Day sail in Holyhead Bay

Mark Rosenthal

The crew ran through the essential checks before going up on deck to ready Flair IV to leave her mooring. With the brisk winds we put in a reef while hoisting the main and with the engine running but not driving we came off the mooring on port tack quickly turning to port and sailing between the adjacent moored yachts. Once clear of the moorings we deployed the jib and contacted Holyhead Port Control for clearance to sail out of the New Harbour across the TSZ. We were informed of the inbound Stena Ferry but as we were making 8kt boatspeed I stated that we intended to sail on to Clipera ahead of the approaching ferry, which we were monitoring on the ChartPlotter. The wind conditions outside the harbour were stronger than predicted and we turned to windward to put a second reef in the main. Our plan was to sail towards North Stack but as the tide was now turned we decided to sail to Langdon Ridge cardinal mark and then head back to our mooring for lunch as it was too choppy with wind over tide to be comfortable out in the open waters. With three well executed tacks in the conditions we made it back to the New Harbour and the crew managed the furling of the jib and the dropping of the main while I helmed under motor back to the mooring. Conditions on the mooring were ideal for a calm lunch although there was a bit of wind chill with the strong winds.