25 March 2010
We left Victoria Dock, Caernarfon at 1530 in sunshine and light breezes, but it was not to last!! Dave and Maura from the Royal Welsh Yacht Club were on the dock wall to wave us off and Dockmaster Mark was there to cast off the lines and say goodbye.
Next thing was to try and remember how all the instruments, chart plotter and autopilot worked since we had not used them for over 5 months. We soon had the plotter and autopilot safely following the waypoints North Eastwards through the Menai Straits towards Britannia Bridge and the infamous Swellies section between the two bridges joining Anglesey to the mainland. A couple of knots of tide helped us on our way past Port Dinorwic and Plas Menai where a couple of small yachts were being readied for sailing by crews of youngsters and their Instructors. Lots of shouting and waving from the kids as we passed. Also passed 4 or 5 rowing boats out from Dinorwic.
We arrived at Britannia Bridge at 1615 and held our breath as we squeezed underneath – Sue always refuses to look up because it always looks as if there is not enough room for our mast, actually there is about 24ft clearance but it never looks anything like that much!!!. Piloted our way through the narrow channel of the Swellies and saw the Caernarfon Harbour Trust boat, Afon Seiont coming towards us under the Menai Bridge. Harbour Master Richard at the helm gave us plenty of room as we passed to more cheery waves. Under the Menai Suspension Bridge and head on up the Straits to Bangor, Gallows Point, Beaumaris and finally Puffin Island marking the end of the Straits. By now the weather had turned grey and overcast with spots of rain, which, together with a fresh NE wind on our nose contrived to make it all feel pretty chilly. Still felt good to be finally making tracks towards distant places. |
| Heading Towards Britannia Bridge, Menai Straits |
Passed through Puffin Sound at 1745 and set course for Point Lynas on the NE corner of Anglesey, nav lights on because it was pretty grey. Our AIS showed us that the only large boat in the vicinity, the Monsoon, was anchored directly on our course to Lynas, as we got nearer it was clear the AIS had been spot on from 7miles away as we would have run straight into her, a few degrees course change saw us pass her stern about 400yds off.
We rounded Point Lynas at about 1900 and headed down to Port Eilean, a small bay behind Point Lynas. We had decided it was getting too dark to try getting into Amwlch Harbour so we thought we would anchor for the night. Failed to get the anchor set first time, but second attempt saw us firmly hooked, made very sure the anchor was well set because the forecast was for winds picking up to F6-7 overnight, both engines astern at 1800rpm confirmed we were going nowhere. As it turned out it was not the most comfortable anchorage as a tidal swell around Point Lynas kept us bobbing about a bit for the night – very glad we were not on a monohull.
Sue dished up Pork in Cider Sauce with mash and veg so we eat that and retired for an early night about 2100.
26 March 2010
Listened to all the Coastguard weather forecasts, generally predicting Southerly winds F4-6 for our area between Anglesey and the Isle of Man, wind on the boat currently 12-16 knots (F3-4), so we are getting ready to set sail later this morning approx 1030 towards Castletown.
Engines started and anchor raised just after 1030 as planned, motored out of Porth Eilian Bay to give us some room to raise the sails. Wind was a fair bit stronger than we had in the bay so we settled on 2 reefs in the main sail and some gennaker for a foresail, off we went at about 9knots in 25knots of SSW wind. It turned out the gennaker was not doing too much because it was mainly behind the mainsail so we rolled it away and carried on with just the double reefed main, still making between 7 & 8 knts, we could have gone quite a bit quicker if we wanted but there was no point since we would have arrived at Castletown too early in the tide and would have had to wait in the Bay for enough water to get into the harbour.
The wind stayed between 22 and 28 knts all the way and the sea was a bit mixed up, but mainly from behind so we had a pretty good crossing. We would have liked it a bit smoother for our first passage of the season but it was just about OK. Sue had taken her tablets and survived the crossing without any queasiness at all, she didn’t even retire to bed “for a rest”. A pretty uneventful crossing all in all, no dolphins or porpoises to brighten the journey.
Sailed into Castletown Bay at 1700, we took our time lowering sails, getting fenders out and readying lines because we were still about ½ hr early so we motored slowly towards the harbour to get in at 1730. All safely tied up alongside the Quay wall outside the Harbour Office at 1800. A bit of a swell rolling up the harbour kept us moving around a bit, but not as much as we had at sea!!! A meal of gammon, sweet potatoes and peas, as well as a celebratory bottle of wine to mark our first proper passage of the adventure was very welcome.
We were both pretty tired and an early night was the best idea – albeit disturbed at midnight to get up and make sure our dock lines were set correctly when we settled on the river bed as the tide went out. | ||
| Castletown Harbour |
27 & 28 March 2010
A lovely sunny weekend in Castletown, westerly winds caused a bit of a swell to roll up the harbour so we were swaying about a bit. We checked the boat over to make sure everything was OK after our first crossing, fortunately everything seems to be fine. We had a visit by the local swans looking for food, there only seems to be about 8 swans around at the moment – in the past we have seen over 20 here.  |
| One of Castletown's Swans |
We dry out here in Castletown so we end up sitting on the river bed as the tide goes out, this gives us a chance to check the bottom of the boat. There was only a very thin film of mud on the hulls, no barnacles, weed or growth anywhere so the antifouling is performing extremely well (we used Blakes Ocean Performer last July, if anyone is interested). Also changed the anodes on the folding props and the fridge/freezer keel coolers, the existing ones were about 2/3 wasted away. There was a few small barnacles and bits on the props so these were given a thorough cleaning followed by a serious polishing – they are now gleaming, apparently even a few small barnacles can cause a 10 -15% reduction in performance so we should be much better in that respect now.
Gave the hulls a quick brush off with the water brush to get rid of the mud film and we are pretty much ready to go again. I will give the props another couple of coats of polish to try and keep them clean for as long as we can. |
| Sat on the River Bed in Castletown |
Sue has sorted out the inside of the boat and got her ornaments out again so it looks like we are staying a while. Actually the weather forecast looks pretty horrible up towards Easter so we are staying put until Easter at least, then we will see what the weather is like. Current plan is to head across to N Ireland, possibly Larne and then towards Rathlin Island, Islay and Jura.
