The Last Three Years - Part One

Sea kayaking North Wales, Anglesey - wind against tide on the Menai Straits.

A lot has gone on since my last blog, three years ago about Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) around Menorca.  What's happened since then and what's new? Over the next few weeks, I'll aim to update and share some information about what's been going on. Then I'll move to one blog once a month.

What I can tell you now is, 2017 was a pretty fantastic year!  

Kayak and Climb - NW Greenland Expedition and the area we paddled into 

Kayak and Climb - NW Greenland

Back in March 2017, I first mentioned my opportunity to go to NW Greenland. Good friend Olly Sanders had been many times before to Greenland, while for me it was to be my first time. The plan was to spend 20 days self-contained, locate new rock climbs and climb them! 

Once afloat, I found the first few days trying. I was used to having a goal with either a linear journey with a defined finish or a circumnavigation, which meant getting back to the start. We were looking for suitable, stable and firm rock to climb and ideally, bigger and more prominent rock faces so that multi-pitch routes could be created and climbed. Some days we paddled less than 10km, and we may have landed 4-5 times to walk into possible climbing venues. If we found something, we then looked for a campsite. The exploration I started to enjoy, it was a different approach, it had less pressure, and I began to relax.

What did we do for food? We shipped out to Greenland a 220lt barrel, with our crampons, ice ace, climbing racks, rope and 20 days of 2 person packs of food. The food packs included breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner and were double bagged and tightly bound in gaffer tape to reduce their size. A fun element at the end of the day, was when we pulled out the next day's rations as neither of us knew what was in a pack. The variety was the key!

Roger Chandler - 'Looking on Greenland kayak and climb expedition ' -photo by Olly Sanders

We both were shocked by the amount of plastic we found on beaches and on one beach that we stayed for a few nights, we filled 7 IKEA bags of plastic. We burnt some of this, and more robust plastic we buried at the top of the beach. Sadly our feeling was that this had mostly come from local villages, where the waste tends to be burnt or not as the case may be. We also discovered, due to the location of the waste disposal facility rubbish can easily fall into the sea.

Seeing icebergs close up, from a sea kayak is pretty unique ( it was on my list of 50 things to do in my 50's) and the rock structures in the area are truly stunning. During the 20 days, we saw no whales but spotted a couple of hesitant and distant seals, many sea birds and of course the wonderful Arctic fox on our last nights camp was exceptional.

In total, we climbed three single pitch and three multi-pitch rock climbs (Olly did the leading), with two further summits achieved and my connection to the Arctic was born! 

I want to thank again the support we received from the Arctic Club and Olly for asking me, in the first place. You can see a further account by Olly regarding our expedition here.

It took me another two years to create a short film from my footage!

My next blog will look at the classic, sea kayak surf and tide race training courses, based on Anglesey, Wales. The opening photo above is of Anita over from Switzerland, enjoying the waves. We will consider what goes into a session and why the courses have become such a success. 

Spring course's with Coastal Spirit, Anglesey, North Wales

The following courses currently have places on them this Spring and into early Summer.  All are all based in North Wales, Anglesey:

Surf & Tide-race's - Intermediate Plus (4* leader trained) to Advanced with maximum of four paddlers and with one place left.  Cost £160 on the 11/12th March.  Follow this link

Sea Kayak Leader Training (4*) on the 27th-30th March with Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning (CNTP) theory.  Three places left and at a cost of £270.  Follow this link

Advanced Sea Kayak Leader training (5*) on the 3-6th April, with Open water Navigation theory and night navigation.  One place left at £270.  Follow this link

Intermediate sea kayaking - working on 3 star performance skills, 4 places left at £160 20/21st May.  Follow this link

For any further information on any of the above follow the links above or email roger@coastalspirit.com.

I look forward to sharing the stunning Anglesey coastline with you.

Thanks,

Roger

www.coastalspirit.com

Sea Kayaking Courses this Winter and into the Spring!

The following Anglesey, North Wales courses from CoastalSpirit, have a few spaces left on them:

Open Water Navigation and Tidal Planning (OWNTP) - 30th Sep or 24th October - theres no need to be going for your 5 star leader.  Have a good understanding of coastal tidal planning and keen to learn more complex planning.  Cost £90 and its a theory based day.

