I had to achieve.
The first was to get out to the Skerries before slackwater.
The second was to get back from the Skerries to Carmel Head before the flood tide started in earnest, and before the combination of the flood tide and the east wind produced the kind of seas that I had seen a couple of days before - sea conditions that I really didn`t want to be out in.
Well I accomplished the first - it was still quite a meaty ebb tide as I headed round the east end of the Skerries.
Heading into the bay -
Into the back of the bay to land on the shingle bank there that forms a dam across between the islands at lower tide levels. The lighthouse again -
It was a quick break before I headed away, and already the ebb tide has slowed away down, and I started off for Carmel Head.
As I headed across the sound, I could see the muted beginnings of the flood tide off to my right, but it passed away behind me.
However the tide must have turned, as I realised I was slowly being pushed sideways towards West Mouse - which was good news I guess, except I was more interested in getting back to the mainland than I was in how far east or west I was.
It didn`t last, as somewhere around the halfway point it became clear that I was paddling straight into a current, and not really going anywhere.
I eventually realised that whilst there may have been a flood tide well out from the coast, closer to the coast it was still an ebb tidal current, and the current was doing exactly what it does around Dinas Gynfor - it flows along the coast, then meets the obstruction of Dinas Gynfor, and turns and heads outwards at a thirty or forty degree angle, and just keeps going like that - virtually heading for Middle Mouse.
In this case it was the headland below the concrete pillars that line up with the marker on West Mouse that was pushing the current out, and it was virtually heading for the Skerries.
I wasn`t going to get anywhere fighting against it, so had to turn round to the right and head back towards Carmel Head so I could effectively ferryglide across and out of the current.
Eventually I did get to the coast right back along by Carmel Head, a lot further away from West Mouse than I had been.
However it didn`t matter, I had done what I needed to do, get back to the coast before the flood tide started in earnest, and started fighting with the east wind.
Paddling back along the coast to Cemlyn was, just like a couple of days before, rather slow going against the wind.
I kept expecting to get some assistance from the flood tide, but it just didn`t want to get going.
Even back at the Harry Furlough`s rocks there was barely a flood tide, and this was now well after what should have been the time for slackwater.
To add to that the sea conditions that I had seen a couple of days before didn`t materialise until much later on - I don`t really understand why it was so much later in the tide cycle before they appeared.
So in the event I could have had a more relaxed trip out there and back, but no matter, I got out to the Skerries, and got back, and am well chuffed.
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