Route

Beaumaris to Victoria Dock

Weather

Notes

We had the day before tried to put the boat on Beaumaris Pier in the early evening just on high tide.  However, the extreme neaps meant we ran aground way before the steps so gave up on that idea.  The new idea was to have Llew drive his car, full of beer, wine and batteries, to Victoria Dock and leave it there for the morning whilst we took the boat there.

With the car parked in Victoria Dock, Carolyn, Glen, Llew and Micheline set off for the Swellies and followed the correct path through at HW, given the very low tides.  Depth went down to 2.9m.  The wind was a very nice SW so a downwind sail was in order.  Micheline had brought some excellent Pinot Gris white wine that we drunk with gusto as we shook our fists at the dreaded marina-sabotaging mussel boat.

We looked at the pilot and saw Victoria Dock was on M1 / 80 and switched to our radios M1 channel.  No response so we thought to try again later.  We also tried phoning but 118118 did not know the number.  As we approached line of sight with the dock, M1 had no response, so we tried ch. 80 and got a reply instantly.  We were then shepherded in and docked alongside Whitsuntide, a largish cabin cruiser ketch.

Micheline said her farewell at this point as she had to get back to Beaumaris with her friend who was waiting for us to turn up.  We were busy helping a drop keel Feeling 39 come alongside.

This being early evening, 1900, we immediately set off for the Galeri and had some very refreshing pints of Cobra in the warm evening sun and no wind.  We took the easy decision of going to Table Table next door and Glen instantly took a dislike to the formulaic chain restaurant feel, many of the tables being empty and reserved, and kids everywhere giving it a McDonalds-with-beer feel.  We were shown to a dirty table and left to our devices.  About 45 minutes later they took our order; this now being about 9pm.  When the food turned up it was standard pub-grub but of reasonable quality.  With the meal thankfully out of the way, we went on to the Royal Welsh where we were warmly welcomed.  After several pints of Guinness we made our way back.

In the morning, we awoke to glorious sunshine and warm temperatures.  Our first task was to load the boat up with batteries, so we took a trolley up to LLew's car and loaded the new batteries on to it.  As we were about to load them, Gareth Parry, DLA from Beaumaris lifeboat, turned up to heckle us from the car park.  This turned out badly for him as he was immediately roped into helping me (rather than Llew) get the heavy batteries aboard, clambering over Whitsuntide.  This was easy with two able blokes and was completed very quickly.

We then loaded the beer, wine and food aboard whilst the boat was filling with water.  After this, we emptied the tanks (we had put some cleaning powder in there, refilled, emptied, and refilled again.  Peter Williams also turned up with the binnacle table he had made, minus the top of his finger (a casualty of the cutting the plastic with a whirly-choppy blade).  We had mistakenly thought the dock opened at 1526, but this was UT so had to wait a further hour.  We untied then at 1630 and did circles until the gate lowered.

The wind was behind us but very little of it so we motored the whole way back:

We got to the Swellies quite early but this being neaps the water was pretty static.  This time we adopted the method favoured by Mike Stone, senior helm of Beaumaris Lifeboat, and kept a bus-length away from the shore past Swelly rock.  As our depth never went below 10m, we reasoned this was quite a good approach.

Back on the mooring we tied up and left the boat in a state ready to begin cruising.

Lessons Learned

• M1 is not the same as ch. 80
• Don't bother with Table Table; try the Chinese instead
• The bus-length from shore method through the Swellies works quite well