InterMediate sea kayaking with 3 star training (and assessment if suitable) - 3/4th October and at £160 for the weekend.  2 places left

Coastal Navigation and Tidal Planning (CNTP) - 10th October and £90 for the day.  No need to be going for the 4 star leader award.  Having a basic understanding of coastal tidal planning is useful.

4 Star Leader Training - 11/12th October at £160 or with the CNTP above £230 for the 3 days. 2 places left

5 Star Leader Training - 25/26th October (incl night navigation) at £160 or with the OWNTP on the 24th Oct £230.  2 places left


Winter Sea Kayaking is at three levels, so you can get more from the course and allows you to keep those skills active, develop further and meet like minded people.  So when the Summer arrives you can go and have your own adventures ...

And may be, if were lucky, experience Anglesey and Holy Island as its rarely seen ... Gogarth Bay above

InterMediate Sea Kayaking for those working on 3 star skills:  7/8th Nov; 6/7th Feb and 12/13th March.

InterMediate Plus Sea Kayaking is for those who are working towards the 4 star leader award or similar skill level and want coaching and to develop further while in a moderate sea environment: 19/20th Dec; 23/24th Jan and 20/21st Feb

Advanced Sea Kayaking is for those who are working towards the 5 star Leadership award or similar skills and want further support, coaching and guidance in an advanced water environment: 21/22nd Dec; 30/31st Jan and 5/6th March.

Further details on the Winter weekends can be found here

Move towards 2016 with fresh skills, confidence and ability.  Contact me for further details or to book a place.

Thanks, Roger

roger chandler
www.coastalspirit.com
info@coastalspirit.com

Winter Sunshine and InterMediate Sea Kayaking

North coast and Cemais Bay, with some super Winter sunshine was the start of this weekends InterMediate sea kayaking course which was made up of - Leif, Keith, Noel, Graham and Mandy.

Out side and inside edged turns, down wind runs, contact tows and some surfing .... 

Mandy having caught a nice wave in ... ;)

And then a journey across the bay and into some bigger swell.  Towing, in-line, rafted and assisted tows
...

Sunday and a gloomier, wintry forecast and the Straits form Moel y Don to Menai Bridge and back.  There was a super push of the tide as we surged under Britannia Bridge!

Loads of eddy turns and ferry glides and as the flow slowed, working on really getting that body working and emphasising the turn ... some eyes closed work too!  Lunch and then a return journey with wind against tide and a super run.  Closer to the end we pulled over and got some fair rides and surfs back up the flow ...

Leif below looking for that wave ...

And now Noel and Leif heading for Moel Y Don ...

Congratulations to Graham for passing the 3 star performance award.

The next InterMediate sea kayaking course, which currently has places on is the 27/28th June.

Have fun out there ...

Roger

roger chandler
www.coastalspirit.com

Round Anglesey - Take 2 by Tavi Murray

Round Anglesey – Take 2:   Tavi Murray with Damian Pryor

It was our second attempt to paddle round Anglesey: on the first, the forecast definitely hadn’t played ball, shifting a forecast F7 from day to day and all we’d managed were day paddles hiding from the conditions. This time it was spring tides, which meant an anticlockwise circumnavigation with faster flows to help us round, but potentially bigger tideraces depending on when we hit them. The tidal crux points were engraved in my mind: the Stacks, the Menai Straits, Point Lynas, and Carmel Head. Our team was now down to just two– and the summer had already shown me the limits of that if one of you is in the water. Nonetheless the weather looked feasible with winds starting 4-5 then dropping through the weekend – a window of three paddleable days before it was forecast to be unpaddleable again on bank holiday Monday. Roger had kindly offered to be a backstop if we found ourselves stuck away from our car. It was game on!

