ron-t kayaking blog
10 January 2018 .............. Rhoscolyn - or the trip that wasn`t
Another super afternoon with blue sky and sunshine and no wind - so I thought I would go along to Rhoscolyn to catch the flood tide through the islands, and go along the coast a bit.
It didn`t go according to plan.
Rhoscolyn Bay, or more correctly Borthwen, was flat calm, and I paddled out past the jaggy rocks towards the big island with the tower on it, Ynys Traws.
A good view away to the south across to Snowdon and the Nantlle Ridge -
However as I paddled out past Ynys Traws things went seriously downhill - the further I went out - the bigger the sea.
And it was a horrible evil lumpy sea with long series of huge waves coming in - my life expectency was getting shorter and shorter - there was no chance of me heading across to Rhoscolyn Beacon, or going along the coast - it was time to retreat - the only problem is how do you turn around in those sort of conditions, and all the time the flood tide was washing me sideways.
With swell, you usually get 3 or 4 or 5 big ones, then it calms down a bit, then you get another set of big ones.
These big ones were coming in a series of maybe 8 or 9 or 10 big ones, then a brief calmer spell, before they started again.
Typically they would have been about 2 metre waves, but some were well into 3 metres, and always lumpy and unpredictible.
So it was a case of sitting out a whole train of the big ones, whip round, and head in, with the next series of big ones coming in behind - not much fun.
And thank goodness I have a boat that I can turn quickly - I really don`t know how you would cope if your boat has little rocker and takes forever to turn around.
I tried to go out round the other side of Ynys Traws, but it was just the same, and the retreat was just as scary.
I really have no idea why the sea was like this - there was no wind, so it wasn`t a wind blown sea, or wind against tide, or wind across tide.
It would have been roughly the mid point of the flood tide, but tidal currents don`t produce that kind of sea, and as I found out later on, even right on high water it was just as bad.
So I don`t understand it - I met an unexpected rough sea on my last trip along the Anglesey north coast, but that was nothing compared to this.
So there really wasn`t much I could do - I was in my boat, Borthwen was flat calm, so I paddled round Borthwen a few times, but that got a bit boring, and I gave up in the end and went in.
Just before I landed, the sun was playing peek-a-boo behind some cloud, so for a wee while there was a rather nice lighting effect -
Once I was all packed up I went up to Treaddur Bay and Porth Dafarch to see what it was like up there - it wasn`t quite so bad around Treaddur Bay, but in Porth Dafarch it was pretty much the same, and by then it would have been around high water.
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PS - some afterthoughts about my non-trip :
First of all, thinking about the sea conditions and where they came from - one of the odd things is that although the big waves were coming in a direction which meant that they could have continued on right into Borthwen - in fact they didn`t.
At the inner end of Ynys Traws the sea was virtually flat calm.
But at the outer end, the sea was in full evil mode.
So why didn`t the waves continue on into Borthwen ?
Is there some kind of bar or shelf along the outside edge of Borthwen, so that it was this that was causing all the mayhem - the waves dissipated all their energy on this bar or edge, and it was this bar or edge that actually caused any incoming swell to turn into these mega-nasty-waves ?
Or was there some kind of interaction between the tidal current flowing across the entrance to Borthwen, and any incoming swell, which would have been at right angles to the tidal current ?
I don`t know, I am afraid to say.
Secondly, it wasn`t of course by luck that I had a boat that turns quickly - it was totally by design, because I made it that way.
And would it really be a problem if someone had a boat that is much slower to turn - because it is usually advised that sea kayaks turn best if they are edged or leant outwards, not inwards.
So if you are turning in those conditions then for a time you would be broadside on to the waves - but by edging or leaning outwards you are in a good position to then lean onto the incoming waves, which is what I think you are supposed to do. So maybe that would fit together quite nicely and it wouldn`t be a disaster after all, but I don`t think I want to try it.
I must confess that having come from a river paddling world into sea kayaking, the thought of edging or leaning outwards when turning is a complete anathema to me - I always edge or lean inwards, as my boat responds very nicely to this.
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