Setting off again

With the Sea Fest over it was time to head out. Many of the other participants left yesterday, while the Dublin OGA contingent were planning to go to Conwy, so left as soon as the lock began operating to take the tide through the Swellies.

Our plan was to head for Howth, via an overnight anchorage at Llanddwyn Island just past the Caernarvon Bar. This meant leaving the Marina at about 15:00, on free flow. I called up on Channel 80 to ask for a bridge lift at 14:30 as we wanted to fill up with diesel and water while in the lock.

The timing worked perfectly, and we were motoring out of the lock dead on 15:00, with full tanks and cans. The tide was running quite strongly in the direction we wanted to go, so we only needed the engine on low revs. We got the main sail up, and motor sailed when we could, but the buoyed channel twisted and turned across the apparently wide open water, so turning off the engine was never a possibility.

The shape of the Caernarvon Bar changes every year, making the charts things to treated with caution. Only the sequence of buoys stays the same, their positions must be followed in reality, not on paper. The colours faded to black in the bright sunshine, but the shapes made their type obvious. The fact that the direction of buoyage changes just off Caernarvon itself also needs to be taken into account.

Despite all the potential problems we safely navigated our way out from between the sandbanks, and turned towards the anchorage. There were over 10 yachts already there, and we had to go slightly out of the most sheltered area but there was enough space. We anchored in 3m beneath the keel with 20m of chain, at 17:30 after a slightly nerve wracking passage from Port Dinorwic.

Up the mast

We moved Robinetta to the work area this morning and I got my things together and got into to cage to be lifted up by the fork lift truck.

Replacing the broken strop was reasonably straightforward. I decided a bow shaped shackle would work better than the straight one I had brought and the retaining piece was missing a screw. Alison sent me up the extra bits using the spare halyard.

But we got a bit tangled with the halyard and Alison decided the block on the gaff span was too worn and wanted to replace it, which meant rethreading most of the peak halyard. That done, it was looking good. I moved some of the other strops a little to reduce chafe.

I got the cage raised a bit more to work on the VHF antenna. I fitted a rubber duck for the AIS in Ullapool. It was completely broken and rusted so I just removed it. I took the cable off the main antenna and it didn't look great either. So hopefully the new antenna and cable will restore the radio performance.

The new antenna has a windex. I was worried it might not fit but it was high enough up to clear the top of the mast.

So we could use the same bracket. I got the antenna fitted and got the windex no-go zone arms roughly even port and starboard and tightened their screw.

Then it was time to run the cable down, taping the anchor light cable to the VHF cable and putting both in the trunking that goes past the hounds.

I made sure the cable attachment to the antenna was sealed with self amalgamating tape.

Running the cables is pretty simple now, the trunking makes things much easier.

I had brought black and white tape up with me. I used white everywhere except the antenna bracket and put some extra white over the anchor light fitting so the white at the top of the mast goes all the way up now.

I had to get the cage lowered a metre at a time to get the old cable cut off and the new one into the trunking and then taped down the shrouds.

Then it was taping the bottom by the bulwarks and threading the new cable through the deck fitting.

Alison ran the new cable in the cabin and got rid of the old ones.

Now we just need to fit the new plug!

By then it was time for most of the boats to leave. We were staying another night but most wanted to leave on the tide, either through the Swellies, or out to Carnarvon Bay. We walked down to say farewell and take pictures.

After that I was tired and hungry and thirsty. We had a light lunch and then just chilled until it was time for Mary to go home. I helped her get her luggage to the bus stop and made a short trip to the shop.

At 4pm it was time for the last music of the weekend. A male voice choir / group singing mostly in Welsh with some standards in English. Very sweet sounding.

After that we went up to the Chinese takeaway and brought dinner back and listened to the Proms.

Port Dinorwic

 

A lovely restful day chatting with old friends and making new ones.

Destination for the weekend reached

We needed to head down the Menai Straights to reach Port Dinorwic, which meant going through the Swellies between the bridges. This would not be possible until 12:15, at slack water. That meant a much appreciated lazy morning. We had anchored in 3m beneath the keel, but with a rise of tide of 7m we had let out 30m of chain. Hauling that up and plotting our course between the Menai Strait bridges were the only outstanding tasks before 11:00 when we left.

