Padstow

Our big trip to Padstow, which turned out to be a 180+ mile trip round Anglesey with a diversion to Pwhelli.  Our intended route was some 200 miles each way:




Certainly this was ambitious for a single week so early in the season...

Actual Itinerary
 

Route

Day 1 - Beaumaris - Llanddwyn

Day 2  - Llanddwyn to Pwhelli

Day 3 - Pwhelli to Holyhead

Day 4 - Holyhead to Beaumaris via Cemaes

Weather

Notes

We set off in high spirits having had a visit from my nephew Mark and his wife Michelle.  Unfortunately for them, five minutes after they arrived my pager went off and that was the last they saw of me, apart from on the lifeboat.  However, it was useful for us to have a sit-rep on the sea state before we left.

Peter Williams came aboard to construct the latest incarnation of our binnacle table - he was supposed to have been coming but had sawn a bit of his finger off in the construction.  He had also cooked for us a fantastic chicken dish that we intended to eat en-route on the first day. 

The weather was a bit cold and breezy as we left, with wind on the nose of course.  We had resigned ourselves to motoring as far as Bardsey Sound.  As we passed Llanddwyn, we noted some club boats taking part in Mark Suffield's trip:

We soldiered on in increasing seas.   Not very long after, we tried to prepare tea but Carolyn was feeling poorly and Llew was feeling cold.  We took a decision to give up on Padstow and headed back to join the club at Llanddwyn.

We anchored in Mermaids Cove and watched the club with their barbecue.  We are in style with Peter's dish.  Paul and Jen Mountford radioed us and asked u.s if we were planning on coming ashore.  In the event they came aboard Genesis and we had a pleasant chin wag.

The next day was much brighter, with the wind lessening and going round to the north.  We considered our options - unfortunately, we were set up for the Padstow trip and had taken the NWVYC pilot off the boat the week before for re-binding.  However, we had a full set of charts and decided to go where the wind was blowing, southwards. 

We left the anchorage at 0930 en route for Bardsey Sound, and then onto Pwhelli.  The predicted Northerly 3/4 had turned up.  Slack water at Bardsey we had found out was Dover HW +- 0100, which would put it about 1700.  No chance of us going through then!  We resolved to head for the Sound and see what it was like:

We had the foresail up which steadied us and found the Sound to be very lumpy but nothing we couldn't handle.  As we turned left after the sound, we came into the lee of the Lleyn and we had a warm sunny day:

This was a great relief as we were getting fed up with cold winds and lumpy seas.  We noticed lots of other boats all out and taking advantage of the good weather:

We tied up in a berth at Pwhelli, and went ashore to the yacht club for a drink.  We then went into town and found it a bit depressing - the recession had obviously hit hard.  Even the little shops we went to last time near the marina had closed.  We found a little place that did a cheap carvery and had that for tea.

The next day was much nastier, with a lot of wind and much rain.  We had wanted to go further down Cardigan Bay, in particular Barmouth to possibly see our previous boat Jenna.  However, the web seemed to suggest it was only possible to visit Barmouth in fine weather, so we reluctantly decided this was as far as we were going to get South in a week.  So we plotted a course for Holyhead.  It would be tight to get to Bardsey Sound at slack water...

In the bad weather, I was nominated as helm, funnily enough:

The wind was on the nose as per usual, and we had to make Bardsey by about 3pm; quite difficult as the wind and sea was slowing us down heavily.  And then the wind generator, which had been trying to slow itself down given the fact the engine was on, suddenly went supersonic and worried us.  So we tied it off:

Bardsey was no problem at all and straight afterwards we put the full foresail out to enjoy a fast if lumpy sail all the way to Holyhead, as seen from this video: 

We contacted Peter on the way who offered to come and pick us up from Holyhead.  So shortly after tying up and going to the yacht club for a pint, Peter turned up and very kindly whisked us back to Beaumaris.

The weather then turned nasty for the rest of the week and we left the boat in Holyhead until Saturday.

We went back to the boat on Friday night ready for an early sail in the morning.  The club was supposed to be going to Cemaes, OODed by Bob Scott.  However, the weather in Beaumaris was apparently too scary and nobody went anywhere.

So our new plan was to head to Cemaes and wait out the tide and predicted lessening winds.  The sea was pretty rough and wind gusting to SW 40 knots.  When we got to Cemaes, we found some shelter at Lamb Island.  However, our anchor dragged and had to be reset 4 times before we gave up and motored into Cemaes itself.

We tied up to the wall, there being a Genesis sized space there.  We thought spending the night and having a posh meal in the harbour sounded good.  Unfortunately, somebody came and pointed out that a local boat owned the wall and he'd be turning up quite soon.  So off we went and anchored in the bay with lessening winds.  Stingray, the local boat turned up and went on the wall.  By this time we had resolved to return to Beaumaris.

The tide was due to turn in our favour at about 1800, in the event we left at 1600 and sailed against the tide.  The wind has lessened and we sailed all the way to Puffin.

We got back to our mooring at by 2030 and found the dinghy had wrapped itself around the chain.  This took half an hour to sort out, but we finally made it into the pub at 2215.

Lessons Learned

• If motoring in high wind - tie wind generator off if it's doing nothing

• Ensure every bit of sailing info is on the boat even if it doesn't apply to the intended route - giving you more freedom to go where the wind is blowing

• Lamb island has very poor holding and offers unusable shelter from strong SW

• Leaving a dinghy on a long line on the mooring can be problematic