All around the Water Tower 07/12/2008

After another phone call from Eurion last night I met up with Adrian and Eurion at the lifeboat slipway at Atlantic College on a very sunny but very frosty morning.


The sea conditions were almost perfect with barely any wind for a change. The plan was to paddle eastwards on the last 2 hours of the flood tide and then return on the first 2 hours of the westerly ebbing tide.

Progress was quite rapid but we were easily overtaken by a ship heading to the dock of Cardiff, Bristol or Newport.


On reaching Summerhouse Point the scenery is somewhat spoilt by the sight of Aberthaw Power Station which has created a brown haze in the clear blue sky.


Aberthaw is a coal fired power station which generates 1500 megawatts of electricity, enough to meet the needs of about 1.5 million people or 5 cities the size of Cardiff.


Instead of paddling towards Aberthaw we paddle out to the Water Tower or Caisson located south of the power station.


Apparently it is a cold water inlet which draws water in from the sea which is used for cooling something in the Power Station (apologies for the technical jargon!)


On reaching the water tower, the tide had changed and was already flowing quite quickly westward. Stopping for refreshments and after performing a rescue on Eurion's sandwich box lid we started back on our return journey.

Progress was rapid with what wind there was becoming almost non existent and there was even warmth in the sun.

Passing Llantwit Major we headed in to explore the numerous holes in the horizontally layered cliffs around Tresilian Bay.

Not knowing too much about geology but the cliffs almost look man made, as if built with individual blocks.

After passing Tresilian Bay and it's steep pebbled beach there is a large cave which Eurion informs me is called Reynard's Cave. This was the wettest I got on the whole trip with a lot of water dripping from the cave's roof.

It is then only a short paddle back to the fortified walls of Atlantic College and the end of a fantastic paddle on a glorious day. Hard to believe it is the beginning of December. We covered a distance of nearly 10.5 nautical miles (12 miles or just over 19km) and achieved a top speed of nearly 8.5 knots on our return journey.

Thanks to Eurion and Adrian for the invite.

What No Salt!!! 23/11/2008

With no paddling on the last two weekends due to the windy conditions, and this one being the same, I was going a bit stir crazy and decided to go for a paddle on the River Taff, my local river.

Launching just above Radyr Weir I paddled upstream passing under the M4 with Castell Coch dominating the hillside above the river.

Castell Coch, translated from Welsh is the Red Castle, was built on the remains of a 14th century castle in the 1870's and completed in 1891 for the Third Marquis of Bute.

Paddling up a little further to a small stretch of white water where, when there is more water in the river, there is a small wave to play on.

I turn around and have a leisurely paddle back down the river to Radyr Weir which, again, could have done with having a bit more water going over it, but even still was good fun and I got a good soaking at the bottom.

Only a short paddle but good to get back on the water even though it wasn't salty!

RNLB Garside 01/11/2008

Whilst visiting St Justinian yesterday I noticed that the St David's Lifeboat was launching at 9.30am today on a practice launch.

With the inshore shipping forecast promising wind increasing 6-7 perhaps gale 8 later it seemed an ideal excuse for an early start.

Arriving at St Justinian early I checked out the preparatory work for the new boathouse and slipway which is needed to accommodate the new Tamar class boat which is bigger and faster than the present Tyne class boat that is due to be replaced by 2012. It looks a bit of a shambles at the moment, Health & Safety would have a field day!

With that the door opened and the Garside engines roared to life. It then slid down the ramp and into the water, but I missed the best picture when the boat hits the water!

The Garside was donated to the RNLI by Thomas H Garside and his sister Dorothy and is a Tyne class lifeboat. She is 47' long with 14'8" beam and a 5' draft, she also has a steel hull with aluminium superstructure.

The Garside is powered by twin General Motors six cylinder diesel engines, each producing 425hp with a maximum speed of 17.5 knots and a range of 240 nautical miles.

In the event of a capsize she is designed to self right within 10 seconds.

The Garside circled and came back into St Justinian then sped off into the middle of Ramsey Sound through the large standing waves, and before I knew it, she had disappeared, very impressive though.

I started my paddle back slightly slower than the Garside and even slower when I rounded St John's Point and felt the full force of the North Easterly wind.

I paddled out to Carreg Gafeilliog and had a bit of a play in the rough water between the rocky outcrops.

I was about to paddle back into Porthsele when I heard the familiar roar of the Garside's engines as she came into view and headed into the sheltered water of Porth Melgan.

Altering my plans I paddled over to Porth Melgan. Although only about a mile, it was hard work into the continuous wind. At least when reaching Porth Melgan it was sheltered and warm in the sun. I spend about half an hour watching the lifeboat, nicely driven Mike!

It was then an easy paddle back to Porthsele with the wind behind me.

A Lifeboat, Seals, Wind and Waves 31/10/2008

First a big thank you must go to Sian and Alan from Pencarnan for the fireworks and the great hospitality last night, a great time was had by all!

With the shipping forecast being NE 5-7 decreasing 4 or 5 later we decided to take a short trip to St Justinian, home of the St David's Lifeboat. The boathouse was open so it gave us a chance to have a good look at the Tyne Class lifeboat Garside.

It was also a good vantage point to see the seal pup which is now looking a lot healthier and having a snooze in the sunshine whilst it's mother was being hassled by an amorous bull trying to have his evil way.

With the surf a lot bigger than yesterday and the wind showing no sign of easing it was 15 minutes of hard paddling and one unplanned roll before I managed to get out through the pounding surf!

Once out past the break line I decided to paddle into the wind towards Whitesands and St David's Head, hopefully into more sheltered waters.

On reaching Whitesands, which is less than a mile from Porthsele, I couldn't believe the difference in the sea conditions. Whitesands is one of the best surfing beaches in Wales but today it was flat calm, very different from Porthsele.

Paddling out along St David's Head the sea got even flatter and the sun even felt warm now I was sheltered from the NE wind. It was amazing to see the difference in the sea when looking out towards Ramsey Island and South Bishop Lighthouse where there were very large standing waves out in the main tidal stream caused by the wind against the ever increasing flood tide.

It was then a very easy quick paddle back to Porthsele where the only problem was getting through the surf as well as trying to avoid the numerous rocks either side of the narrow channel of sand to get back to the beach.

Yet again another short paddle of only 3.5 nautical miles (nearly 4 miles or approximately 6.5km) but at least I managed to cover a little distance (and practice my rolls) in hugely varying sea conditions.