Lligwy

Route

Notes

It was a warm and sunny day as we turned up at the yacht club expecting to go to Rhoscolyn.  John Lomas told us that this was now cancelled and Porth Wen was now the destination. We spoke to Derek Jones from Cloth Porridge (that was up the beach), and they had decided to go to Lligwy with Georgie Girl. Ed was secretly wanted to go for a longer sail to Porth Wen - but was still pleased, as we were, for a shorter sail and a more relaxed day:

Ian and Chris Rodgers wanted an easy trip as their first on their new boat. On the way up the straits there was a lot of radio traffic on 69; Mike Hollingworth on Chinook almost pulled out as his GPS had stopped working... for a trip to Porth Wen! I resisted the urge to get on the VHF and offer to call out the lifeboat.

We did a bit of tacking up the straights, against the tide and didn't get very far; we then did a very long tack heading for Conwy - this got us out of the main current a bit.  It was an easy run across Red Wharf bay - very little wind however, but we did sail the whole way. 

Georgie Girl
 

As we went past Arthur's Table, Ed suggested a spot of light entertainment taking three point fixes and seeing how close we were to the GPS fix.  This turned out to be pretty accurate - although we found that using Llandonna didn't help at all.  This was in perfect conditions - it would be interesting to see how accurate it would be on a pitching deck!

We also practiced with the MOB function of the GPS, determining that each press overrides the previous position entered.  Ed's GPS didn't have a waypoint set into it for Lligwy, so we both determined where it was via the chart, entered the waypoint and compared each ETA.  They were identical.

We arrived at the beach first, dropped the anchor parallel with the end of the garden wall on the left. The stern anchor was taken out by Ed in the dinghy. Georgie Girl nearly ran it over before powering up the beach - that we collectively decided was a bad thing, so Carolyn and Ed manhandled her off and anchored a bit further back. I also went for a swim (with wet suit)! Ed joined us in the semi-cold/warm water.

Arrival - Jenna, Georgie Girl, Cloth Porridge

Very soon afterwards, Jenna's crew was heading for the Kinmel Arms in Moelfre - a comfortable 1/2 hour walk.

On way to pub

On way back from pub

When we got back at about 2000 we set up on the beach for a barbeque - the boats were high and dry by this time.

Enjoying the barbeque

Derek, Carole and Chris

We went back to boat by dark and settled down in the cockpit to drink wine and beer as we floated. It was very pleasantly warm.  We later settled down to a relaxing drink in the cockpit:

A relaxing drink...

or two...

Overnight, I let a bit of anchor chain out to move us back, hoping to refloat at the same time as Georgie Girl and Cloth Porridge.

The following day we saw the other club boats crossing the horizon coming back from Porth Wen.  Carolyn went for another swim:

Carolyn being terrorised by a 30ft sea gull

We heard a lot of traffic on the radio re lifeboats. Moelfre ILB and ALB were called out to a Mr. Curran on a nameless speed boat who had broken down literally the other side of some rocks from us. (we heard two maroons).  Shortly after we saw the ILB race across trying to find the casualty, then 1/2 hour later the ALB.  The ILB asked the casualty to set off a flare so they could pin point their position.  Very shortly afterwards, their was a call on channel 16 by a yacht we had seen minutes earlier going over to the beach saying there was a boat with a red flare showing.  When asked to give their position, they started a long and tedious GPS lat/long position fix - rather than just saying south end Din Lligwy beach - much quicker and prone to less error!

Moelfre Inshore D class lifeboat - the Kingsand

Lligwy beach

Derek had meanwhile decided to go up his mast and alter the angle his anemometer sat at - so it wouldn't be masked by the mast:

Derek up the mast

We had earlier pulled the front anchor up and made it easy to pull aboard. Ed was a bit dubious about pulling off from the stern, thinking the line could get caught around the prop- but you don't actually need the prop spinning for this exercise. (he did apply a bit of reverse that didn't really help though!).  We had discussed the pros and cons of putting the boat on the beach, and in particular which way to point.  Ed's comments were:

Key discussion point was whether to moor ‘pointy end in’ or ‘pointy end out’  -  accept that the weather was very stable, but I’ve known severe unpredicted winds arrive many time over the years. My case for mooring stern-to is:

1/ if small wavelets do run in then there is less wave slap against stem than against stern – a quieter night’s sleep

2/ if it really blows up and you want to stay put then it’s better to lie to bower than kedge (and onshore wind is the dangerous situation here)

3/ if it really blows up and you want to put to sea then much better to motor upwind to bower and then keep on going to seaward – you don’t want to have to turn around in a confined bay in order to steam to sea – indeed in underpowered yacht you would not have the thrust to bring the head around into the wind.

At the risk of this sounding like a discussion board, I think this is worth consideration - I think that the severe weather is an issue if it crops up unexpectedly.  However I've not seen a boat in pointy end out before, and I wonder how easy it is to arrange.  Normally we'd approach a beach when the tide is going out, when the prevailing force is the tide going away from the beach.  So it might be tricky to force the boat to point away from the beach? (we'd only ever consider going on to the beach in no-wind situations).

Ed also was in doubt over the whole issue of drying out on the beach...!  I think the good points are:

• it ensures at least some hours of very sound sleep whilst the boat is on the ground
• very easy to do things on the beach - just step off the boat
• this is what the boat does twice a day anyway
• you can walk your anchors out make sure they are soundly dug in
• nobody does this, but according to the Day Skipper course I'm on you're supposed to maintain an anchor watch - so someone would always have to be awake
• a good nights sleep means you'll be more alert the next day

Some bad points are

• you have to choose your beach and weather wisely - if hard sand, even a gentle swell can cause uncomfortable bouncing
• you can't leave when you want

Interesting debate - one in which I feel it would be worth getting Derek Jones opinion on, as he's been doing this sort of thing probably longer than any of us!

Ed suggested I start from the anchor end when coiling the stern anchor line.  This stops the line from twisting.

Georgie Girl floated off first - and again went straight for our stern anchor line! No wind at all on the way back - had to motor whole way, but with favourable current.  The water was glassy:

Glassy Water

Cloth Porridge did consider putting out a cruising chute but this didn't work well enough to be worthwhile:

We put the auto-pilot on and took it easy with a beer.  I pulled the bathroom sealant off one of the windows and cleaned the excess glue off.

Relaxing on the way back

As we approached the moorings, the maroon went off and then my pager signifying a Beaumaris lifeboat shout!  So that was my afternoon taken care of...

Lessons learned:

• Start from end that can't twist when coiling line
• Don't need reverse thrust when pulling backward on stern anchor.
• 1/2 hour walk from Lligwy to Kinmel Arms.
• Give positions in English as much as possible - not lat longs