Richie Lord

With a reasonable weather window we went for a quick sail to church Bay and back. Winds NE gusting 24kt we put in a reef and enjoyed a social chat about the history of Holyhead Harbour and the Maritime influences of Anglesey (Ynys Môn) and Holyhead (Ynys Cybi) dating back to the 2 Roman occupations of Anglesey. Lovely sunny conditions until the cloud cover increased as we arrived back in Holyhead New Harbour.

SW F5 wind conditions showing Harri’s son and his friend the basics on Flair IV. Back on the mooring for a late lunch as the sunshine faded away behind high level cloud formations.

An excellent afternoon for a sail in Holyhead bay especially for the first time since my shoulder operation in June. Sunshne and steady 13kt SW wind was ideal with friends to keep an eye on me! We had two novice crew members Ruby and Tony with Becca and me introducing them to this complex sport. While Richie and Tess dealt with most of the sail setting.

Helen, Tess, Richie and Becca came on board at 10:30. I had got most things ready for setting off so we got underway shortly after their arrival. Winds again Northerly on a nice sunny morning 10kt as we left the harbour. Great sailing conditions as we left the harbour and sound over to North Stack. Once passed North Stack we turned to the south and headed down to Rhoscolyn. With the wind on our stern we set up a preventer before changing to the Code 0 sailing down at around 5 to 6 kn over the ground. As we passed Maen Piscar the wind became light but we managed to sail round Rhoscolyn head and make a course to Cymyran Bay when we anchored and settle down to have a wonderful lunch with contributions from all the crew. It has been sunny all the way down to this point, but as we finished our lunch and had a brew, high cloud was building from the west. After lunch, we packed away the cockpit table and Tess and I fill the diesel tank from the jerrycan and added more fuel treatment before we restarted the engine and lifted the anchor to sail back to Holyhead on the flood tide. The return course was to windward and we had to tack to avoid getting too close to Maen Piscar as the tide pushed us ever closer. Once opposite Trearddur Bay the Sun started to reappear and apart from some window tide approaching South stack return journey went well but under the shadow of North Stack the wind died away before changing direction to South Westerley 3 to 5 Kt so we had to motor most of the length of the breakwater to get back to our mooring in good time.

Due to tie constraints for crew members we were limited to an afternoon cruise around Holyhead bay. With the rain dying away during the morning I went up to the boat for midday to sort out some of the small jobs and prepare the boat for when the crew arrived at 13:45. By the time the crew, Richie, Tess and Harrie, were onboard the wind had filled in to a steady 9 to 10kt from the south so we set off from the mooring under the full main. Approaching the end of the breakwater we could see the Irish Ferries ship leaving her berth so we checked for traffic with Port Control, circled round and put in a reef as the winds had increased significantly, before resuming our heading across to Clippera passing astern of the ferry. We sailed towards Chruch bay and went in close to shore for the crew to have a good look at where we used to anchor up when doing the HSC 2 peaks race. As it was just a day since the spring tide I suggested we should go towards The Skerries, knowing the we would see wind over tide, so that we would see the buildup of the waves! Having gybed after passing ynys y fydlyn, to see through the arch under the elephant's head, we headed out into the tide race from Carmel Head. We bounced for a short distance before turning to the SE to get out of the challenging choppy waters and headed back to Bolivar with Harrie now getting experience on the helm. She continued to helm all the way beck into the harbour when, due to the high winds we dropped the sails and motored onto the mooring.

I arrived at 09:00, as Matt drove into the car park, to get the first launch out to Flair but a small holdup as the launch driver could not get the launch to start. Not a long delay before we were taken out to Flair and started to work on the new backstay rope installation. As the rest of the crew, Tess, Richie and Harry arrived we moved onto general preparation for sailing and Matt got into his climbing harness for the mast climb to install the windex and to reattach the steaming/deck light. We were a little behind our nd intended departure but with the increasing wind we were expecting the thick mist to disperse; however it didn’t clear and navigating to the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater was done using GPS! With Fog Horns blaring from various sources we called Holyhead Port Control for permission to leave the new Harbour Area, the return message warned us of one of the Ferries about to arrive at North Stack so we planned to stay close to the breakwater as we headed out Westward. Winds were northerly F3, we were unable to verify the speed as there was no data being received by the wireless wind display; yet another job to get to grips with… Sea state round the Stacks was good as we had wind wind with tide. Knowing that the winds were from the north and our passage once round North and South Stack would be Southerly and then Southeasterly we had prepared the spinnaker ready to deploy. Since the mist was still dense we had very little sight onto the shore even though our course was close but we saw plenty of trains of guillemots flying around us. We also caught sight of a dolphin once past Abraham’s Bosom. A couple of large ribs were running along the shoreline as we stayed out across Trearddur Bay for a direct line to avoid Maen Piscar and to safely round the Beacon Rocks, or Ynysoedd Gwylanod (Islands of the Seagulls), We had been hoping to meet up with some other boats from Holyhead but only one, Live Wire had set off this morning and they had stopped, we later found out, in Trearddur Bay. so there were no boats in Rhoscolyn bay. We attempted to anchor but the kelp was so thick that we could not get a good bite with the anchor; after several attempts we decided to go further round into the next bay, Cymyran Bay (Bae Cymyran) where we could see another small yacht anchored up. As the tide was at low water at this point I was happy to go into quite shallow water to get protection from the Northerly wind. We anchored up for Lunch enjoying breaks in the mist allowing some pleasant sunshine and warmth. We could see down to Rhosneigr from here and it had been sunny all day there! Once the tide had turned and we had enjoyed a relaxing lunch we left the bay and sailed back with wind over tide and increasing mist, by now not just mist but fog! Our return trip was quick with the wind increasing to F4, white caps appearing, and our VMG to the waypoint at South Stack around 8kt. With the tide pushing us north we tacked a couple of times to avoid being carried too far north of North Stack and one of our tacks took us very close the South Stack even though we could not see it but the Fog Horn was very loud! The winds were fickle as we stayed close to North Stack once we had turned east so our progress was mostly just in line with the tide for a short distance. Fairly soon we were sufficiently far from Holyhead Mountain to get better wind at sea level and although we could not see the breakwater we pressed on towards the lighthouse and once cleared with Port Control we rounded the end of the breakwater and sailed up to the mooring. A very interesting day but not much in the way of photographic opportunities!

