Day 1
This cruise marked the start of what I hope is going to be a busy cruising season where we hope to extend ourselves a little. We have planned trips to the Isle of Man and Cardigan Bay later in the year. Anyway this cruise has become the traditional season opener and Gordon and I were planning to look like seasoned second year sailors this time, rather than the obvious rookies that we were last year.
The cruise was planned to run from Saturday morning to Bank Holiday Monday, with the planned stops at Menai Bridge and Holyhead on the way round. The Menai Bridge stop was presumably because the tides were such that we would have had to leave Conwy at about 6 am to get through The Swellies at HW Dover -2 which was 12:56. There were however 20 boats in the fleet so Menai would have been very crowded. The planned departure time left us with the usual problem of getting out of the dock in time to get down to The Swellies for the transit. So we decided to get Diablo out of the dock on the Friday and spend the night out on the river.
So Gordon arrived in Deganwy at 10.30 on Friday morning with a plan of leaving the dock about 11.30, getting in a couple of hours in the bay and then berthing for the night on a bouy or a spare pontoon space on the Conwy River. To facilitate this plan I called the Conwy Harbour Master to ask if there was a spare berth anywhere that we could use. Tony (the harbour master) asked why I wasn’t considering using the pontoons space set aside as holding berths for the use of our Marina. The answer to this question was that I was never made aware of the fact that we had any holding berths in the river, I need to suggest to Deganwy Quay that they publicise this usefull facility a little. Anyway I know about it now.
We left the dock at the planned 11.30 and headed out to the Fairway in very light winds which were ideal for demonstrating to Gordon the use and setup of our newly acquired cruising chute. This little trip was pretty uneventful. We got the chute to fly and in fairly light winds we managed to get the boat doing about 3 knots in 5-7 knots of wind. On our return to the river we had to tie up at the Deganwy Quay holding pontoon on the river on an ebb tide with about a 4 knot current running against us. Gordon and I had planned the berthing in detail. we planned to stem the tide and then ferry glide into position on the pontoon. This was a good plan but it didn’t take into account a back eddy which pushed us towards the pontoon at quite high speed. We made it onto the pontoon after some fairly hefty use of reverse and settled the boat dow for the night. We got the NWCC launch to the shore and had dinner in the house at Deganwy before heading out to the NWCC for the briefing followed by a night on Diablo on the River.
Of the 4 or 5 cruises we did with the NWCC last year only 1 of them actually happened as planned. All the rest were changed at the last minute due to either a problem with the weather or the tides. And the same happened this time. As had been hinted to us earlier in the day the plan had changed significantly and instead of heading off down the straights we were to go round the island in the opposite direction and the plan was to berth at Holyhead on day 1, Caernarfon on Day 2 and then back to Deganwy on the final day. Day 1 was to start with a race from the fairway as far as Middle Mouse Island, start time 11 am.
Day 2 HW Dover 12:56
After a pleasant breakfast and a good nights sleep we planned to head off at 9am. to give us plenty of time to get to the fairway for the 11 am start. The day was pleasantly warm and sunny with little wind but by 9 am there was a rip roaring tide flooding past us towards Conwy. I completely buggered up our plan to get away from the pontoon and we ended up getting forced back onto the pontoon by the tide which put a nasty 12 inch scratch down the port side of the boat. I had rehearsed the departure process a number of times in my head, but for some reason or other I changed the plan at the last minute and had the stern slip line in my hand as Gordon released the forward line. I couldn’t hold the boat and steer at the same time and we gut pushed round the end of the Pontoon. This was a big learning for me. Unless there is a very good reason. Stick with your plan and execute it well. Only change things if there if some significant change to the situation that forces it..
