18km of the Menai Straits on a bit of a windy day by Sue L

I’m no longer a girl who looks at the washing spinning in the wind and thinks “oh, that’s going to dry nicely”. I am now a Beaufort girl!  I’m now looking at the washing and think “oh, yes, Beaufort 5 easily!”  If yesterday’s paddle revealed nothing else to me, it was how to interpret the wind speeds and what it actually means.  I’d avidly read the scales while driving towards Anglesey, and while it didn’t put me off, it gave me some things to bear in mind: keep the paddle low, stay focused.

All this, of course, was quickly forgotten with the excitement of seeing some faces I’d not seen for a while.  With hugs all quickly received, we dressed into paddling gear and took kayaks down to the water’s edge.  The car door blew shut all by itself!  Should I have given this a second thought? 

The shuttle drivers returned, Keith gave us a pep talk and safety brief, and we put ourselves into 2 groups with the emphasis that we were actually all paddling as one.  Two minutes in and bobbing in the waves, I found it pretty challenging to keep the kayak steered in the direction I wanted it to go.  That is, following the others! 

This isn’t my first rodeo on the sea, and I’ve tackled bigger waves, but the force of the wind behind me and the need to keep a low paddle caused me to rethink this whole ‘Progression in sea kayaks’ business.  I battled to take a paddle forward and gave up for a while, but focused and kept my energy and focus on edging to turn the boat while being blown downwind.  The waves bobbed me up and down, and I suddenly remembered that I’d not taken the sea travel pills! 

Meanwhile, the paddlers ahead looked confident and controlled, and I was determined not to let them down.  I felt a presence nearby and knew I was in safe hands.  “What could possibly go wrong?”  For an hour and a half, the winds continued to push hard, and I’d braced myself if I sensed a gust coming.  We hugged the coastline as best we could, avoiding sandbanks along the way and stopped for elevenses (or lunch for some of us) at the National Trust Plas Newydd house slipway.  We chatted and reflected on how we felt it was going.  My nerves were on edge; I’d managed to get a heart rate of 100 bpm! But the laughter shared dissipated any fears.  I even ate some lunch.