Last hurrah of 2025 part 1

Mark Rosenthal

With a semblance of order onboard we prepared to leave the mooring setting off at just after 17:00, which was High Hide in Holyhead. The winds were very much as forecast for direction but the wind speeds were, at times, way in excess of the previous day’s forecast. We raised the main with two reefs and kept to the old jib (No 2 95%). Once clear of the New Harbour and the Breakwater it was obvious that the sail plan was correct with winds on our beam reaching the high 20s. We therefore made very good progress up to Carmel Head and as predicted the passage through between the headland and The Skerries was ‘reasonably’ OK with wind now with tide. The clouds out to the west were looking ominous but we made sufficiently good progress to avoid the heavy rainfall from an anvil cloud which seemed to get stuck on The Skerries. Meanwhile the whole of Anglesey apart from the very north coast seemed to be covered in very heavy rain and clouds, while we were in sunshine with no rain all the way to Porth Wen (The Brickworks).