Sailing Spaniel

We  cast off our mooring strop from the Conwy River at 0930 in order to stem the last of the incoming tide, which would mean that the tide would turn in our favour to assist our passage across the bay past Puffin Island.

The first days passage  was from Conwy to Holyhead Marina along the beautiful north coast of Anglesey. A force 2-3 wind saw us rounding Carmel Head at 1630 (H.W + 5hrs) with a weak current in our favour. The trip across Holyhead Bay was slow as we now had the tide against us, and we finally tied up on the pontoon at 1830. A trip of 40 nm had taken us 9 hrs, a very respectable average speed of nearly 4.5 knots, admittedly assisted by the 10hp inboard engine across Holyhead Bay.

An event free first day was crucial in my plans for future voyages as this was the first major passage both my wife Jane and son Jack (7) had undertaken. The evening saw us in the local hostelry discussing the days events, and planning the following days passage. Our original plan had been to catch a very early tide across the Irish Sea to Dublin to meet up with friends who were on holiday there, but after long discussions and reference to local weather forecasts we decided that it would be more prudent to carry on round Anglesey and delay our first major crossing until the next season. This change in our plans meant that we could take a more leisurely journey and spend some time in various harbours, besides which Jack had spotted that the circus was in town, so we spent the next day exploring the delights of Holyhead and doing a bit of retail therapy, followed by an entertaining evening watching high wire acts, plate spinning and impossible contortionists.

We left Holyhead on the Thursday at 1030 on passage to Porth Dinllaen on the Llyn Peninsula. We rounded South Stack at 1200 as the tide was turning, which meant that the sea up to this point had been quite lumpy.

A lovely sunny day with winds of force 3 gave us a wonderful days sail across Caernarfon Bay. Jack has been aboard sailing boats since he was 2 years old and is quite happy as long has he is given something to do. We have a rule aboard that he is always to remain in the cockpit wearing a life jacket, or down below whilst under passage. He has been taught how to hold a compass course and is quite able to handle the tiller in moderate seas. As a 7 year old he has a short attention span and gets bored easily, so short spells on the tiller are interspersed with spells in the galley making sandwiches or programming waypoints into the chart plotter. 
(It’s amazing how children can do this twice as fast as I can!). When all else fails he disappears below for a sleep or to watch a film on his portable DVD player.

We arrived at Porth Dinllaen at 1645, a passage of  28nm and an average speed of 4.5 knots.  We spent some time anchoring in sand  in 4 metres (it took 2 or 3 attempts to get the anchor to dig in). As this was the first time I had anchored this boat  I donned a face mask and dived in to check the set of the anchor.  All looked well so I took a couple of transits and settled down for a lovely home cooked corned beef hash followed by a couple of cool beers and watched the sun set behind the mountains.

Friday at 0745 saw us lifting the anchor and leaving the lovely bay of Porth Dinllaen, this time our passage plan saw us entering the Menai Strait on route to Caernarfon Harbour. I was aiming to pass through the Belan Narrows at HW – 1 hour, which was at about 1100. A brisk and somewhat wet sail in force 3 ensued and we entered the Strait accompanied by a seal, much to Jacks delight. We encountered slack water just as we passed Belan Fort and the waters around Abermenai Pool were like a mill pond. I had always wanted to spend some time at anchor in Abermenai Pool after reading an article by David Rainsbury several years ago, but this would have to wait until another day. A quick call to the Harbourmaster at Victoria Dock in Caernarfon secured us a berth for a couple of nights and we entered the harbour at 1120 after a short 3 ½ hour passage.

We spent a lovely day and a half in and around the town of Caernarfon, visiting a couple of restaurants and pubs.  This sort of timetable, a days sail followed by a day or so relaxing and shopping seemed to suit the mood and ensured that  the holiday will be remembered for just that, a holiday and not a mad dash  around an island.

We left Caernarfon at 1030 on the Sunday after a hearty breakfast shore side. The trip through the Swellies was the part of the trip that had been giving me the most cause for concern, for although I had been through the area a couple of times I had never attempted it in this direction. After looking at the various options and timings, which were all very similar I decided to trust Jones’ after all he was a local pilot and must have done this passage hundreds of times. The aim was to pass through the Swellies  at HW slack -0030 ( or HW Liverpool -0230) to allow the last of the tidal flood to carry us through.  We timed it perfectly arriving at Brittania Bridge at 1130 (HW slack -0045) and had a very gentle motor along the 1 mile stretch that can run at up to 7 knots under the wrong conditions.

A lovely passage up the rest of the Strait with the wind on our stern, travelling at 7 knots over the ground in places, passing  Beaumaris and on to Puffin Island . We turned east and were now on the home run reaching the Conwy  Fairway Buoy at 1330. The ebb tide was starting to build against us as we entered the River and we could only manage 3 knots over the ground under engine. We eventually picked up our mooring at 1515.

We had a wonderful voyage over  6 days, covering a total of 113 miles and completing a circumnavigation of Anglesey, something I have been intending to do for many years. More importantly by breaking the voyage into smaller sailing days, interspersed with rest and shopping days, it turned into a holiday for the whole family. Hopefully next year we will be able to attempt a trip to Ireland or the Isle of Man. But that’s another story!