The Tusker Caff, A Bar And The Buoys 14/02/2010

Meeting up with Adrian, Eurion and Jim at Atlantic College on a glorious Sunday morning, the plan was to paddle with the ebbing tide to Tusker Rock have a spot of lunch and then return with the flood tide.

We are soon paddling past the two towers of the Nash Point Lighthouse which were established in 1832 to mark the sandbanks off Nash Point. The lower tower was abandoned early last century and the higher tower was modernised and repainted white instead of the black and white stripes it had been previously painted.

Paddling out to the East Nash Cardinal Buoy which marks the eastern end of the Nash Sand Bar, we notice quite a bit of the sand bar is visible.

Without another thought Eurion was paddling away and soon hauling his kayak out on the bar closely followed by Jim.

It was quite weird being stood on the Nash Bar surrounded by the sea and with the mainland well over a mile away.

It was almost like a lunar landscape but with the craters full of water which created some pretty good photo opportunities, Eurion had his posh camera with the long lens so I would imagine he has some good photos, check out his blog.

Launching again we paddle around the mainland side of the sand bar, there are numerous channels into the bar but the tide is too low to paddle across the bar so we have to paddle to its end where we encounter some small breaking waves.

Instead of paddling to Tusker Rock we take a slight detour westward out to the Mid Nash South Cardinal buoy, which as its name suggests, marks the middle of the Nash sand bar. As well as having a light like the East Nash Buoy it also has a large bell which is a bit tarnished, a bit of Brasso wouldn't go a miss.

On the paddle to Tusker Rock we encounter the first adverse tide of our trip as the flood tide has now started. We paddle into the sheltered lagoon in the centre of Tusker and look for somewhere to land.

Leaving the others to tuck into their food and hot drinks I wander off to have a closer look at the numerous piles of twisted metal that was once the sand dredger Steepholm.

The Steepholm was wrecked on 02/10/1968 after hitting Tusker Rock in a gale. The Mumbles Lifeboat picked up 6 of the crew from a life raft and the Captain from the water, he had stayed on board until the lifeboat arrived when he jumped into the sea and swam to the lifeboat.

The next day a salvage vessel attempted to salvage the Steepholm but she was already starting to break up and she is now in various bits scattered around the east side of Tusker Rock.

In the short time I had been taking photos the tide had risen a fair bit so with everyone refuelled and refreshed we left the Tusker Cafe, as it is now affectionately known, and started on our paddle back to Atlantic College.

The paddle back was pretty uneventful until we reached the eastern end of the Nash bar where the bar was now underwater causing a bit of confused water.

We speed past the East Nash Buoy achieving our top speed of the trip of nearly 8.5 knots and it was a bit of a struggle to paddle back up towards the buoy against the tide.

Before we know it we are passing the twin towers of the Nash Point Lighthouse and are back at Atlantic College after a great paddle of 15 nautical miles (just over 17 miles or almost 28 kms) on a perfect day with great company.