After the best surf Ynyslas can muster on Saturday and some sunshine I was keen to get back in the water again. Darren (Badexcuseforasailor from Forces-of-Nature) was here for the weekend and we had arranged to either windsurf if there was wind or go for a bike ride, but windsurfing was the preferred activity.
After checking my moth trap (just a few due to the cold temperatures) and watching some of the Grand Prix, the wind started picking up so we got ourselves together and headed over to the beach.
Despite appearances with blue skies and whitecaps all over the water there wasn’t actually that much wind so I rigged my very rarely used biggest sail. A 6.7m Gun Jam. I don’t usually go out unless it is windy enough for my 5.6m sail so this big kit rarely sees the light of day. Once on the water it was a little difficult to get going but once up and planing it was actually quite nice to sail on the bigger kit. It’s nowhere near as hectic as smaller kit and everything happens at a slightly slower, more relaxed pace allowing you time to enjoy your surroundings rather than simply hanging on for the adrenalin rush.
A little bit more wind would have been nice, but I’m now looking forward to summer and will try to get out on the water a little more, even if it means getting the bigger kit out.
If you haven’t noticed the weather this week has been atrocious and I can only think it must have been our fault.
We were off on a family caravan holiday in Porthcawl. As I started loading the car on Monday, the heavens opened and I got soaked. It then continued to rain pretty much non-stop all week. Actually, that’s a lie. it did stop for a while while it was sleeting. The temperature dropped quite a bit too and the wind was blowing making it particularly unpleasant out there.
We did manage to do a few things, swimming, windsurfing, museums, Techniquest, crazy golf etc. which I shall post about later. We were going to go to Dan yr Ogof caves and dinosaur park today but thought better of it thanks to the weather and just headed home instead.
I then got soaked again unloading the car and guess what? As soon as we were unloaded, the rain stopped and now that we are home the sun is shining and there is barely a cloud in the sky!
So, I can only apologise for the recent weather. We won’t be going on holiday for a while though so expect a heatwave anytime soon!
Typical isn’t it, I get a load of new windsurfing kit in my quest to hit 40 knots before I’m 40 and then there’s a conmplete lack of wind forecast.
I’ve just taken a look at the forecast on Windguru for the next week and there isn’t a single star showing. Oh well, I’ll just have to hope that Ivor out katabatic wind can do something about that!
Wind Forecast for the week ahead
Speed Season is here!!!
I’ve just got back from a windsurf session the estuary here at Ynyslas. Ivor, our local katabatic wind was up to his tricks so the wind was ballistic at over 40 knots. The water was a seething mass of white and simply getting out of your car on the beach led to an instant sand blasting.
My new speed kit isn’t here yet so I was forced to go out on wholly inappropriate kit. My board was far too big as was my fin and my sail was far too old. In fact, I didn’t notice this until I was at the water edge but the entire top panel was missing – not ideal. However, with temperatures at just above freezing it wasn’t really a day for messing around on the beach rigging different kit so I went out with the broken sail anyway.
It was hard work hanging on and keeping the board on the water was tough too. Not really perfect conditions for getting a top speed, but I stayed on the water for about an hour and had a few fast, but not very comfortable runs. My top speed was 32.85 knots. Way off my 40 knot target so I’m hoping my new kit will be easier to use as well as faster.
The tracks from my GPS drew some pretty lines though and you can see the speed channel I was ailing in pretty well from this.
My GPS Tracks from todays Speed Session
Windsurfing in the estuary at Ynyslas
I’ve just got back from a nice little windsurf session in the estuary here at Ynyslas. Ivor, our local katabatic wind was up to his usual tricks with a decent NE wind funbelling down through the valley at up to 25 knots. And this was despite the fact that the forecast was for winds of 5-6 knots. Lovely.
The wind wasn’t quite up to its usual strength, but it is still pretty early in the year so I think Ovir was just warming up. Hopefully we’ll get some really good winds in the spring.
With the sun shining it was pretty warm out there as well. I had my 5/3mm wetsuit on and boots and a hood but if anything I was a little too hot whilst on the water.
There was something going on at the visitor centre car park though. Four police cras were in attendance and the car park was closed off with ‘Crime Scene’ tape all around it and a police officer at either end preventing anyone from entering it. Anyone know what’s happened?
