Delivery Pwllheli to Holyhead

Mark Rosenthal

Rain started at 05:20 but has eased off by 07:30. Winds up around F5 - 7 After an early breakfast as I waited from the arrival of the crew I worked through some of the remaining tasks on my list. This included cleaning the terminals on the solenoid for the engine stop and other engine checks. Chris arrived first and got to work on preparation for sailing. Sylvia and Andrew followed in good time for us to leave as scheduled and off we went from Hafam Pwllheli in strong southerly winds. As we left the channel into the bay the short chop in winds up to F7 made getting the sails set quite difficult and we lost 2 battens from the mainsail having got caught in the lazyjack halyards. Once under sail we headed out on a port tack sailing in close to Llanbedrog then tacking and heading away and back towards the SCYC area before tacking away heading for the gap between The two St Tudwals Islands. The waves here were getting quite steep so we tacked again to get to a point where we could sail between the mainland and the island. Once through the sound we found ourselves in significant short wavelength waves and continuing high wind. That, along with the ever changing tides, required us to tack away from Cilan Uchaf. On our next tack our course to Barsey Sound was achievable and we settled to a brisk but lumpy sail across, my favourite location, Hells Mouth, and with tidal assistance into the sound with a good NW tidal run. By now we were all soaking wet as it had rained heavily most of the way. Reminder to self, check sailing jacket and salopettes for Waterproofing! Once through the sound in near perfect conditions the wind being almost dead south our sail to South Stack was a dead run. The rain was now far less with a hint of blue sky to the west. Chris and Andrew rigged the newly recoated spinnaker pole, a lovely job by Partington Marine, to ‘pole out’ the goose winged jib. So with a preventer and the pole inplace there was no need for any sail changes until we turned to round South Stack; just some very awkward helming in the following swell. Sylvia and Andrew were given the opportunity to trial their skills but keeping the sails from flogging or an accidental gybe was too challenging in the very cold atmosphere. Our projected course and timings worked perfectly arriving at the two major tidal gates at the right time and the onto Flair IV's mooring only a few minutes after the schedule. Holyhead Sailing Club's Botswain, Tony came out on the club launch to collect us from the new shiny mooring buoy and nice clean strop. A perfect end to a slightly challenging day!