Anglesey Weekend No.4 Sandy Bay to Ynys Y Fydlyn by Catriona Hare
As Ian could not arrive till Saturday morning, I was responsible for deciding which trip our group would run. Both the met office and XC weather had been forecasting ENE and NE winds of force 4 gusting 6 for several days so the planning group agreed the trips needed to be on the sheltered west of Anglesey. Several options were discussed, and I picked the one that appealed to me most, the West Coast of Anglesey from Sandy Bay to Ynys Y Fydlyn, just south of Carmel Head. I hadn’t paddled there recently, and I thought it might be a bit more exposed as there are several bays and slightly lower cliffs on this part of the west coast. It was not a popular option with other paddlers, so only 4 of us were there. We paddled north with the tide from Sandy Bay, keeping as close in shore as possible, however, we had to go further out to avoid the considerable number of just under-the-water rocks. The cliffs funnel the wind and it kept changing direction, we experienced the chop of wind overtide with force 3/4 headwinds, slightly more chaotic waves when the easterly was trying to push us offshore, occasionally it was flat calm, and rarely did we get the maximum forecasted gusts. So, we have plenty of variety.
As we got closer to Carmel head it started to get much more sheltered and we finally found a beach without seals where we could land for lunch. The seals had recently had pups, and it was important not to disturb them. Grey seal pups can drown if they are frightened into the water, as their fur becomes waterlogged and heavy. The adult seals certainly let us know we were not welcome.
After lunch, we headed south, again with the tide and to start with a headwind!! However, the wind was soon behind us and we hardly needed to paddle to make progress. About 3km from our destination, the sea state changed, as we had less shelter from the cliffs. There was a wind-generated confused quartering sea with some surf as a bonus, good fun! We started experiencing more frequent strong gusts of wind and the risk of a thunderstorm seemed close. Ian gave us some “direct encouragement” to hurry up and paddle back to our launch point.
The forecast was the same with more rain for the following day, so we opted for another sheltered paddle, Porth Dafarch to Porth Diana on the south side of Treaddur Bay. If we kept in the larger cliffs provided more protection than the day before, and we were able to rock hop along the coast, with just enough swell to ensure that timing was important. We crossed Treaddur Bay, relatively close to the shore, before heading to the more sheltered Port Diana for an early lunch. We took a similar route back but then paddled across Porth Dafarch to explore the cliffs on the other side. Off the small headlands, the water was lumpy and confused, but in the bays, it was calm and we were able to visit caves and rock arches. Ian and I agreed that north of Porth Dafarch was our second favourite part of the Anglesey Coast to paddle. We returned to back to our launch point and were off the water by 2 pm and before any rain.
