Wind & rain, wind & rain, wind & rain, & Harry! Friday, September 04, 2009

Harry Whelan came to stay with us for a few days this week, visiting from London with his girlfriend Esperanza. Harry and Barry paddled around Britain together in 2005 ( with Phil Clegg) but don't see each other that often these days so it was good to catch up and go paddling - despite the strong winds and heavy rain that we've been having in Wales for about 2 weeks. We had a fun trip out to the Skerries, and enjoyed seeing about 30 curious seals and plenty of seabirds. Today we ventured to Rhoscolyn and battled into the wind out to the Beacon, before a downwind paddle along the coast, then sneaking back to the beach, sticking close to shore. Harry and Esperanza were in a double and luckily they practiced rolling it before we went out - Esperanza has only been paddling 2 months and she grabbed onto the hull, while Harry rolled it from the back. On our way back to the beach, they got a bit too close to a submerged rock. Suddenly the rock wasn't submerged anymore and a wave was curling over towards the rock. They just managed to paddle out over the wave, but it capsized them in a really bad place. Fortunately Esperanza grabbed the bow ( and her paddle) as they'd practiced and Harry rolled the double up again! They wouldn't do it again for me to film!

Barry and I have been trying out some Rockpool kayaks - the longer G.T. and the smaller playful Isel, which were good fun kayaks.