4 days in Anglesey

So a week off work, plans had it we were guna head to circumnavigate the isle of mull .... however, last minute plans changed to anglesey. We thought the important sea and land maps were coming in the post tuesday, however the post never came and we realized we had forgot soemthing in the order process and never actually ordered them. this was annoying, and after blaming each other for a while we got over it and decided it would be easier to head south to anglesey, which would provide us with enough challenge and excitement.

On deeper thoughts this was probably a good idea, as given the wind forcast picked up ove rthose few days we probably wouldn't have made it round the isle of mull in time to get back to work on the monday!!

Day 1

Anyway, we got to the water early wednesday morning, starting at the southwest corner of

anglesey and paddled north. strong westerly winds with swell provided some fun conditions round the headlands. On arriving at Cymyran Bay, we made the choice to play around in the surf a bit instead of heading round the stacks. After getting thoroughly wet and cold playing in the surf we pulled up and found a sheltered(ish!) dune to camp behind. The wind was roaring 20something mph! Our brand new stove decided to break itself after cooking dinner, and after an hour or so trying to fix it we grumpily gave up and went to sleep accepting the fact we would have cold food for the next few days. On the plus side, at least the food we bought was cooked rice and could be eaten cold, otherwise we may have starved!

Day 2

The wind was still raring from the west, and after a lovely cold bown of porridge (NEVER AGAIN!) we made the plan to head round Holy Island through the four mile bridge, we had both never paddled this route before and the tides wouldn't have turned to allow us round the stacks till mid afternoon anyway.

The strong westerly wind combined with flooding tide FLEW us up the channel to four mile bridge, where we passed through the interesting tunnel channel. We reached the Stanley bankment bride an hour and a bit earlier than needed, and were met by a meaty hole formation! at first glance it looked like it would have been good fun in a playboat .. then as the water increased, the hole turned into an ugly recirculating mess!! We had an early lunch waiting

for the tide to change. As it died down the wave became surfable (ish) in our sea kayaks so we

messed around for a while to keep warm. Eventually, the tide slowed and we were able to paddle through into Hoyhead harboar. Here with the wind on our backs we surfed and flew across the eastern cliffs in no time at all, and followed the and north to Carmel Head, waters getting very choppy as we neared it, a few waves breaking over us. Even though the strong tidal race offshore was against us, by hugging the cliff, a back eddy formed and we were able to make nice progross eastwards, eventually finding a small cove to camp in. Due to the fact it was a full spring tide there was only a few meters at the top of the beach above teh tide line available to camp on, and we subsequently spend half the night shitting ourselves the tide was going to rise further and swamp us! Luckily it didn't and we stayed dry! Interesting day!

Day 3

Very srong south westerly winds today! We left the cove and continued paddling eastwards, in no time at all we were rounding the north east corner of Anglesey. From here, the strong winds made paddling hard and speed slowed down. The wind was funnelling strongly out off all the bays. However, when it came to crossing Red Wharf bay the wind was almost with us, and we surfed nicely along, paddled around and camped in a small cover a few kilometeres away from Puffin Island. We got a good night sleep knowing tomorrows finishing paddle would be hard work!

Day 4

On paper looks easy, a 30km paddle with strong tides with us the entire way... however when

you add a 25-30knot westerly headwind into that equation, things get harder!!! After rounding puffin Island the full force of this headwind was with us .. and we crawled along finally reaching the narrowing of the stratits. Here, despiite it meaning less tide pushing us, we were able to hug the northerly side of it and get some whelter from the wind, and almost eddy hop up it. Our progress was a bit quicker! Everntually we got to the narrowings near the bridges. Despite the headwind, we paddled into the middle of the channel to use the full flow of the tide to our advantage and we made progress. Upon padding under the bridges, where they flow fastest we were even able to stop, eat food and still move forward, highlight of the day!!

However, just after passing the town felinheli, the strait opened up, the tide reduced and there was no shelter at all from the wind! We paddled full pelt into the wind crawling at snails pace and eventually made it back shoulders aching!!

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