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Showing posts from May, 2008

Stackpole Sea Kayak Festival 24 - 26 May 08

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Despite the horrendous weather foreccast I headed off to Stackpole hoping to get on the water some time over the weekend. As it turned out we managed a paddle on each of the three days thanks to some positive thinking by the Coaches and organisers. Stackpole Centre is owned and run by the National Trust and is set in a beautiful location close to the sea and the Pembrokeshire National Park. It is primarily an Outdoor Education Centre and apparently it is full of school children during the week. This weekend however it was home to some 60 sea kayakers of varying standard. On Saturday we joined the experienced group and headed over to the picturesque Stackpole Quay. My wind gauge showed the wind speed at a steady 25 knots this is force six so there was not a lot of enthusiasm to get on the water. We therefore went over to the more sheltered West Angle Bay which is on the East side of the entrance to Milford Haven. This allowed us to shelter in the lee of Thorn Island and sample the windy

Six Hours North

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Life has been pretty hectic with work lately which is the reason why my blog has not been kept up to date. Last bank holiday 3 - 5 May Eurion and myself headed North to Angelsey to attend the Nigel Dennis Sea Kayak Symposium. Just in case you are wondering what a symposium is,from experience it would appear to be a teach in during the day, lectures in the evening followed by a few beers. It was a long drive in the motorhome towing my new trailer (I cannot get the Kayak on the roof) so I opted for a classroom session on the Saturday learning how not to get lost. This was taken by Trys Morris and was really informative. On Sunday Eurian, Hywel and myself decided to scare the pants off ourselves and signed up for the Tide Races and overfalls day led by Simon Osborne. We set off from Soldiers Point adjacent to Holyhead Harbour and headed over to North Stack. This is a tide race adjacent to large cliffs. The water runs really fast and forms standing waves just like a river but much larger.