Gwilym's Adventure Blog

What to do when waiting for group to show up? The route came through the col Local wildlife??? A misty morning I have just returned from Austria where I have been assessing groups for their Gold D of E Expedition. This took place in the mountains around Schladming and we were treated to a variety of terrain and weather. I will let the photos do the talking

Today I was out with Sarah and Kealey on the yacht they have moored in Dartmouth. We headed out into light winds and swell for a short sail before anchoring up and heading to the beach for lunch. On the way back, the wind and sea state had picked up a bit which gave us an excellent ride back into Dartmouth. Yet another hot and sunny day out on the water. Having been afloat in one craft or another for 9 out of the last 12 days, I am having a day off tomorrow and then heading out to Austria for a week in the mountains. I will update if I can but more likely to be on my return at the end of the month.

Back out with the Gold D of E students in Plymouth Sound looking at navigation and paddling with, across and against the flow. We had a nice paddle around and got out to Cawsand and a lap of Drakes Island during the day. A busy day generally in the sound with a lot of yachts, dinghys and kayakers out enjoying the fine weather we had all day.

Back in the sea kayak today at Wembury with 5 students wishing to undertake their Gold D of E Expedition by sea kayak. Todays aim was basic skills and rescue work and tomorrow will be distance and navigation training. Although a beautiful weather day with light winds and high temperatures, there was still some swell  and it was enough to give us quite a few capsizes during the day.

On Saturday morning I headed out from Torquay with John and Lewis for an overnight paddle. We had a great day in low winds and sunshine paddling around the bay all the way to Berryhead before coming back and finding a camp spot on one of the ledges just above the high tide mark. This morning, we woke to thick mist with vis of less than 100m so launched and did a direct compass bearing crossing from near Brixham to Torquay. This took about an hour and although misty, it was still very calm. We than spent a bit of time doing some skills work before getting out for coffee. A great 24 hours.

The weather forecast for today was not great so we had a sail about in the sound during the morning before anchoring in Barn Pool and having a swim (wetsuits required) which involved cleaning a few marks off the hull and a quick snorkel around the area. The wind had picked up a lot by now so we took a sail up the Tamar under the bridge at Saltash before turning round and heading back to the berth. Over the last 4 days we have racked up in excess of 120nm (nautical miles) in a mixture of conditions. Each day had had its own challenges and special mention goes to Olly today for not throwing up. First time for eveything I guess.

We left Falmouth this morning and after listening to the forecast decided to stop going West as big storms were coming in from The Scillies and we headed back East to Torpoint via a (very long) lunch stop in Fowey. What started as an OK morning turned into an amazing sunlit afternoon/evening with light winds just enough to push us along at 4knts with a fishing line out the back of the boat. 12 mackeral later we arrived into Torpoint at around 8:30pm in time to light the BBQ and scoff down some very nice fresh fish.

In complete contrast to yesterday, today we were heading into the wind and averaging about 3-4knts as we headed SW to Falmouth. Arrival at the port was slightly runined by the rain and mist but it didn't stop us getting the BBQ out and eating the Mackeral we had caught earlier in the day.

Today I took Olly and Hannah out for their first yachting experience. We left Torpoint early with the intention of going to Penzance, however after  just of 3 hours of doing 6knts in F5/6 winds with 2m following seas rolling about all over the place it became clear that it would be very interesting going round the Lizard, even getting to Falmouth would be a challenge and as Olly had already decorated the side of my boat we headed north into Fowey for lunch on a mooring then an ice cream in town. The wind picked up and we were glad we had made that decision

 I needed to go up to the "spreaders"  Looking down  Bucket acting as a toolbox  A family of swans watching me work Today I decided to tackle the "up the mast" jobs as there was very little wind. Using a set of ascender I shot up the main sheet and managed to rewire the mast lights. Unfortunately this still does not work so I need to look at the wiring back in the cabin. I did really well and only dropped one small screw, all the other stuff I managed to put in the bucket There was some interesting swaying action when a RIB came in and it's wash hit my yacht.

After a weekend of being the instructor, it was my turn to be the student as I turned up at Slapton Sands for a Wake Surfing lesson. After swimming out to meet the boat I watched a 5 min demo from Bill and then jumped in the deep end (literally) to get on with it. Well, unbelievably I was up second time and after a few goes on the wake surf switched to the wake board and had a few more runs before the sea got too lumpy.

Back over in Torbay with Sarah, Bill and Tom for an afternoon of Sea Kayaking. As all 3 had taken part in some whitewater kayaking with me earlier this year, it was time to develop those skills further and we played around the rocks between Brixham and Elberry Cove. A wonderful weather day and fantastic clarity of water spoilt only by a persistamt jet bike blatting up and down.