Richie Lord

it was our intention to sail to the Skerries for lunch but the forecast had underestimated the wind speeds. . As we approached the entrance to the new harbour and called the Port Control we were warned of two ferry movements 1 on its way in and one outbound. we turned to port and headed back towards our mooring. once the Ferries were clear of the entrance we turned a d headed out but soon realised that the winds had increased and turned more northerly hence our decision to abandon our plan.

Following on from a busy day including driving to Pwllheli and back to get the replacement battens I didn’t arrive early enough and although the crew were on board and making preparations as the launch was busy with a lot of demands from the Squibs and other cruisers I was even later getting to the boat. As a consequence we were late getting off the mooring after I had attempted to fit one of the new long battens. The batten, after all that, was too short, so we set off with 2 battens still missing from the main and one in the jib. We checked in with Dawn, thank you for running the racing, to say we were entering the race and then followed the 2 other yachts who were out crossing the start line as we finally got the jib setting, Winds light NE. Of course in the rush to set off I forgot to set SailTies to record for the start! Course 1 had been selected and so we sailed towards the aluminium jetty gradually catching the other boats then tacked as soon as it was feasible to round the end of the breakwater and take advantage of the tide on our way to Meath, the first mark of the course. WIth our early tack we were now ahead of the other two boats as the crew struggled to get the code 0 rigged for the reech down to Penrhos. We intercepted a call on the radio from Hellhound saying that Penrhos mark, the second mark of the course, may not have been put in place yet. We reported that we had the coords on the chart plotter and would use this as the mark before returning the waypoint 3, Clipera. There was some activity in and around the Ferry Terminal with the fuel tanker talking on Ch 14 and as we tacked away from where Penrhos should have been, towards Clipera we received a warning hoot from the fuel tanker and immediately tacked again to show our intentions. By now the other two boats had retired but we carried on until we almost reached Clipera but with the crew getting cold and the wind dying away we also retired and headed back to the moorings. Back on shore we all met up in the clubhouse for a drink and dinner.

Set off after Becca practising her instructing on engine checks etc. Winds WNW 12kt broken cloud. Our departure was timed to get the last quarter of the ebb tide flowing round The Stacks. Choppy as we sailed through the tide flowing against the wind between North and South Stack. Sun breaking through as we sailed down towards Rhoscolyn Head. Thought about stopping at Trearddur Bay but decided Borth Wen would probably be more sheltered. So resumed course to Rhoscolyn Head. Anchored as a training session, showing how to deploy the CQR anchor. At low water we had 4m under the keel and deployed 30m of anchor chain gradually resulting in good holding so we could settle down with the cockpit table in place for lunch. The lagoon was quite busy with motor boats and kayakers but all well behaved.

Race 2024-09-04 As we arrived onboard we were greeted by blue skies with significant anvil clouds out to the west. The winds were light Northeasterly with a distinctly cool feeling. WIth a crew of 6, Chris, Luke, Sean, Richie and Henri we got prepared for a spinnaker or code 0 start. There were 5 club yachts out for the evening accompanied by a Squib or two. The course around Meath, Penrhos and Clipera meant a very long slow spinnaker run from Meath to Penrhos, then Clipera to the finish; and as the evening drew on the winds got lighter. A very enjoyable evening with interesting sailing conditions on a pretty flat sea.

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!