A Blustery Day! 14/08/2010

With Eurion and Clare not arriving until the early hours of the morning it was not to be an early start. After much deliberation we decided to brave the quite breezy conditions and launch from Porthsele and paddle into Ramsey sound.
We all got a good soaking paddling out through the surf, the decision to wear the long sleeved cags seemed to be a good one as the wind was pretty strong as we paddled to St John's Point.
Reaching St John's Point we decided to paddle across the southerly flowing ebb tide to Ramsey Island, as the Sound didn't seem too rough.
At one stage we had hoped to paddle into the bay Ogof Hen at the North of Ramsey but the fast flowing ebb tide was having none of it and after admitting defeat we all resigned to a paddle down to the Bitches.
We pulled into the small sheltered bay of Rhod Uchaf which is the first place we are able to have a breather from the relentless wind. There is no way throught the cave that pierces the headland as the tide is way too low so it's back out into the wind.
Arriving at the Bitches we decide to paddle back up to where we had just come from as the tide was still flowing too fast to attempt a ferry glide from the Bitches back across to the mainland.

We are now paddling straight into the wind but have a little help from an eddy flowing the other way to the mainflow.

At the NE corner of Ramsey we break back into the main tide race and we quickly lose ground but slowly make progress sidewards back to the mainland.
We are swept down past the notorious Horse Rock but eventually we make it across Ramsey Sound and into St Justinian.
After a well deserved rest in the sheltered water at St Justinian it is once more back into the breach where, just to make things a bit more interesting, the wind increases.

Arriving back at Porthsele there are some good waves rolling in to end a pretty hard paddle of only 6 nautical miles. Hopefully Eurion and Clare enjoyed their excursion around one of my favourite stretches of water, and don't mention the tent poles!