| Date | Saturday 24th June 2006 |
| Time | 1000 |
| Tide UTC | 24 0931 7.04 2155 7.20 0349 1.46 1612 1.40 |
| Crew list | Carolyn and Glen, Derek Jones and Lucie Zalot (RNLI bit) |
| Distance | 30 miles |
| Timings | 1000 - RNLI exercise 1200 - Completed exercise 1245 - Left for Moelfre 1530 - Arrived Moelfre 1745 - Left Moelfre 1915 - Puffin Sound 2000 - Moorings |
Issued by the Met Office at 1700 UTC on Friday 23 June.
Inshore Waters Forecast to 12 miles offshore from 1700 UTC to 1700 UTC.
St Davids Head to Colwyn Bay, including St Georges Channel.
24 hour forecast:
Wind: southwest 3 or 4.
Weather: showers later.
Visibility: moderate or good.
Sea State: smooth or slight.
Outlook for the following 24 hours:
Wind: variable 3 or less becoming north or northeast 4 or 5.
Weather: showers.
Visibility: moderate or good.
Sea State: smooth or slight.
The previous evening on the Friday, Simon had made a very good prep talk at the yacht club. This couldn't start until after 2000 as many members were stuck in traffic on the A55. Eventually it was a fairly well attended event. The next days activities were planned - a few boats were intending to come along to Moelfre overnight with us. However, the weather looked a bit dodgy for this- it was going to be exposed. We decided to make final decision tomorrow.
Derek Jones was going to be with us for the morning doing the RNLI exercise, and then leave us before we went to Moelfre.
Next day, I got to the station for 0930 ready to go aboard the ILB prior to embarking onto the club boats.
Boats / crew as follows:
I was the MOB for Jenna, with Carolyn pulling me aboard. This proved very difficult with the MOB harness we had. We used the main sheet to haul me up but then was stuck - it was not possible to pull me aboard. We did try using a sail that Derek had brought aboard and that went well. Perhaps using a halyard to pull the boom higher would have given enough height on the main sheet to pull a MOB aboard.
There seemed to be some confusion over who was in charge whilst I was in the water. However, RNLI insurance overrides a private yacht insurance; any incidents and it would have been Lucie who would have been questioned; therefore it was Lucie who was Skipper.
This was Al being lifted out by Ray on Tortuga:
The RNLI exercise boats Jenna, Tortuga, Sarico were joined by Meander; unfortunately Sea Moon had decided to drop out. At about 1220 the exercise completed and we returned to station on the ILB. Jenna was waiting tied off the end of the pier. The tide and were taking her towards Puffin so it was an easy job.
Earlier that day, we decided to make it a return trip to Moelfre - the wind prediction had gotten worse. We left shortly after Meander. They hung around a bit for us to catch up, we then led the way to Moelfre.
We were dead on course - aware that as OOD, I shouldn't miss Moelfre...
We arrived, and very quickly dropped sails, anchored, and went ashore. We did offer a lift to Tortuga but they wanted to stay on board.
I was on my 2nd pint when Paul and Jen from Meander joined us. We proceeded to have a few more pints and said hello to Bernie from Dansa who was there when we arrived.
We watched Sarico, Dansa and Tortuga leave, whilst drinking a pint with Paul and Jen in the Kinmel Arms. We left after low water, which gave us a very favourable tide the whole way back. Sailed back nicely - no motor, just slightly faster than Meander. After we secured to our mooring, we went to see Paul and Jen in the tender, and agreed to meet up in Bull that evening.
Lessons Learned: