Holyhead and Cemaes

Route

Our first trip in 2008

Notes

This was our first club outing, having originally intended to go on the club outing to Victoria Dock the week before.  This was cancelled due to an unforeseen mis-adventure with the foresail, which kept everyone in Beaumaris up all night on the Friday... Flap Flap!

We decided to go out to Genesis on the evening before the trip, as the late Friday high tide brought with it some slack winds.  Ideal for hoisting our brand new foresail!  As is our habit, we had left the dinghy semi-deflated outside the club and chained up after the last weekend.  So we packed the car up - "Where's the dinghy pump?"; "Hmmm - on the boat?".  First hurdle - how to get to the boat in a deflated dinghy?  We had let ourselves down as well...  As it turned out, the warmer air had inflated the sponsons enough to support our weight so we were OK.

Foresail newly hoisted and stowed for Friday night (tied on with 137 pieces of line), we joined up with some Venturers outside the clubhouse on the balmy Friday night. Paul Mountford had apparently been injured and so was unable to be the Day Skipper.  In desperation, the foresail-ripping, pump addled owners of Genesis were chosen as the OOD by Dave Clough, on somewhat dubious authority.  We disappeared to contemplate our new role.

The original plan was a clockwise trip round the island to Holyhead on Saturday, lunch at the Skerries on Sunday, Cemaes Sunday night and back on Monday.  With the early 0630 start and SW6 winds on our minds, we discussed tactics on how to complete this task in the pub.  Eventually we decided to alter it slightly... Using a tourist map of Anglesey and a beer mat in lieu of a divider, we thought a trip anti-clockwise with the wind and tide at the much more friendly 0900 time would be a goer.

We put the new plan up on the black board (rather late for an OOD) at 0830 and somewhat miraculously gained some fellow Venturers to join us, presumably those who also had decided that going against an F6 at 0600 was not worth it.  Joe and Jill from Zephyr, and Deb and Mick and their son Danny from Carmargue decided it was worth the risk following Genesis.  Wisely, they were ahead of us.  Also joining us was Meander, who remained mysterious in intentions until he arrived at Holyhead.  Another club boat, Sarico, loaded up with female club members and a Yachtmaster Instructor was also a possible joiner.

Meander

We telephoned the Marina and found there was no problem with taking a visitors mooring.  On the way there we had a fantastic F6 on our full sail downwind, which got us to 7-8 knots through the water with favourable tide increasing our speed to about 35 miles an hour.  Something we realised when we attempted a granny tack and the whole boat went berserk.  Perhaps a reef was in order to bring our sail area down to less than 1000 sq.ft.?

Fortunately we had Peter Williams on board who, despite being a Professor in Marine Biology at Bangor University, was also a keen engineer and consummate sailor.  With his help we were a mad mean keen sailing team.

Later, losing our nerve in 30+ knots of wind and phenomenal seas, we headed into Holyhead bay.  Narrowly avoiding a ferry by a couple of miles, we got into the Marina and hooked up to the visitors berth with assistance of a family of very nice Westerly OceanMasters. 

We were sea-crazy by this time having seen nothing but sea (apart from the coast) for nearly 6 hours and jumped off for local ale at the Yacht club.  The crew left Glen to paranoically truss the sails up before he joined them.

All the potentials had joined us - the Saricans, Zephyrs, Carmargans, and Meanderers.  We heard Sarico come in over the VHF in the yacht club, along with an exciting sounding tow in for another (non-club) boat.

After getting our land-legs back we headed back to Genesis having made arrangements to either eat on board or at the yacht club restaurant.  If you haven't been, it's excellent.  Unfortunately this is a little held secret and they were unable to accommodate the burgeoning list of Venturers who wanted to eat there.  We decided to have a eat aboard prior to a drink aboard Genesis before retiring for the yacht club, where a singer was providing entertainment.  In the afternoon sun, the crew from Sarico joined us, and we enjoyed a couple of San Miguels in the cockpit.  Following a meal of pre-home-prepared meatballs and spaghetti, we were joined by the Meanderers, the Carmarguans, and the Zephyrs, a total of 11 souls on board.  In the twilight we made our way down to the yacht club for an entertaining, if loud evening of debauchery.