Snowy Road
I like the snow, and I even, to a certain extent, like the disruption it causes here in the UK. It may be a little convenient for a while, but things soon get back to normal and it’s good to know that the Forces-of-Nature can best us now and then.
Lots of people complain about the disruption and the fact that local councils aren’t prepared. They always go on about the fact that it isn’t like this in Finland or Slovenia or Canada and that they cope with much heavier snowfalls without any problems. But there’s a good reason for that. Yes, plenty of other countries get much more snow than us and cope without any issues, but they are used to it, they expect it and therefore they spend time and money preparing for it.
The snow we’ve had this year in the UK is unusual. It isn’t unprecedented and we do get heavy snowfalls every now and then, but being ready for unusual conditions would be a complete waste of money most years. Buying and storing grit costs money, buying, maintaining and storing machinery such as gritters and snow ploughs costs lots of money too and I’m sure such things need replacing fairly regularly. The money to pay for such things comes from the taxes we pay and I for one wouldn’t want to think that my taxes were being spent on machinery that only gets used in earnest for a few days once every ten years or so.
In my opinion it would be much better to spend that money on something that is used all the time such as schools and hospitals and occasionally put up with a little disruption due to the snow. Even the snow we’ve just had didn’t last that long and within a week or so it will all be forgotten and things will be back to normal.
Stop moaning and trying to find someone to blame. It’s not anyone’s fault, its just the weather. It looks nice out there, so enjoy the scenery while you can and endure the inconvenience it causes.
The temperatures here by the coast are nothing as extreme as those experienced inland. The sea has a moderating effect keeping us cooler in the summer months and much warmer in the winter. So, the temperatures we’re getting at the coast seem almost tropical compared to those recorded inland here in Wales.
However, the Borth and Ynyslas weather station that I run has just recorded a new record low temperature this morning of -6.5ºC. The previous coldest day was January 9th 2009 with a low temperature of -6.2ºC. It may drop lower yet before the sun comes up properly, so I may have to update this later today. But for now, it’s a new record of -6.5ºC here in Ynyslas since records began in December 2005.
After our low-level morning bike ride on Saturday morning Steve and I set our sights a little higher and the Summit of Plynlimon called. We drove along the A44 and parked at the Elvis Rock layby and then started the walk to the summit. The going was pretty tough with knee to waist deep soft snow but that was the idea.
We took a bit of a detour from the path to start with, crossed a little gulley and a stream and then continued up the path towards the summit. We didn’t have a huge amount of time as we didn’t leave the car until 2.30pm and it starts getting dark at 4.30pm. It would be completely dark by 5pm, so I had a time of 4pm at the latest in my head for turning around. That gave us 1 hour 30 to get up there, half an hour of light to get back to a decent path and then half an hour of semi-darkness to get back to the road. I did have a torch with me and I knew we could do the last half mile by torch light if needed.
The going was pretty slow thanks to the snow but by 3:30pm we were getting towards the summit. As we did though conditions worsened and the snow started falling. We couldn’t see more than about 20 metres in any direction as near white-out conditions descended. Not a problem we had a compass and GPS with us and knew which way we’d come so could quite easily get back down in zero visibility.
Icy Post
I checked where we were and we were only about 70 vertical metres from the summit so we continued on for a while. Conditions then become very icy under foot and the wind whipped up making it difficult to keep our footing without crampons on, so by 3:45 and about 20 vertical metres from the summit I decided it was time to turn back. We could have made it. Plynlimon isn’t that high, we had decent clothing on, knew where we were, where we were going and how to get back, but sometimes the summit isn’t the only goal. In those conditions the summit would have looked like any other part of the hill, so getting there wouldn’t have been that exciting and as the weather conditions looked set to worsen, having a little bit of leeway as far as the darkness was concerned was going to be a good thing.
The descent was pretty easy and we reached the farm buildings near the road just as complete darkness fell. Perfect timing and a good walk in the snowy hills of Wales.
Hooray, snow at last on the coast here in Wales. It came after dark and there wasn’t much of it but Morgan and I managed to build a snowman under the cover of darkness!
Snowman
We’re having a lovely winter here. Snow on the hills, frost on the dunes and some gorgeous clear moonlit nights. I should have gone for a walk in the hills for New Years Eve really as the moon was full and the snow looked lovely. It even looked quite wintry here on the coast this morning.
Early Morning Moon over Ynyslas Dunes
