Route

Leg 1 - Beaumaris to Cemaes

Leg 3: Holyhead to Beaumaris

Weather

Notes

The sunny skies encouraged people to come out, with us, Whispered Secret, Alfresco, Arrabella and Sarico in the briefing at 1100am in the clubhouse.

The first day involved a race from Ten Foot Bank / Dinmor to Point Lynas.  The original race was on the South of the island, but given the strong SW predicted this was abandoned. 

We had recently had a steering failure on Genesis, giving an added twist to our journey.  On board we had Peter Williams, who earlier in the week had engineered an excellent fix that we were all confident in.

We got to the starting line late and spent the whole course catching up with Whispered Secret.  We were one of the few boats who had gone out reefed - WS had full sail up.  Weather helm wasn't too bad on Genesis (where the boat wants to head up into the wind, quite a safety feature as if the helm falls off the boat, it will stop).  We crossed the finish line a few minutes behind in the end, at 16.46 and 12 seconds.  We had been sailing very well, with speeds through the water of over 7 knots for much of the way.

The high winds continued as we rounded Point Lynas, not getting shelter until we approached Lamb Island in Cemaes Bay.  Anchoring there, we called up to unanimously cancel the barbeque in the pouring rain!

We noticed a strange device being lowered down Arrabella's anchor line - further questioning the day after revealed it to be an Anchor Buddy (http://www.anchorbuddy.co.uk/index.asp).  This apparently reduces the drift around the anchor and improves holding.

We were anchored just in front of an old concrete jetty:

As the tide went out, we thought it looked a bit close but decided not to re-anchor.  In the event, we dragged and got closer, requiring a re-anchor at 2am.  Then we rubbed against Arrabella an hour or so later - another re-anchor.  40m of chain and warp gives a big swing.  We resolved to replace it with chain at the earliest possible opportunity.  We did an hours anchor watch at 3am and finally got a few hours kip in the early hours.  Arrabella appeared rock steady on her anchor with Anchor Buddy device.

Whispered Secret chose a spot to anchor next to some pot buoys... making a trip in a wet suit necessary for Derek to untangle his prop:

Having no barbeque we settled down for a night in:

The morning heralded great things with nice sunshine and light winds.  The bay was very picturesque:

We went for a walk into Cemaes, had lunch and a few pints before heading back to get ready for a sail to Holyhead.

We sailed most of the way to Holyhead, but got fed up tacking into Holyhead Bay, and motored the final bit.  Sarico carried on, one tack in two getting her closer:

(this was the tack away from Holyhead!).

The weather was quite windy, with SW 20 knots giving us a good sail.  It was pretty choppy around Carmel head and into the bay.  The marina was very friendly and it was nice to be tied up to a pontoon - surely a good nights sleep ahead!

Another very good meal in the yacht club was had by all - with Ralph Morris joining us.  Jean had announced that we were the winners of the race yesterday - hooray!  But only on handicap - we wanted to win fair and square!

The wind picked up a lot in the night - I got up to put another shore line on to make double sure.  An hour or so later, we were awoken by a hammering on the hull, with an Irishman hollering that there was someone needing help.  He had heard some shouts from the water and was targeting boats with lights on for assistance.  In the event, we ran around the pontoons and eventually Derek found the casualty and hauled him out of the water.  He'd been in for quite a while and was hypothermic.  The D class lifeboat from Holyhead was scrambled and the casualty was taken away.  I had donated my NWVYC cardigan to keep him warm.  So much for a quiet sleep in a marina!

The weather for the next day was roughly the same as for the day before - but more of it.  Force 7 and rough seas were forecast, in the event these proved exactly right.  We had a conflab aboard Whispered Secret, abandoned the race which was to be back to Beaumaris, with Sarico opting to stay in the Marina.  We re-fuelled and re-watered and joined WS and Arrabella in the memorable journey back home.

Simon Murphy joined us for this journey having driven up to Holyhead in the morning.  He looked disappointed that we were going to put 3 reefs in the main...

As we rounded Carmel head, the full force of the wind hit us, and Simon got a mad glint in his eye as he took the helm:

The wind got up to SW 30+ knots and the sea became rough.  We blasted along on a broad reach at 8 knots plus, hitting 8.6 maximum.   Quite a lot of heel set in and we got wet on a number of occasions:

We had never been sailing in such conditions before, and were very pleased with Genesis's performance as we blasted past Whispered Secret:

Getting completely soaked, we were all very glad to be back on our mooring!  Our boat and Peter's fix to the steering had proved themselves.  Some damage to the sliders in the mast caused by the main halyard cam cleat failing were the only casualties.

Lessons Learned

• Allow plenty of time to get to the start line in a race
• Go out reefed to avoid weather helm - you'll be faster.
• Warp and chain makes for a big swing.
• If re-anchoring looks a good idea, do it.  Much easier than doing it in the middle of the night.
• Weather helm can be negated by a burst of engine
• Make sure your dinghy is securely fastened and well up the beach before leaving it
• Just being in a marina doesn't mean a good nights sleep!