ron-t kayaking blog
21 February 2018 .............. Penrhyn Mawr and South Stack
XCWeather seemed to think that this was going to be the only day with little wind - so I headed out to Penrhyn Mawr to have a play in the second half of the flood tide - a couple of days after Springs, so things were going to be quite meaty.
In fact the next day didn`t have any wind either, but they were correct in one respect, there wasn`t much wind, but there was a bit of a swell.
Porth Dafarch was quite quiet, one other sea kayak and two stand-up paddle boards - and I didn`t know you get such long stand-up paddles boards.
Just out of Porth Dafarch, and some nice lighting looking away to the south past Rhoscolyn Head and across to the mountains on the upper end of the Lleyn Peninsula - in fact it was the best lighting of the day, as the day went on it the cloud got thicker and darker -
Heading round Dinas Stack the narrows were quite a challenge - the strong current in the middle of the flood tide was heading outwards, and the quite chunky swell was crashing on the rocky island and surging diagonally inwards through the narrows - is that the race called Mini Mawr - I am not sure.
Out at Penrhyn Mawr, and I was in two minds whether to head through the Inner race - however the swell was causing some quite meaty waves crashing into the outgoing flood tide, and I didn`t think I liked the look of it.
So I wimped out, and backed away, and came round the other side of the island to have a look at the Inner race from the other side - I was glad I hadn`t paddled through it, it was fairly evil looking.
Normally I would reckon that heading through the Inner race close into the rocks provides the most user friendly passage - on this occasion the swell was doing some very strange things beside the rocks, and it would have been a bad route - further out would have been a bit better.
However I went on to have some good fun playing around in the inner inner race, with the character of all the various streams constantly changing as it headed through the flood tide.
At one point I was sitting in a bit of an eddy out in the middle, and I realised there was a good view across to Dinas Stack - it is amazing bit of coastline -
One of the things that became increasingly clear was that as the water level rose, the tidal current was slowing down, but the swell was coming further and further in, and it was the swell that was causing the most disturbance in the water, and not the current.
On one occasion I was trying to do a ferry glide right across the sound, and just at the wrong moment the swell caused a big drop in the sea level, and I crashed sideways into a now exposed rock - my boat stopped dead, but my body kept going, and I was well and truly over.
A bit of a struggle against the somewhat antagonistic water, but I did eventually roll up again a lot wetter than I had been.
However it was all good fun, and eventually headed into the inlet at the back of Penrhyn Mawr and landed on the beach there for a bit of lunch.
I found it a lot more difficult to land there than I usually do, but didn`t really think too much about it - more on this later.
Lunch time over, I decided to head across to South Stack, although I knew I wouldn`t have time to go on to North Stack.
I don`t know what it is about paddling across Abraham`s Bosom, I always seem to be doing it against the current, and it took ages to get across to the far side, it was like paddling through treacle.
Part of the way across now, and that classic view of South Stack - although it was a rather dark view -
Normally when I am around there I have to stay well out from the cliffs because of all the birdies, however there weren`t any, so I headed in quite close - and found a sort of cave with a huge chockstone jammed in it -
Heading under the bridge - a picture with added features - huge blobs of water on the lens - I had absolutely nothing to dry it with, as everything was soaking wet after my capsize at Penrhyn Mawr.
I couldn`t get through the channel on the left because there was too much current - the ebb flow had well started by now, and I couldn`t get through the channel on the right either - I did manage to get through the channel in the middle which you can`t see in the above picture.
Through the channel and out to the north of South Stack - and a good view across Gogarth Bay to North Stack and Ynys Arw - actually it is quite a good view because it also shows all the caves along those amazing cliffs.
The big one is of course Parliament House cave, then there is the Window cave - you can just make out the window.
Then there is a smaller cave - although if my memory serves me right it is amazingly deep.
Then you get the two openings of Annies Arch.
All round that area of South Stack, Gogarth Bay, and North Stack really is an ace sea kayaking environment.
Round the outside of South Stack, before I got to the race, there was a very strange area of sea with hundreds of little haystacks - I have no idea what causes them, you also get them along parts of the north coast of Anglesey in the area around Cemaes and Dinas Head.
The tide race just beside South Stack was quite chunky by now with the ebb flow well established, however it wasn`t really a problem.
The journey back to Penrhyn Mawr was a lot quicker than the journey out, it probably took less than half the outward time.
Back at Penrhyn Mawr, and the inner race was a bit strange, as there was absolutely zero current through it - I sat and watched a cormorant floating along about 50 metres away - it had something in its mouth, it wasn`t a fish, and it looked as if the cormorant didn`t quite know what to do with whatever it was, it kept shaking its head but didn`t ever try to swallow it. Eventually the cormorant dived down, still with the mysterious object in its mouth.
There may not have been any current, but the swell was still coming - and catching Tide Rip Rock -
Time for another pit stop, so I headed into the inlet with the beach at the back of Penrhyn Mawr - by now the tide height had dropped a fair bit, and I could see why I had difficulty landing last time - the beach has gone - the sea has scoured it all away, and now it is rather unpleasant bay, with loads of very sharp rocks sticking up - which is really bad news, because it used to be a good place to stop in after playing at Penrhyn Mawr. Now it is pretty horrible.
Heading back to Dinas Stack now - it really is an amazing bit of coastline.
I couldn`t get into the cave at the back of Dinas Stack because of the swell and a rock in the middle of the cave, and I couldn`t get through the arch either, because of the swell.
Because the sea level was down a bit, the swell coming in through the arch was catching on the boulders under the beginning of the arch, the swell was rearing up into a horrendous wave which then crashed down on to the big exposed boulder right in the middle - if you got caught up in one of these waves your life expectency was in millieseconds.
And so back to Porth Dafarch, and the end of quite a good day out, and a lot more successful than my recent visit to Rhoscolyn.
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