This weeks day off...

[Mike Mayberry]

The weather looks good and I've planned a trip out to the Smalls on Friday.



From a conversation on Facebook it seems that it may have been done around 15 years ago and written up in Ceufad or Canoe Focus . Anyone know who? I find it hard to believe that no one has been.

[FinbarrFury]

Aarrrrrrr ... there be dragons in those waters .......... aarrrrr. Closest I got was on Irish Ferries

[Owen]

I think it was Nigel Foster.

[Stuart Yendle]

Does that mean we'll be the second? There must be more surely.

[Mike Mayberry]

Getting a photo of a sea kayak underneath the Smalls Lighthouse has been on the "to do" list for a while...

[Mark R]

Good effort! How many hours/ miles?

[Mike Mayberry]

69.4 km, 11 hours 8 minutes, average speed 6.2km/h, Max speed 14.5km/h.

It took us 3 1/2 hours to get there, very, very easy. We spent an hour on the rock surrounded by seals and paddled into a force 3-4 headwind for the first two hours on the return journey. There is not the same assistance on the return leg as on the outward leg. Blog to follow. I'm sure Stuart will be writing one too.

[Stuart Yendle]

Trawling through my 92 pictures might take me a while :)

[Stuart Yendle]

Blog post here...http://seakayaking-stuart.blogspot.co.uk/

[soundoftheseagull]

Congrats great Blog

[Mark R]

Love the wooden stumps!

[Kayaks'N'Beer]

Epic shift, well done!

At this point I was struggling to keep up with Mike, painfully holding in my bladder for the last few hours was having an effect.

I laughed at this, having found myself in exactly the same position last weekend.

[Stuart Yendle]

Epic shift, well done!

At this point I was struggling to keep up with Mike, painfully holding in my bladder for the last few hours was having an effect.

I laughed at this, having found myself in exactly the same position last weekend.

Seriously I was in pain, and it doesn't help you use your core muscles to paddle. I have a two piece dry suite where the pants, cag and skirt all piece together making it virtually impossible to go en-route. When we finally reach a rock where I could get out a boat full of tourists turned up and stopped to wave at us.

I'm a little worried as we are supposed to be crossing the Irish Sea soon with no less than 15 hours in the boat.

Love the wooden stumps!

Fascinating seeing a little bit of history still clinging on.

[janet brown]

There are medical devices where a condom type sheath fits into a catheter bag, and even looks like you might be able to get free samples!
http://www.coloplast.co.uk/products/samples/conveen/
Otherwise just buy some nice big incontinence pads!!

Janet

[Kayaks'N'Beer]

Epic shift, well done!

At this point I was struggling to keep up with Mike, painfully holding in my bladder for the last few hours was having an effect.

I laughed at this, having found myself in exactly the same position last weekend.

Seriously I was in pain, and it doesn't help you use your core muscles to paddle. I have a two piece dry suite where the pants, cag and skirt all piece together making it virtually impossible to go en-route.

Snap! I also use a farmer john wetsuit as a baselayer just to up the difficulty factor. I came close to standing on the end of the raft and taking off my PFD and spraydeck. Not sure if that's considered best practice, tho.

[Mike Mayberry]

Sea kayak to the Smallsnow written up.

Thanks for the company Stuart. We really need to sort out your access or some of Janet's pads before we cross the Irish Sea ;p

[Essveekay]

What a super blog Stuart, I read your write up on the rescue as well. Nice to see an honest write up about your situation and how you managed it.

[Stuart Yendle]

What a super blog Stuart, I read your write up on the rescue as well. Nice to see an honest write up about your situation and how you managed it.

oh god don't bring that up again don't start this lot off on rescues :) Thanks for reading.

[Stuart Yendle]

Nigel Forster did paddle to The Smalls in 1984 when the light house was still manned. The keeper had no record of anyone ever paddling out there prior to this. In the years after there had been a few unsuccessful attempts to reach the smalls. I quite like to think we could possibly be the second only to have paddled there.

[journeyman]

I quite like to think we could possibly be the second only to have paddled there.

You're probably the first Welshman to paddle out there though.

[Stuart Yendle]

Photograph from Nigels' crossing in 1984.

[Essveekay]

oh god don't bring that up again don't start this lot off on rescues :) Thanks for reading.

Very good! and yes, I get what you mean!