The weather was lovely, blue sky with a light northerly breeze. With the main sail out of action we never even thought about raising the staysail, and just motored through without any drama, encountering 5 yachts coming the other way.

Neither of us had been to Port Dinorwic Marina, and Julian could not find it on the chartplotter, just the tidal basin with pontoons just past it. He had set this as the destination. Having read the pilot I knew we were looking for the Vaynol Dock entrance, but the two were too close together to matter when setting the course. Julian had just realised that where he was heading was full of motor boats and no masts when I spotted the masts we were looking for. We were slightly past the Vaynol entrance at this point and turning back showed we had quite a lot of tide in our favour.

We made it in, and tied up between the lock gates for half an hour while the marina staff decided the best place to put us. Mary found us there, and came aboard for the last few metres of the journey under the road bridge between the two halves of the marina. This was very slow to raise!

We were moored alongside Laura with the engine off at 13:55. Our long trip south had been successfully completed.

North Wales at last

 We have been heading to North Wales for an Old Gaffers muster since Saturday. 300 nm in 6 days is crazy but I wanted to try it.

We left at 6 am. The tides in this part of the Irish Sea run mostly east-west, so we would have to let them push us one way and then back again and follow a compass course. Our normal "just keep along the line on the chart plotter" would be a much longer journey.

Alison was keen to meet the North Wales folks at the anchorage by Llanddwyn on the west of Anglesey. That was over 60 nm, but achievable, we thought.

The course was 180 and off we went.

The problem was that we only looked at the Irish Sea tidal stream atlas, not the Anglesey specific one. Alison looked at that when we had been going for an hour. It told us we would arrive when there were bad overfalls and strong adverse tides. On the other hand, we could go down the east side of Anglesey and then through the Swellies tomorrow and it would be much easier.

So we changed course to 150.

After a while the wind came in and we were able to motor-sail and then just sail.

We kept an hourly record of the cross track error but didn't change course until mid afternoon. It looked like we were getting pushed west more strongly than we had been pushed east, and I didn't want to get into the fast tides across the top of Anglesey so we altered course.

Suddenly, when Alison was in the cockpit and I was below, there was a bang. Alison called me up.

The gaff was swinging wildly. One of the strops on the mast supporting the peak halyard had failed.

We managed to get the sail down and stowed. We will have to get help with replacing the strop.

Not having the mainsail slowed us down but not too much.

Soon after, we hit strong foul tides. They lasted a couple of hours and then we had favourable ones all the way into the Menai Strait and to our chosen anchorage in the pool opposite Beaumaris.

Only 7 nm to go.

Sunset over Beaumaris

 

Fuel is essential

Checking fuel levels after anchoring is absolutely the wrong time. If we had checked as we crossed Belfast Lough we would have gone straight to Bangor Marina to fill up. We had to have full fuel tanks to cross the Irish Sea with the expected light winds, and they were only a third full. There was only one thing for it, we would have to up anchor early (4 a.m.) and head for Bangor.

Waking up and hauling up the anchor just before dawn is no real hardship. The light was lovely, with tinge of pink to the sky and we could see well even though the chart plotter still thought it was night. The tide was with us out of Donaghadee sound, but against us in Belfast Lough, so it took a couple of hours to get to Bangor Marina, but fuelling was very efficient. After calling the Marina we went straight to the fuel dock. This is self service, pay with card at the dispenser just like a petrol station, and like a petrol station they have white diesel at road traffic prices. We took 48litres to fill the tanks and cans, and 12 minutes after arriving we were away again.

We got the main sail up just outside the marina and motor sailed back towards our anchorage in half the time of our outbound journey. This time we headed out through Dronaghadee Sound rather than back to the anchorage, with the tide now strongly in our favour. We had to ferry glide between the buoys, but there were no bumpy seas in the Sound, or useful wind either!

Once we were clear we set our course for the south end of the Isle of Man. The sea state was a bit rough for George, so we ended up hand steering, hour and hour about. The wind did not come back, and the main sail started slatting about, so we took it down. Then some usable wind came in and we put it up again, then the wind died and the sail started slatting again. This is bad for the rig, so I called Julian up from his off watch.

