ron-t kayaking blog
12 June 2017 .............. The Stacks
A super day, with ideal conditions for a trip out to the Stacks - high tide just after lunch, so a flood tide to help me out, and an ebb tide to help me back.
Penrhyn Mawr was absolutely stonking through, I think it was the biggest I have ever seen it - it was a big Springs tide so not really surprising - even a testosterone fuelled 6 star paddler would have had quite a challenge taking it on.
Even the inner race was very chunky, and not fitting into the above category of paddler I gave it a wide body swerve, and came through one of the inside races.
I couldn`t get near the beach at the back, as there was a very fast and chunky current right across the entrance with a somewhat evil looking constantly changing wave at its head - would have been good in a river boat, but I didn`t like the look of it in a sea kayak.
There were still quite a lot of birds on the cliffs of South Stack, so I didn`t really want to go through under the bridge, so went round the outside - there was a bit of a race, but it was okay.
Well into Gogarth Bay now, and looking along to North Stack -
Along past the climbers doing impossible things on huge cliffs, and approaching Annie`s Arch, and looking into the cave at the back -
Not too far into the cave, as the swell was making it a bit inhospitable at the back, with South Stack just visible away across Gogarth Bay.
Round a bit to the right, and the outer leg of the arch -
I couldn`t get near the next cave as a touristy RIB was in it - I didn`t know they went into caves, but they do - or so it would appear.
And so on to Parliament House Cave - and there has been a bit of a rockfall at the back since my last visit -
I suppose it is not surprising, there are some very deep undercuts below the back wall of Parliament House Cave.
A couple of side-on views -
Lunchtime over, and before heading away, a good view across to South Stack -
I headed around North Stack against the now brisk ebb tide, and along the north side, until I was looking along to the Holyhead harbour breakwater - and I was looking at a very chunky race right in front of me - where the strong ebb current flowing down across Holyhead Bay from Carmel Head gets forced outwards by North Stack.
I think I`ve gone far enough !
Heading back round North Stack and into the cave that sits underneath North Stack - it isn`t the highest of caves, but goes quite a long way in, and has two entrances, though one of them is a bit narrow for a boat.
I apologise for the picture - I don`t know how, but I had got some kind of smudge on the lens of the camera, and I could not get rid of it - I was sitting away inside the cave furiously scrubbing away at the lens trying to get rid of it, and I just couldn`t - so this is the least worst of about six pictures I tried to take.
Well back across Gogarth Bay now, and looking back at North Stack -
Looking forward to South Stack -
Back across Abraham`s Bosom and through Penrhyn Mawr, and time for a tea break on the beach there, then on to Dinas Stack.
The cave round the back of Dinas Stack was looking quite inviting -
Well inside the cave -
It is a lot easier paddling out through the arch compared to paddling in through it, as you can watch the swell coming in, and time your passage to avoid the swell, so it was a fairly easy trip through.
Back towards Porth Dafarch, and the big cave there -
And again, well inside the cave -
A last view down the Anglesey coast past Rhoscolyn, and looking across to the mountains on the Lleyn Peninsula.
It was a good day out - somewhat surprisingly, I didn`t see another sea kayak all day, in fact until I was back at Porth Dafarch and off the water.
The only downside was the powerboats of various kinds.
There were three jet skis around as I was leaving North Stack, but they were okay, they stayed well away from me.
There were two touristy RIB`s, but they also stayed away.
The worst were the morons in the privately owned powered day cruiser sort of things who think it good fun to drive straight at you and then turn away at the last minute and gave you a cheery wave.
I hope they rot in hell.
What a crazy situation - if you want to use a tiny little VHF radio you need to go a on a training course, pass an exam, and get a licence.
But any moron with a fat wallet can go out and buy a 100 horsepower killing machine and go out on the water with no training, no licence, no idea of seamanship, and go out and intentionally scare the hell out of people just for the fun of it.
One way to get rid of them would be to block off all the launching points that Anglesey Council kindly provides.
Or how about a sea tax - like road tax - £100 per horsepower per year should do nicely.
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