The following day we awoke to throbbing heads to make the trip to Cemaes:

We were still feeling delicate and given this trip seemed to be just round the corner (in fact it was 14 miles and 2 and a half hours) we didn't even bother to raise the sails - unforgivable.  On the way there, we were overtaken by the Severn class lifeboat from Holyhead.  The coxswain was obviously feeling playful as they passed within waving distance.

Perhaps he was seeing if we were in distress as we hadn't raised our sails?

Arriving in Cemaes, we scooted past Meander, who had picked up a mooring, and Carmargue who had anchored.  We anchored in about 3m of water (inside the drying zone) and rushed ashore.  By this time it was mid-day and we were ravenous.  In the Stag (we didn't bother with the Rigor Mortis) we met up with some charming local people - one of them owning the mooring Meander was on, who gave his full permission for us to use it.  After a big meal we went back to the boat which was now dried out.  We visited Meander and Carmargue and agreed to meet up at 1930 for a meal in the Harbour Hotel.  Danny was obviously not used to drinking as he had only recently risen from the the deck!

We had some fun with the dinghy whilst we waited to re-float.  The surf built up and swamped it - donning the wetsuit the intrepid OOD went out in knee-waist height water to rescue it.  We also witnessed a scene of stupidity - a power boat owner had left his children holding onto his 25 feet long rib while he re-parket.  Not surprisingly, this got away from them and they drifted towards the rocks opposite.  The rib owner exhausted his single brain cell getting out to them and actually berated them for letting it go!

We noticed that Meander had abandoned the mooring bequeathed to us by the friendly owner of SeaQuest and so we decided to have a go on it.  As we re-floated we picked it up, feeling slightly guilty that we had forgotten to tell Meander it was OK to use it.

The meal in the Harbour was exquisite - it had been completely refurbished since our last visit in 2006.  Unfortunately, they were somewhat over-loaded and the meal took a long time to turn up.  Teething problems?  We made it out in time for one pint in the Eagle to witness the eye-popping Nurses and Doctors evening.  On the way back in the dinghy, we were pleased we had put the anchor light on (even though we were moored).

We awoke to a misty start at 0700 on a day that rapidly cleared.  The coast looked spectacular.  We hoisted the sails and enjoyed the sail.  Halfway across Red Wharf bay we realised the sea had becoming oily with not a breath for our sails to take.  Deciding to use the tide instead, we drifted some considerable way.  This was after a bit of a debate over whether Moelfre island was actually Puffin island - the doubters trying to second guess the infallible GPS!  We noticed at this point that the sails had gone slack and the suns intensity had increased to Summertime Levels.

Drifting back home (just) ahead of The Fog

Peter and Carolyn contemplate how best to rig the reefing pennants

After some more of dreadful boredom, we decided to drift in the tranquillity for some lunch (or was it breakfast?).  Peter was full of beans and was keen that we sort out our reefing pennants - which were slightly less than perfectly rigged.  We all hopped around the boat in the gorgeous sunshine and becalmed conditions maniacally throwing lines hither and dither.

Shortly after switching the motor back on to make progress, we noticed there was a curious fog approaching from the direction we had came, already having consumed Moelfre and Benllech in a manner similar to a John Carpenter movie .  We decided to go around Puffin from the East anyway.  As we got to the east end, we were engulfed in a very chilly and impenetrable fog.  I decided to take the safest route out of this.

The Pea-Soup-Passage

Thereafter the fog lifted and we made motor progress back to Beaumaris.  On the way, Carolyn's father managed to headbutt the wind generator by climbing up to a level higher than the boom.  Happily this was a superficial cut but still he looked quite comical with his head in bandages (and tea towels).

We got back home and made the trip to A&E feeling absolutely frazzled.  As par for the course, there was then a quick lifeboat shout involving a helicopter airlift and 9 children with 3 adults.  We slept well that night!