P&H Paddlers » rmarkjameson

Lands End

rmarkjameson — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:37:04 +0000

A group of us got together for a sunny weekend in October and paddled out to Longships from Sennen Cove then round to Porthgwarra. Longships is the lighthouse that sits off Lands End, UK which is the Southwestern most point of England. Cracking 2 days including a night paddle and a trip further up the coast into Boscastle.

Video

Anglesey

rmarkjameson — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:40:14 +0000

As usual a busy week preceded the weekends paddling therefore it was early Saturday morning when the last of us arrived at the Anglesey Outdoor Centre campsite. Breakfast there is easily arranged and good value, so as we ate, we finalized our plans based on the actual weather.
We were in the right place (top left hand corner of anglesey, see left), at the right time (springs), with the right people (debatable) with the right kayaks (P&H of course) so all was set. We relocated to Cemaes Bay in order to catch the tide back to Trearddour and whilst we phoned the coastguard, we had tea/coffee at the visitor centre mainly as an excuse to fill our flasks and wait for the final part of the tide to turn before we set off for the Skerries. Mike recalled the days when you took the papers and milk over to the lighthouse keepers, but now, if help was needed, a spare bulb or a new set of solar panels would be more appropriate. He never did admit to how long ago that was. For some of us this was new and others had been here before. Myself, nearly 34 years previously and many times since but unusually never in a Sea Kayak. Sailed, swam, flown and climbed, but never paddled and as I soon discovered I had been missing a real treat. First stop after a ferry to the skerries wherry we stopped (sorry) for lunch after a first taste of the races round the top of the islands. The tide runs like a huge river ebbing and flowing through the gaps in the islands before bursting out back into the sea. Each time you visit the prevailing sea and swell that overlies the tide is different so each transit is different. The local seals were also out to play, quite at home as we played follow my leader this way and that through turning currents and confused seas. Next stop was play, dodge the real ferries, whose departure from Holyhead is signaled by black smoke from their funnels and then make for North Stack and round into Gogarth in order to explore the caves. A bunch of kids we were, daring ourselves to fit through gaps playing backwards and forwards on the swell and the fun didn’t stop there either. Onwards, through the gap under the South Stack bridge, then across to round Penrhyn Mawr. By now the tide was starting to slacken but we had another day to play.

Sunday morning was strangely subdued (a few dirty beer glasses I think or maybe the Guinness was off) but the weather had brightened so headaches were ignored and we got on the water early enough to catch the flood tide. Sue dared to join us and was an unwitting stooge because the aim of the day was to practice some kayak rescue skills and soon enough, after a valiant effort, she obliged much to her annoyance. Willing helpers soon had her back in her boat and safely ashore in a quiet cove whilst we went back out to PM proper. Great fun, and a few other paddlers passed by so after a couple more rescues and some great surf that allowed us to get back up through the races we ourselves stopped for lunch and waited for the tide to finally turn and take us back to Trearddour. I had the usual camera frustrations and have made a note to myself never to go out again without desiccant and never open the housing halfway through the weekend as most the footage on the second day was wasted because of condensation. All considered though a very enjoyable weekend with much to be recommended when the conditions are right.

EndurancEKayak – Eigg to Egg

rmarkjameson — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:12:45 +0000

Had a chance to kayak in Antarctica recently……

My day job involves working for the Royal Navy and as I came to the end of 3 years onboard HMS ENDURANCE the idea of a kayaking expedition in Antarctica couldn’t be ignored. ENDURANCE is the RNs ice patrol vessel and spends the austral summer between the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica. Therefore having spent Christmas day 2005 kayaking in South Georgia and the various other places we visited that year we managed to persuade the Captain to let us come back the following season and use the ship as a base for a proper expedition. EndurancEKayak 66 South was born! Luckily for us, Mike Devlin happened to be onboard working with the British Schools Exploring Society and for those of you who don’t know him look at the front pages of the BCU coaching handbook. He is a well experienced Sea Kayaker so didn’t need much persuading and soon had a training program in place for us and was instrumental to us developing the kayaking skills required. We had plenty of cold weather, expedition experience and local knowledge but only a few of us had more than a couple of Sea Kayaking trips. To increase the teams capabilities we planned several events, one of which was to the West Coast of Scotland and as we paddled past Eigg we had no idea that 6 months later we would also paddle past another Egg in another place. P&H we also pretty instrumental as when we approached Bob Campbell (Marketing Director) for some Sea Kayaks and he came up trumps. Hopefully the photos show how happy we were!

Even though the composite kayaks were undoubtably better, the plastic capellas proved amazingly robust. We needed to hull repair each of the 3 composite boats but only 2 minor repairs (to a seat and a foot rest) were required to the plastic ones.