Ebb and flow - it's getting to me...

I’ve written about Bardsey before. Bardsey Island or Ynys Enlli as it is known in the Welsh. The ‘Island of 20,000 saints’, lies 2 miles off the Llyn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. ‘The Island in the Currents’.

It's getting to me.

‘The Island in the Currents’. Sometimes I’ve stood on the mountainside on the mainland looking down and over to Bardsey and watched those currents whirl and flow in the sound. Often a whirling pool appears in the water, it’s a treacherous place to be in a boat and occasionally, in bad weather, the island can be cut off for weeks.

We were going across to the island half a dozen times but on each occasion bad weather caused the boat to be cancelled. We got there eventually though, one sunny summer’s day many years ago now, and found a place of quiet and emptiness surrounded by the sea and seals.

It’s one of those places that I go to when I can’t sleep. I wander the deserted beaches, past the sparse cottages, up to the lighthouse and look down the length of the island towards those deep, treacherous waters.

I’ve been going there a lot recently, as I mentioned - it's getting to me.

I’m in my own treacherous waters at the moment, tossed to and fro in life’s eddy and waves. I can see the whirlpool in the distance, coming slowly towards me, but as yet it’s still too far off to be dangerous. I can feel its pull though, dragging at me as I struggle to move in the other direction.

Who knows, there may be a friendly fishing boat along any minute now to rescue me.