Anglesey Club Weekend #3

Anglesey Club Weekend #3 based at Tyn Rhos Campsite from 3rd to 5th July 2026

Saturday 4th July – Trepidation at Trearddur Bay by Sally P

Despite gusty conditions, a brave and good-sized group of sea kayakers left the safety of Tyn Rhos campsite and headed for Treaddhur Bay.  With no plan as such, Keith suggested we have a little play in the surf, practice our support strokes and see what happens.  Allegedly, we could do as much or as little as we liked.  I thought an hour at tops.

Testing the water, we headed out to round one or two buoys.  When the novelty wore off and we’d warmed up, we successfully crossed the bay.  After a pep talk reminding us of the safety issues, i.e., don’t get too close to the rocks, our first option was to circle the little rocky island just out in the bay.  All was well, and so Adya suggested we try it in the other direction.  Still fine. 

To evade a slightly annoying jet ski, Keith suggested we carry on around the next little headland, but there wasn’t much of interest there, so we crossed to another rocky island. Thinking on his feet, the next idea was to land on the island as it would make a good pit stop for elevenses.  One by one, with much trepidation, we carefully disembarked and hauled the boats up out of the water.  Who’d have thought it?  The exit proved a little trickier with rising waves, but we managed that too with no casualties.  It was Ian’s idea to cross over to Porth Diana for lunch.  I wasn’t so keen as the waves were getting bigger, but with encouragement and good demos of the low brace from Dave, I stayed with the group. After lunch and Andy’s nap, the return paddle was epic.  With waves the size of your average bungalow (no exaggeration), we were all bracing.  

Reaching the safety of a sandy bay, we had a rescue and rolling practice session.  The Bond couple (Andy and Christine), are so efficient at this now and make it look easy.  That was until Keith upped the ante once more and they practised again in the rough stuff.  Adya successfully rescued Keith – no mean feat.

We surfed back to the bay and returned the boats to the cars.  The debrief was held in the Sea Shanty cafe over coffee and cake.  The smug and happy group of paddlers had a very successful day and lived to tell the tale – again.  All that was left to look forward to was the BBQ.

Thanks to all for a great team effort. 10/10.

Sunday 5^th July 2026 – Cemaes to Bull Bay by Christine B

The wacky races started early with tent packing and people heading off to Cemaes Bay to drop off boats and kit, before the long snake of cars left the car park and headed to find parking at Bull Bay, leaving the two responsible adults (Nicky and me) behind to look after the boats.

Once cars had arrived back, a long boat carrying down the sandy beach was needed, then a split of the 13 paddlers into 3 groups led by Keith, Ian and Nicky providing competition as to which was the A team (Nicky’s of course ….)

We headed from Cemaes about 10:30 am, on a flood tide.  The wind and swell had dropped from Saturday, making pleasant paddling and opportunities for rock hopping. As we reached the first headland after Llanbading Point, we came across overfalls, so an opportunity for those who wanted to play to have some time, tentative or not in the waves. As we moved on, the overfalls were lessening.  There were more overfalls at the next headland, but not much in the way of the previous headland.  We headed on to the brickworks at Porth Wen for a sunny lunchtime rest.

Post lunch, we split into our three groups for the final section of headland, with rock hopping and caves (but not up to Menorca standard), before arriving at Bull Bay.  Time to load boats and have a coffee from the hut and cake courtesy of Dave’s wife and Frankie before heading home.