Saturday 18 June 2011

Against the Elements

The weather still having the upper hand preventing any decent paddling myself and Taran decide to battle with the elements in relative safety.
We arrive at a very choppy Sully sound to play about with the waves and put in some rough weather practice.  Far from the Bitches in Ramsey sound or Penrhyn Mawr but can still be fun with a bit of wind on tide.
The Challenge Wales ship past behind the overfalls as we make our way over for a bit of play time.
The Met Office inshore forecast for this morning was westerly force 5 or 7 moderate to rough with squally showers.  Not usually the kind of weather I would go out in.

 
A Securite message plays over the VHF warning of imminent force 8 gales, and within ten minutes the sky darkens, winds pick up and the heavens open.
We make a very difficult turn into the wind and slog it out back to Sully Island.  Kind of wishing I had a nice Greenland storm paddle right now as the wind catches my big yellow blades.

I shelter behind my boat in an effort to find some shelter while the squall passes.
The worst of the weather out the way we head on down the coast a little further surfing on the back of a following sea.  We make the most of a little shelter in a cove before paddling back into the wind.
We paddle back up the sound aiming to surf the standing waves back inshore.  They were a little bigger than they looked.  I saw Taran go over up in front and manage to roll back up, all good practice.
Here's a little video Taran put together from his on board camera.  I miss my gorilla pod on my deck.  Worth a watch it gets better as it goes along.



No real millage covered just another play in these terrible conditions we seem to be having so much of.

3 comments:

Taran Tyla said...

A fab day & I can pinch images too (LOL)...

soundoftheseagull said...

Looks like you both had an interesting day

stoney (Martyn) said...

Cracking day out practicing, its difficult to 'set off' when its like that but worth it