Friday 22 August: Day 1, Soldiers Point to Beaumaris, 61km

The wind had been NW for days and was forecast as a good F4 from the NW, the swell was also from the NW and pretty chunky. We stayed overnight in Valley, ready for an early start from Soldiers Point with my plan being to sneak past North Stack at slack tide. This plan was thwarted as my attempt to find the car parking spot at Soldiers Point met with a line of boulders across the road and then an increasingly frustrated search down small roads. In the end we left an hour late into steep waves around 1.5 metres high (Damian says 2m). I knew North Stack would be the meaty tide race with flow that would now be against both wind and swell. An hour late – that means 50% full flow. It definitely was punchy! The biggest wave met me in the chest and knocked me backwards like an aggressive river stopper despite my determinedly planted paddle blade. However, once through North Stack conditions eased and both South Stack and Penrhyn Mawr were sleeping. We paddled on down the west coast of Anglesey surfing waves more-or-less continuously. My plan for the day was to reach Beaumaris, which would put us in position to finish the Straits early on day 2, but that was over 60 km and neither of us had paddled that far before. We’d agreed that if either of us said stop – that’d be it – we’d just stop without question. But remarkably quickly we were seeing Llanddwyn Island, taken south by the tide, wind and waves. After that we were in an adverse tidal eddy and crept along Abermenai Point, but conditions further out where the Menai Straits tidal flow was meeting the main stream and swell, waves were exploding vertically in walls of white water! We eventually landed for the first time for lunch around 3pm: 40 km of the circumnavigation ticked off. Hungry but otherwise very definitely ok and smiling. Brew and sandwich time while we sat on the beach and waited for the tide to turn and build. Once in the Menai Straits we were on familiar territory ticking of the features I knew so well from many windy paddles. We finally arrived in Beaumaris … pretty tired if I’m honest … We reckoned camping wouldn’t be possible and I went on a hunt for somewhere to stay. 61km of the 120km or so circumnavigation ticked off. Suddenly it felt like this could be a successful attempt.

Saturday 23 August: Day 2, Beaumaris to Traeth Bychan (Moelfre), 20km

It was a sunny start to the day and we paddled north from Beaumaris completely sheltered from the wind. Spotting Roger putting on at a beach near the mouth of the Straits we stopped to say hello and for Damian to rearrange stuff in his boat. Roger gave us some cautionary words about the possibility of looking at Puffin Sound before committing to it and some hints that the wind would drop later on. Conditions seemed benign though and to be honest I rather ignored his hints. Puffin Sound was indeed a bit more meaty, but perfectly manageable. However we then settled down to a fight into the force 5 headwind blowing across Red Wharf Bay and the 1.5m swell. Progress was slow, almost painfully slow, but I was conscious of the crashing surf on the cliff and then the beach to the south which was decidedly unappealing as a landing / re-launch possibility. I was even more determined that we wouldn’t turn around and run for the shelter we’d left behind. Traeth Bychan was a target I knew would be sheltered, and some 4-5 hours later, around 3pm, we crept into the bay fighting into the wind all the way. The bay was filled with sailing boats and other pleasure craft and really seemed a different world from the feisty paddle we’d just finished. Agonisingly the wind dropped an hour or so after we arrived on the beach, but we were pretty done in and very hungry! We’d crept on a tiny 20km and missed the tide gate at Point Lynas by hours. And the day had been considerably harder than the day before. Hmm, would we manage to finish now? We had around 45-50km still to go and the forecast for Monday was horrible and meant that there was definitely only one day left. A text from Roger reinforced my own thoughts for the next day – “keep off shore”– a tactic that helped a lot!

Sunday 24 August: Day 3 – Moelfre – Soldiers Point, 48km

Keep off shore – so we did! And once around Point Lynas we just flew along the north coast in the big spring tide, and for the first time, light winds, accompanied along the way by a friendly porpoise. Far enough offshore that we somehow missed seeing East Mouse completely, passed well outside Middle Mouse and began making our way inshore towards the two white ladies and the “snowman” on West Mouse. Carmel Head was messy but we were soon past the tide races (or so we thought). We opened the day hatches – nothing beats lunch on the water in the sun! We rapidly found ourselves being taken into another tiderace – providing one of two morals for the trip: “Never eat lunch in a tiderace”! Sandwiches eaten (or thrown overboard so paddles could be held) we moved on towards Holyhead, calling port control before crossing the harbour entrance. A slightly closer encounter with a ferry than I’d have liked (although we knew they’d seen us from VHF traffic), followed by a long paddle along the harbour wall, brought us into Soldiers Point and finished the circumnavigation at 2pm. 

What a great paddle! So what did we do to celebrate? Pizza and hot chocolates at Dylans in Menai Bridge (big smiles!) and then we headed off to the Tryweryn for a day of white water magic on the windy bank holiday Monday.

Learning for the trip:

-        Always call in to the coastguard, even if conditions seem benign (we didn’t on the 2^nd day, but I regretted it during our long and actually quite challenging paddle)

-       

     Never eat lunch in a tiderace!

