Interacting with both the Coastguard and/or National Coastwatch Institute (NCI), can be daunting, however often while the etiquette for using the radio when sailing (which we have researched thoroughly), feels natural for us now, there were still unknown issues with regard to the radio etiquette for a group of kayaks on open water, which we needed addressing.

That was it for snow. The whole place was covered in between six and eight inches of snow., but it was enough for us to fulfil our winter paddling ambitions, whilst also completing the first step of our Harryår, or Harry Year challenge. This is a Swedish challenge, named after a Fin, who questioned why his Swedish friends, were putting away their boats in winter and not paddling all year round.

The first adventure was with four of us on Llyn Padarn. For the longest time we have been seeing other kayakers, kayaking with fairy lights on their boats in December, which looked like wonderful fun, and we wanted to have a go ourselves. So we arranged to meet at the lake one evening, an hour or two before the sun was due to set.

So we met the club. Cerys and I had to go out on a couple of assessment paddles with the chair and membership secretary, so they could assess what help I might need, and see where we were in terms of paddling. We had good long chats with them, and they were all great. It was deemed that we were obviously still learning, but that we were okay to go into the pool sessions. We gained the tag ‘Improvervs’. Exciting.

We were not surprised to find more seals on the rocks as we went around, and must have seen twenty or thirty of them in all, but a couple of encounters were a bit more exciting. As we rounded one corner of the furthest rocks, and coming a little close to rocks as we passed, we found ourselves facing a very large seal, who just barked at us, as we passed by.