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.