We were joined at this point by a group of athletic dolphins, who wanted to show off their jumps and tail slaps. Unfortunately we were too busy getting the sail down to give their display the attention it deserved. No pictures!

The Isle of Man was visible but hazy when I went off watch. I dug out our Isle of Man pilot book to have a look at the local tides, and made an interesting discovery. We had been aiming at Chicken Rock to go south of the Calf of Man, but the overfalls could be bad at our estimated arrival time. However the tide would be perfect o go through Calf Sound. This could cut 10 miles off our route (given a suggested 5 mile offing for the Chicken Rock overfalls) and would be well worth doing just to have done it. I pointed out the opportunity to Julian and he was all for it.

Chicken Rock Lighthouse

A small sport fishing boat came through towards us when we were about half a mile off, showing no evidense of bad sea state in the Sound, which was reassuring. Calf Sound has a terrible reputation and even in our benign conditions it was possible to see why. 

Entrance to Calf Sound

The western entrance is very narrow, and the tidal stream means you are not going where you are pointing when navigating that entrance. Our speed shot up to 7 kn at the narrowest part, but this is very short and steering soon returned to normal. We stayed in smooth water all the way as we headed for the headland on the south east side, but over towards the Calf side there were short steep waves with breaking crests. These were very small, but the line of them extended half way across the Sound.

Overfalls even in quiet weather

Calf Sound is an interesting place, but as the pilot book says “only attempt in quiet weather”.

Within an hour we were at Port Saint Mary, with a choice of 2 big yellow visitors bouys. These were in flat water at the open end of the harbour wall. When we were last here, in 2016 the moorings in my memory were further out into the bay, and very subject to swell, but =both of the current ones seemed sheltered. We picked up the one without a resident cormorant on it.

We had had a very early start, and the sea state had been too much for George, and tiring for us. However the fact that our plans had worked, and we had come through Calf Sound made it a good day on the water, even though the engine was on continuously. We could not have made the Isle of Man without our side trip to Bangor.

Glenarm

 The tides can be fierce along this coast. The last time we did it we made 11 knots with a lovely broad reach. So we were waiting for the south bound flood today. We decided it should be slack by 4pm and we would go then.

So today was something of a rest day.

We had shopping to do, showers to have, and hopefully get some diesel.

The shop in Glenarm sells a lot. But it's marching season in Northern Ireland and yesterday was a bank holiday for the Battle of the Boyne.

Because of the holiday, the bread hadn't come at all yesterday and was expected ‘’later” today, as was the delivery from the butcher.

We stocked up on basics and I went to see the harbour master and paid but there is no fuel at Glenarm. There used to be 10 years ago but there was a bad fuel spill and they don't any longer. It's a bus ride to the nearest petrol station. Bangor would be our next good option.

Alison decided the weather was perfect for finally getting some oil on the cap rails and cabin sides. Something she had hoped to do in Lochboisdale but it was too wet.

But first, breakfast. We had a really good fry up with bacon, tomato, eggs and local black pudding. While I was cooking it a couple came to look at Robinetta. Alison told them about her while I cooked.

We didn't need lunch after that.

I popped up to the shop again at noon and the bread was in but no loaves, the had probably already gone. I got some soda bread and a fruit breac.

When Alison had finished her oiling, we went for a walk in the forest with local ice cream from the shop.

It really felt like a holiday.

At 4pm we left and had a decent motor down towards Belfast. We didn't get the strong tides. I think we were a bit early and a bit too near the coast.

Alison decided she preferred to anchor at Copeland Island, rather than going into Bangor.

Getting into the anchorage was interesting. The tide was breaking strongly on the Rid Rock and we had to ferry glide round it. But it all worked. There was a French yacht already anchored but quite far out in deep water. We went in close with plenty of room.

We had some dinner and then, belatedly, put the dip stick into the diesel tanks. They were ⅔ empty and we had nothing in the cans and there was very little wind in the forecast.

We would have to go back to Bangor to get fuel.

We could go now, or in the morning. We decided to go at 4am.