Gwilym's Adventure Blog

Oooops. No harness Jez and I didn't climb yesterday because it was damp and we were both knackered from the week before. Today we climbed at Tremadog at the less popular crag of Craig Y Gesail. The day started with a breakfast in Eric's Cafe and we had some good plans until we arrived at the bottom of the route and I realised that I had forgotten my harness. I had to make a emergency one from some slings (very thin and uncomfortable ones) and seconded Jez up Princess VS 4b as I did not want to lead with my make shift safety device. This route has a vegetated bottom pitch but the top pitch is nice, a bit more traffic would clean it up nicely. Then it was off to Llanberis for ice cream and back in time for coffee and muffins. Not as planned but a good day anyway.

This week I have been assessing a DofE Gold Coasteering Expedition around the Ross of Mull organised by Hebridean Pursuits . The two groups of girls from Kent started at Kintra and headed anti clockwise around the coast taking in the island of Erraid on the way. I spent the time paddling round spot checking and enjoying the coast. They had 2 days of nice friendly weather but day 3 was very windy, so windy in fact (about F 6/7)that I was unable to get out round the headland in my kayak to see them so I had to go via the land. A bit of a gale on the third night settled down for day four meaning a great day to finish on. This is the first DofE Coasteering expepdition that I have been involved with and it worked well thanks to the training and support given by Andy and Stevie from Hebridean Pursuits

Unclimbed rock now with 4 new routes  Me leading my new route Today, I headed out with some friends to Erraid for some classic pink granite. On the way into our planned venue we spotted some rock that was not in the guidebook. Between the four of us we climbed 4 new routes (basically led one each) from VD to HS4b. Having then reached our goal of New Slabs we climbed a number of existing routes with two of our team making another first ascent. This post was delayed until our new routes had been confirmed which they now have been. This means an email to the Scottish guidebook writers who keep lists. The route I chose and made the first ascent of I have graded Severe and called "Mull it over" as I had to think what to call it. About 35m in length I took it in 2 pitches to avoid rope drag but it could be done in one with care. We were having a great day made better by the enforced wade on the way back through some lovely warm water where the tide had snea...

This morning I started with a 21 km paddle round the Isle of Iona just off the Ross of Mull. I started on Mull, paddled over the sound and had a great anticlockwise lap enjoying some swell on the west side of the island. After getting back to Mull for lunch, I decided to climb Ben More 966m virtually from sea level. This made for a great afternoon. Tomorrow is hopefully a climbing day.

Bye Dartmouth Castle  Start Point  The Mew Stone Fort Bovisand, almost home As I was not able to get to Salcombe yesterday I knew I had a long day ahead of me so started at 06:30 to catch the tide around Start Point. This all went very well averaging 6 knts from Dartmouth Castle to clearing Start. After that it was a relentless beat into the wind making about 1 mile in the direction I wanted for every 3 sailed. After a few hours of this I dropped sails and motored into the wind for a few hours on auto helm so I could take a break and have lunch. Then it was back to beating into the wind for the final leg up to the Yealm before I again succumbed and motored in arriving on my buoy at 17:00.  41 nautical miles done today so I am a bit tired. Over the last 14 days I have been living on the boat and managed 9 days sailing in various conditions (some less than comfortable), covered nearly 200 nautical miles, visited some nice harbours and generally...

Wet, windy, choppy and just horrible at times  Dartmouth Well, Plan A was to sail from Brixham to Salcombe today leaving me only a half day sail back to Torpoint tomorrow as I need to be packing to head north for some work.  Unfortunately I was fighting wind and tide for over 4 hours averaging just 2 knts just to get level with Dartmouth so rather than spend another 5 hours trying to push on to Salcombe I bailed into Dartmouth for the afternoon and will have a very early start tomorrow to try and get the tide round Start Point.

 Dartmouth Castle  Some Goose Wing downwind sailing  Berry Head Cruising into Anstey's Cove After breakfast on board at Dittisham, I headed east and rounded Berry Head before sailing over to one of my all time favourite play places, Anstey's Cove for lunch on anchor. I have now coasteered, climbed, dived, snorkelled, had a swim, kayaked and now sailed into Anstey's and I love it every time. After lunch I sailed over to Brixham and anchored in Churston/Fishcombe Cove for a cup of coffee before heading in Brixham Marina for a night with power and more importantly a shower.