ron-t kayaking blog
19 March 2018 .............. The Swellies
A Springs tide just a couple of days before the Spring Equinox - and it was a big one - and there would be just enough daylight for a bit of a play at the Swellies wave before it got dark.
The only downside was that the Beast from the East 2 was still going - so I wasn`t sure what the Swellies would be like.
However the weather forecast was fairly convinced that the wind would be dropping a bit during the evening, so I took the gamble and went away down to Menai Bridge.
To the east of Menai Bridge it was really quite a chunky sea - it would have been wind against tide, which would have whipped things up a bit, but it wasn`t so big that I ran away, and headed off into it.
Quite a bit of a challenge getting through the arch from the combination of wind and tide, however once through and round the corner it was flat calm - and some nice lighting looking up towards the Britannia Bridge, with a copper coloured sky -
By the time I got up to the wave it had started - it wasn`t much of a wave in size, and it was quite variable in composition, by I got a good 10 or 15 minutes of surfing before I lost it - it was quite hard work trying to stay on, and since I haven`t done it for a few months the joints were beginning to complain by the time I lost it.
I am not sure if the jungle telegraph was working overtime, or if it was a training exercise, but the inshore lifeboat from Beaumaris came cruising up through the Swellies at about the same time, so we exchanged waves - the trouble with this waving is that they are okay, they are sitting in a nice wide boat, with lots of free hands.
But in a sea kayak, in a tide race, with pogies on, letting go of the paddle to wave back is a bit of a no-no, so did they recognise that I was waving with my paddle - I hope so, I wasn`t ignoring them.
It is a powerful boat - when they opened the taps it fairly accelerated away.
Jammed up on the seaweed below the Cardinal Marker, and another bit of good lighting looking up towards the Britannia Bridge -
It was into dusk now, so I headed off back down and through the Menai Bridge to see if I could have a play in the choppy seas to the east of the bridge - but by then either the wind had dropped a bit, or else the tide was no longer ebbing, and it wasn`t as choppy as it had been, but it was still good fun, and heading into the wind and the waves was a really good feeling - maybe it was lots of the negative ions that you get beside the sea.
Time to head in, as there really wasn`t much light left - and a good view of Menai Bridge -
So the gamble paid off, and although it was only a short outing, it was worth the effort of going.
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