     

     by Tavi Murray

   

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Moelfre to Benlech by Keith and Debs

Debs and myself decided to take the gentle alternative of setting out from Moelfre and paddling to Benllech and back.

This is not the most adventurous paddle as it has very small tidal effects even on spring tides and the light winds made the enterprise a calm experience. As we set off we could see the lifeboat moored in the bay while the new lifeboat station is built.

The sun was out and we made our way along the coast close to the shore to observe the bird life feeding and snoozing on the rocks. These included a Robin and two Grey Wagtails joining in with the normal seabirds, Cormorants, Curlew, Shags, Oyster catchers and Gulls.

Lunch was on a bench on Benllech seafront watching the holidaymakers enjoying the beach in the summer sunshine.

After lunch we paddled on a little for a quick look into Red Warf Bay and the turned back to Moelfre, dodging the speed boats and stopping to watch a small flock of Turnstones feeding on the rocks.

Thanks for some trip planning advice Roger and I remembered the camera today!

Keith Wilbraham

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InterMediate Plus Sea Kayaking Course - Anglesey, North Wales, UK

A week back now As I considered packing my kit for the Expedition around Anglesey. Bertha was on the way, with very strong winds and lots of rain, forecasted.   It just made sense to cancel the expedition, but continue with the course.  Anita was joining form Switzerland, with Richard joining on day 2 and then Craig for a couple of days.

Over a coffee I talked through with Anita what she wanted from her day and considered the forecast, which was NE and then NW F6-7!  The north coast and Point Lynas would provide some chunky conditions ... we were not disappointed!!

We did a couple of runs down through the race getting a feel for it, working on eddy turns and acceleration ... then moved into the race to catch some waves .. 

It had been a top day and Anita had done really well and also had pulled off seven rolls each.  Why seven, well it was all part of making it fun.  At the start of the day I'd written one number on four pieces of paper, screwed them up and then asked Anita to chose a piece of paper.  The one she chose had the number 7 on.  So seven rolls we both had to do!   This started a conversation about rolling in rough water ...  We practise all of our other strokes and rescues in various conditions, yet rarely our roll.  And when we do it tends to be back in the calm bay we started from.  Why are we then surprised if we are worried about our roll not working! This ended up being a theme for the week.

Rich joined us on day 2 and we headed out to Trearddur Bay for some work in swell, wind and surf.  It was a W F5/6 and there was super conditions in the bay, with enough shelter to return to.  Although with a solid 9.5+ tide there was little beach left as high water approached.  So we set about turning in the wind and down wind runs ...  The glorious sunshine, really added to the day ....

Below is a short video clip taken from my compact water proof camera of a down wind run, which gives a better perspective ...

As more beach began to expose its self we headed in to catch some waves ...

Craig joined us today and we went for a down wind run from the Mermaid Inn, area to Menai Bridge ... working on stern rudders and maintaining speed.

Lunch at Menai Bridge then back, on a fast ebbing tide ...

Day 4 and a F4-5 NW and Puffin Island was our location.  On the way out it was lovely to see 4 egrets on the shore.  We had the calm of the Straits and then the chunky swell in the sound.  Rich was demoing a Gemini (thanks Barry), and was really getting to grips with it.  Rolls, assisted rescue and an impressive scramble aboard self-rescue form Anita, in good swell.

Then time to work on catching those waves ... ;)

We paddled back close to the shore and watched a flock of Oyster catchers ...

The last day of the course and Craig was back out with us - F4 NW forecast, Rhoscolyn was our destination and the outer tide race ... Craig and Rich running through a messy race ...

Both Rich and Anita carried out a rescue on each other, returning the favour!!

Craig did a super re entry and roll after a surfing capsize and all took some top waves ... we headed back in as the current eased and did some rock hoping and close quartering, before heading back into the bay, tired but with BIG smiles.

InterMediate Plus is for those who hold the BCU 3 star performance award and paddle independently and as with each course, there's a bespoke element where Roger shapes the courses around what you want and need, so as to be able to get there.  The longer the course the greater chance of increasing conditions.  The above is a good example of what both Anita and Rich achieved during the week.

The next InterMediate course (the course below this one), is 25-29th August and 20/21st September, while InterMediate Plus is 29/30th November.

Roger

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