West Wales Sea Kayak Meet

Its a long old haul from Manchester to Pembrokeshire and all the more difficult through the Friday night rush. Upon arrival at the Glendower pub in Goodwick, the road miles were quickly forgotten. I had arrived at the West Wales Sea Kayak Meet.

The event is hosted by local sea kayak guide Mike Mayberry of Mayberry Kayaking and based at the Phoenix Centre. We started each morning with a powerful cooked breakfast at the nearby Beaches Diner before organising a variety of day trips around the local Coastline.

On the Saturday I paddled with a small group to explore some offshore rocky islets that lie amongst the strong tidal streams of West Wales. The Bishops, Clerks and Bitches sounds more like a variation on a vicar's and tart's party!

Having Launched from Whitesands Bay, we began the ferry glide out to North Bishop. This proved to be more straightforward than we expected. However, we encountered more challenging waters at we passed Carreg Rhosson (The Clerks) en route to the rugged west shores of Ramsey Island.

The south end of Ramsey gave us some challenging flows to fight in Midland Gap but we were soon on our way round to 'The Bitches' and the challenging tidal rapids of Ramsey Sound.

After we had our dose of adrenalin we drifted back to Whitesands Bay to fininsh in warm golden afternoon sunshine. Later on, back at the centre the was fun round the barbecue and up in the bar where Wales beat England at Rugger! I have poor memories of the evening having been rendered speechless by Mr Browns high octane home brew.

Needless to say, I chose a more sedate paddling venue for Sunday Morning. The waters Dinas Head would be well sheltered and the rocky coastline would provide just the right dose of soothing entertainment.

The caves, gullies and sea creatures were perfect. We set off from Cwm yr Eglwys, weaved our way around to Pwllgwaelod and ate cake in the sunshine.

Many Thanks to Mike Mayberry for organising the event. I hope there will be another one soon...