Anyway, suitably chastened, we headed off for the fairway buoy and met up with the other crews. I managed to start the race pretty much perfectly for me and was in 2nd place in the flotilla as we crossed the line, most unusual. The problem was there was almost no wind at all. What there was putting us on a reach in about 4 to 7 knots of wind. Diablo is a great boat when there is a bit of wind about, but in light airs she struggles to keep up with the boats with battened main sails. The in-mast reefing is really easy to handle, but the required floppy sail does not make for great light airs performance. After 1 hour we started slipping back in the field and had still not made it across the bay to Puffin Island. A couple of boats had already put on their engines and it was clear that if we stayed at the same pace we wouldn’t get anywhere near Holyhead wthin 24 hours. I inquired off the sailing captain what his plans were to be told that he intended to win the race to middle mouse. I informed him that I had an appointment the following week and on went the engine. Gordon went for a kip at this point and we motor sailed on round to Holyhead passing plenty of harbour porpoises on the way. We got onto our berth at Holyhead without any further excitement and settled down to a pleasant ready meal Cumberland pie and an early night. The race was eventually abandoned about 20 minutes after I called in our retirement. So I guess the decision was justified. We had the motor on all the way round to Holyhead.
During the day we had heard Brian in Silent Wings being called up on the VHF. It was Brian who was the previous owner of Diablo. He has given me some great advice and help in the last 18 months. We called him up and Brian was planning to sail round Anglesey as well. He was also berthed for the evening in Holyhead, with a plan to be in Caernarfon on the following night as well.
Day 3 HW Dover 01:16 and 13:39
The plan for the Holyhead to Caernarfon leg required us to get out of Holyhead at 06.00 hours to beat the tide around the infamous South Stack. Winds were still light and were coming from the North West. On rounding the main harbour breakwater there was suddenly a commotion in the water next to the boat and we were greeted with the site of 2 large dolphins who swooshed around the boat for a couple of minutes and the disappeared. Fantastic. When we mentioned this event to the other crews later in the evening it seemed that they had all had the same experience. This pod must have decided to say farewell to each boat as it left the harbour.
We negotiated the choppy water of South Stack quite happily and then found ourselves with a fairly light wind on the rear port quarter, que the cruising chute. By this time Brian in Silent Wings was on our starboard side so it was with some trepidation that we raised our red white and blue chute and banged along at about 4 knots towards Caernarfon Bar.
This was our second trip through the bar, but the first one heading towards Holyhead. We had the latest buoy information for the Bar so the process was fairly straightforward one we had found the gate between numbers 1 and 2. We were safely berthed in Victoria Dock by midday. I had a sleep and Gordon went for a walk in the town. In the evening we had a very pleasant meal with 3 of the other crews at Molly’s Bistro.. Excellent food and plenty of it. There was talk of a force 7 wind overnight. If it occurred I slept through it.
Day 4 HW Dover 01:59 and 14:22
It was certainly windier on Monday morning but I don’t think it was a anywhere near a 7. It was blowing WNW at about 5 probably gusting to the high side of force 6. Pretty much ideal for the north easterly trip back up the Menai Straights to Conwy. We were the first boat out of Caernarfon. I stuck to the exit plan this time so there were no mishaps. Once out of the dock we put up a small genoa and tootled up the straights at 2 knots to get us to the Swellies in time for the transit. The Swellies transit was uneventful although I basically just followed the other boats. We really need to document for ourselves a reverse Swellies transit plan, as all the ones in the books have a very detailed description of the transit when heading south. They just tell you to reverse the process for the northerly transit.. Well it’s not quite as simple as that, so I will have to spend some time documenting the northerly transit. Once past the Swellies we banged on up the straights under sail and crossed at the Swatch with the wind behind us right the way across to the Fairway. We sailed up the river and were back in Deganwy by 16.30.
All in all it was quite a pleasant trip. The positives were; learning how to use the cruising chute properly and the company of the dolphins on the exit from Holyhead. On the downside I now have gel coat repair to undertake and we have acquired a small fuel leak from the heater pump. Next trip is the Ise of Man cruise at the end of the month.
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