The Summer Solstice and longest day seemed like a great excuse for an evening paddle and beach fire so the call went out and the (fool)hardy turned up - Mike (cool man) Tildesley, Mike (the paddle) Owen, Graham (does your misses know your here) , Chris (the Ringer) Wright and Andy (anyone for a slingshot) Short. The plan was for a trip from Bull Bay to Llanllianna for a fire and return (late).
The trip got off to an excellent start with Porpoises spotted off the Starboard Bow almost immediately. Several small black fins arced gracefully through the water fishing in the ebbing tide.
A smooth paddle round to Borth Wen ensued as Graham and Mike O looked to preserve their pristine hulls while Andy looked to wreck his with ill-judged rock hopping in the half light. Whilst the Cybi guys were exploring the caves and gullies of Borth Wen (the brickworks) Chris (the Ringer) finally caught up - he's a slow starter - and immediately 'praised' Mike O for the quality of his paddle, saying something like "ooh where can I get hold of one of those?"
With the group formed we ploughed on with the tide to our beach stop and Andy, Mike O and Graham set about dutifully collecting fire wood whilst Mike T emptied half the contents of the Huws Gray yard out of his boat. Whilst the sun set on the longest day refreshments were taken - some focussing on the liquids others taking a more measured approach and eating all the cake. At this point Graham was beginning to realise that he wasn't going to get home for tea (or even for his cocoa), and that he didn't have any signal to let the misses know.
So as night descended and the beer was finished, it was decided to head for home. 'Someone' suggested a 'slingshot' round Ynys Padraig to set us on our way. Unfortunately the ebb hadn't quite abated and the tide was still running round the island. The eddy behind the island was made and the slingshot plan revised - well, torn up and binned - who's idea was it to put us out in the tide race in the dark?
After an interesting ferry glide back to where we had started during which Graham was heard to mutter about "going straight to work at this rate" and "I wish I'd worn me long trousers" we could finally start our return journey. Good time was made close in to shore with the occasional blast of the off-shore wind as we passed the open bays of Hells Mouth and Borth Wen. The highlight of the return trip had to be the phosphorescence (sic) green / blue electric sparkles on the surface of the water as you boat or blade break the surface - a truly magical experience!
Bull Bay was made at exactly Midnight and everyone wished Graham good luck with his misses when he got home before all sloping off home to bed to dream of Porpoises, phosphorescence and tide races in the dark.
roll on next year!
Andy Short
The perfect day for a perfect paddle. On the water by 9 am. With the sun shining on our faces and the breeze on our back, we quietly made our way out onto Malltreath Sands and followed the channels that would take us out to sea. Swans, Herons and Oyster Catchers were busy going about their business, swooping and diving all around us.
We found a tiny beach to stop for tea and spent a good 15 minutes trying to get my kelly Kettle fired up to boil water for tea... we failed, and so resorted to Philips trusty flask to supply the hot water: Boy scouts we're not! 
We then continued further along the shoreline rock-hopping all the way. With the tide turning it was time to head back, but not until Philip retrieved an interesting piece of flotsam, making his kayak look as if it had developed some strange growth.
We made good time back to Malltreath and arrived at high tide for an easy get-out. Four hours of bliss watching the world go by. It doesn't get much better then this...
