St Brides Bay

Some nice weather arrived early spring for a gathering at St Brides Bay Pembrokeshire.  After meeting up with Andrew, Tori and Mo at Martins Haven we leave a couple of cars there and head on up the coast to Newgale to meet the rest of the gang, Paul, Sean, Katie and Gareth.  

We push off from the fossilised remains of an ancient forest, recently resurrected by the harsh winter storms at Newgale.  Ice cold surf breaking over the bow refreshes the senses and reminds that despite the sunshine it's still early in the year.

We paddle on south blinded by the sun keeping a relatively safe distance from the crumbling millstone grit  and shale cliffs where rogue waves catch us off guard.

Above, Sean paddling past the huge sandstone Monoclinal fold formation known as Sleek Rock just before Broad Haven bellow.

We land through the shallow waves at Little Haven finding a seat in the sun for lunch.

 Above left to right, Katie, Me, Paul and Gareth and bellow, Me Paul Tori and Gareth.

 Bellow all the gang sat around for lunch from left to right, Gareth, Andrew, Sean, Paul Tori and Katie.

Today I had the pleasure in borrowing Mike Bells (Cedar Boats Europe) carbon fibre Greenland splits.  In the slightly choppy conditions they remained on the deck after my first taster near Newgale, but from here on in I stuck with them and finally gained a fondness for the Greenland ways.  As for build quality, Mike's attention to detail make these paddles structurally and aesthetically pleasing.  

From Little Haven we take a slight de-tore off shore to Stack Rocks.

 Katie having a quick go of Mike's paddles and a chance for me to take a photo of them in use.

Back closer to shore we stay close to the Old Red Sandstone cliffs where the shallows provide a playground of gullies and obstacles to paddle around.

We take another brief stop at St Brides Haven where we get the chance to rummage through Sean and Mo's repair kits to make best of what we could of my broken footrest.

Cable ties and duck tape are a kayakers best tools, job done.

Back on the water we leave the security of the shore once more to cross directly over to Martins Haven.  I decide to pick up the pace here to see what these Greenland paddles are capable of and soon find myself and Andrew had quickly left the remainder of the group behind.

We settle in at our final destination at Martins Haven and wait for the rest of the group to arrive.  A bull seal plays hide and seek close to shore whenever I lifted a finger on the camera shutter.

Katie, Tori and Paul paddle into the beach and Gareth, Sean and Mo set off around the corner for a quick adrenaline fix on the Jack Sound tidal race.  

We pack up the two vehicles and head back up the road north to Newgale where our day began for the remaining cars.  The sun sets over the not to distant Ramsey Island in the west bringing a close to yet another great day on the water, thanks for the company all.