Monday 12 December 2011

Sunshine, blue skies & dolphins - Improve sea kayaking course north wales

Improve is our intro-mediate sea kayaking course and we had a super forecast for the day. After a coffee at Menai Bridge, Douglas had done some tidal planning for the day and due to the westerly winds we went for Moelfre and a paddle out to the island of Ynis Dulas and then back. This would give some protection from the swell, while exposing us to varied offshore winds, current and picking up on a small target, while staying together.

The plan was also for me to have a more of a back ground role, allowing Richard and Douglas to make more of the decisions, being sure of there plan and options as we went along.


Rich doing a few circuits in the Cetus mv, with an ominous looking bank of cloud pushing through

As we began to cross to the island the wind was funnelling out of one of the bays and appropriate change of course was clearly discussed between them both and heads down as we paddled into a good F4 wind

a little closer than before!!

After discussing the possibility of not being able to land on the island, we stopped for a leg stretch and some food and talked through the 2nd phase of dropping on to the island and the ferry glide back to the main land ... whats more the sun came out


Douglas approaching the island ..but we decided not to and due to a large number of seals sunning them selves ( the light grey on the photo close to the water is 30 or so grey seals). A course was set to ferry glide the 1k back to the main land and then some easy eddy hoping.

landing on a super sandy, sunny beach we had a late lunch ...

looking back out to the island, I saw, what i thought was porpoises in the bay, about 200mt away, although they were moving much quicker and their dorsal fins, seemed longer and at a steeper angle, then one breached ... Dolphins I shouted ... we paddled out and watched them breach another dozen or so times ... before turning and paddling back to Moelfre. What a fantastic end to a Winters day and my last working one for a few weeks ... happy days ;-)

roger chandler
sea kayaking courses north wales
www.coastalspirit.com

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