She is finally dry. After literal years of battling the never ending stream of water that poured into her, from seemingly nowhere, we have finally got to a point where she stays dry on the inside now. We spent ages chasing and replacing and resealing everything that could have possibly been a problem, including the escape hatch, and even remaking the main hatch and door.
Boat Fatigue Finally Got Us!
The last thing we want is for all of this progress to mean nothing. All the filming, videos, hours spent scrubbing her, repairing anchor lockers, cutting wood, painting, mopping up water, dealing with an indifferent yard, paying through the nose to store her, and all the sanding. Oh, so much sanding, let’s not forget that. It needs to be completed, and we do not want our unfortunate state(s), to get in our way.
Kosi Pogies Review
Kayaking in winter is cold, obviously. This winter, Mum and I made every effort to make sure that we kept paddling and adventuring as the weather got worse, and we are firm believers in the mantra that there is no such thing as bad weather, just being badly prepared. Pogies are piece of kayaking kit that are designed to wrap around the paddle, with an opening for your hand to slip in, so you can hold the paddle.
CK Explorer 430 Kayaks Review
We then came across Cambridge Kayaks, who had some touring kayaks on sale. Naturally, we had many questions, and thankfully, the people at CK were incredibly friendly. They answered all the questions we had, and talked for us for probably much longer than is necessary to make a sale. They genuinely just wanted to make sure we had the right information that we needed, which was lovely.
Testing My Dry Suit – Yak Strata
We knew as we fell in love with kayaking, that we were never going to be the kind of people who hung up our paddles over the winter, but instead we would be looking to paddle all the way through the colder months, when possible (health and weather aside). We’re sticklers for trying to have the right gear, so once we realised we were going to need a dry suit each, we started the hunt for something we could afford.
Canoe Club – VHF Winter Talk
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.
Winter Paddle on Llyn Padarn
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.
Llyn Dinas – Accessibility
Llyn Dinas is a small but picturesque lake in Eryri (Snowdonia), nestled in a classic glacial valley with a mix of woodland and rugged hills surrounding it. Llyn Dinas is relatively small and elongated, stretching roughly 1 km in length, oriented roughly northwest to southeast. Its shape is narrow, typical of a glacially carved ribbon lake. The lake is fed by small streams from the surrounding hills and drains via the Afon Glaslyn.
Christmas Paddling 2025
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.
Llyn Gwynant– Accessibility
Llyn Gwynant is a lake in Eryri (Snowdonia), nestled in a classic U-shaped glacial valley. The geography around the lake is striking because the surrounding terrain rises steeply on both sides, creating a dramatic mountainous backdrop. To the west and north, you have the Snowdon Massif and peaks such as Moel Eilio and Moel Hebog. To the east, the valley slopes rise more gently but still frame the lake with hills like Cnicht, giving it a sense of enclosure.