ron-t kayaking blog
24 May 2017 .............. Porth Dafarch to Abraham`s Bosom
Not a good trip - there was far more wind than the forecast, so the sea was quite lumpy - in a sort of North Sea way, not a west coast way.
And fog - thick fog which never lifted all day.
Paddling along the cliffs in fog with visibility down to 100 metres or so is quite a strange experience, as you have no idea where you are.
Because you can`t see the next headland you have to follow the coast around the bays, so you are passing cliffs you are not so familiar with - it seemed to take a long time to even get to Dinas Stack.
Then on through Penrhyn Mawr with no sign of any races, just lumpy seas - beyond Penrhyn Mawr there are two further headlands, and between them and around them there are some good features.
It was well down towards low tide now, so lots of passageways to negotiate - this one looks quite innocent, but when the bigger waves came in, it was anything but innocent.
So timing was everything to get through it safely.
There are a few caves - not the biggest of caves, this one was a bit too dried out to get into -
This one was high and dry - you might get in there on a Springs high tide -
The hidden passage had water in the middle section, but not at either end -
After you pass the second headland you are into Abraham`s Bosom, and you can look across to that unmistakable view of South Stack and the lighthouse - so here it is -
Sort of !!!
Well there really didn`t seem to be much point in going on, it was getting quite far through the nearly Springs ebb tide, and it isn`t a good idea to get caught on the wrong side of Penrhyn Mawr during a Springs flood tide, the afternoon was wearing on, so I turned and headed back.
The outer race of Penrhyn Mawr supplied the most challenging part of the day - it had quite a distinct race, with some quite meaty waves - I don`t think that this is usual for an ebb tide - I came through it twice and survived both of them.
The Fangs were well exposed and fairly catching the waves - it would have been nice to paddle out to them and get a good picture of them, as they are fairly elusive, however the race was not user friendly for paddling across it, and even if I had got there, it would have been too rough for me to sit there and take pictures.
Quite a hard paddle back from Penrhyn Mawr, during an ebb tide there is a huge eddy that goes all the way from Penrhyn Mawr to I think either Raven`s Point or even Rhoscolyn Head, and it doesn`t want you to get back to Porth Dafarch.
It must have been just about low tide by the time I got there, and the tide was so far out there was a wide area of stones that I am pretty sure that I haven`t ever seen before.
So not the best of days out - one of the things that I noticed was just how long it takes me to get ready to go out - everything seemed to take so long to do, and the sea was vanishing off the beach at an alarming rate.
And for the final damper of the day - in the evening when I was back home I discovered that the east coast of Anglesey had blue sky and sunshine all afternoon.
I was not a happy bunny.
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