Having rounded Penrhos it was a beat up to Meath. Our crew today, Chris Higham, Tess, Richie and Andy Lord who has recently joined the club. On this leg we heard Dawn starting the Squib race, and as we sailed back from Meath to Clipera we saw the sqibs heading out from the harbour to round Clipera too. Hellhound was now getting close to Clipera on Starboard tack so we had to go close to the mark to avoid getting in her way. Rounding Clpera and heading back to the finish line we kept clear of the breakwater to keep out of the wind shadow an finaly rounded up to sail inside thr IDM. Another great Wednesday evening sail.

Cruise into Skerries Lagoon 2024-05-12 With a very low wind forecast I anticipated a significant part of the passage would be under motor but the conditions were perfect for access to the lagoon. With High water Holyhead around 14:10 the plan was to leave the mooring at 13:00. Richie, Tess and Henrietta arrived on board at around 12:40 and started to get the boat ready for when Helen arrived at 13:00. Just as the main was being raised the backstay dyneema line failed completely; this was jury rigged with another line before we left the mooring. Fair winds leaving the New Harbour allowed us to pass the TSZ and set off in an 11 Kt SW on our northerly course to a waypoint I had set for accessing the Skerries Lagoon. As the tide reached its high point the winds died away leaving flat calm from opposite Langdon Ridge. Now under engine we continued at around 5.5 Kt up to the West of The Skerries allowing us to drop the sails as we approached the way point. Having not navigated into the lagoon since my last visit on Lily we approached at a slow speed watching the depth gauge very carefully. We managed an almost perfect line into the lagoon keeping close to the wall then circling round to anchor away from the mooring buoy which was occupied by a motorboat and a jet ski. The crew had to reattach the anchor ready to deploy it in 4m depth and check the swing so as to avoid colliding with the motor boat. The jet ski left shortly after our arrival and I am glad to say it left without causing much noise and no wake. Once I was happy with the anchor swing we sat and watched swarms of arctic terns rise from the foreshore making very loud noises while the puffins and gulls just got on with their less noisy entertainment. Henrie and Helen then got their swimming kit on and dived off the swim deck while a large seal observed from the west side of the lagoon but apparently uninterested in the swimmers. We remained at anchor for around 45 minutes before heading off back to Holyhead. There was still very little wind so we motored out from the lagoon and set course for the end of the breakwater. This is our track in and out of the lagoon. Min depth shown was 0.75 below our keel. As we motored over the turbulent waters on the exit of the lagoon we raised the sails gradually filling as we headed south. Visibility was poor and it was difficult to see the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater but as the wind filled in again we had a lovely sail back. Statistics computed from imported data Sunday, 12 May 2024, 12:53 BST Distance: 27.3 km Duration: 4 hours, 7 minutes and 16 seconds Average Speed: 6.6 km/h

Yacht Name Finish Time Hellhound 19:46 Live wire 20:05 Flair IV 19:37 WINDS SW 12 Kt As there were no volunteers for the quarterdeck for tonight we set the race course as HSC 01 and carried out the start procedure and notified Port Control The three yachts were at very close quarters as they approached the start but all were clear on the line. A fine reech was set to get past the knuckle and then Flair bore away a little with the other two staying higher to the wind. Once we had a clear site of Meath Flair gybed onto port allowing for the flood tide effect north of the breakwater. Now Flair had a fair lead over the other two boats. Once round Meath the windward leg was just too fine, with the west to east flood tide race, to achieve passing Clippera to port; consequently we had to tack back towards the New Harbour and continue until we had a good line to the revised location of Penrhos Mark. The other two yachts were not able to head as high as Flair and so were further down wind of Clippera having a longer tack to clear the mark. Once Penrhos was close we were able to bear away to clear Penrhos to Starboard before returning to Clippera. On this leg it was apparent that the other two yachts would be late getting back to the finish line and so we shortened course such that Clippera was the last mark before the finish line. Having notified the racing yachts we rounded Clippera leaving it to port and sailed in on a port tight beat until having to tack twice to pass the knuckle. It was so good to be back racing on a Wednesday evening in Holyhead! Race results are not available as yet as the decision on the scoring system has not yet been made.