Beaumaris, July 22nd
There was a plan to go out for 3 days and stays overnight in unexplored waters. With the Dingy outboard still not working Saturday passed and we left early on Sunday morning to arrive 1½ hour before low water (12:00) in Conwy. We rowed across the river Conwy, walked across the sand bank halfway and paddled a bit more to Sea Ghost.
We took her to the Jetty and carried supplies onboard and refreshed the water supply. Then it was time to set off (13:20).
Approaching Puffin Island
Out in Conwy channel we noticed the new paired buoys marking out the channel. They looked all new and shiny and were painted in the unusual colours or red and green. Why they deviated from the more traditional birdshite white I don't know but unlike before these new colours were expained in the alamanac.
We motored again all the way to Fairway (14:40) with little or no wind. As we were under the impression we had bought a sailing vessel, we raised the sails regardless, and immediately, out of nowhere the wind started blowing a F4 from SW. Maybe this is what we did wrong in the past. I now have a funny feeling the Anglesey coast guards were watching us all the time with binoculars and the minute we raised the sails they rung head office with the instruction "yeah, there is one with a sail, switch on the fans".
Clouds over Wales
At 15:45 we approached Puffin Island. With a forecast of the wind turning North we decided to go to Beaumaris instead of Red Wharf bay. This meant tacking all the way. Not sure how Sea Ghost would behave against the wind for the next 4NM.
Approaching rain
With the tide still out we kept mostly to the channel but Sea Ghost made steady progress. The skies ahead turned black and gray clouds of rain approached rapidly. All suddenly the sea around us was empty of boats as if they had picked up a forecast we missed.
More rain
With the sun returning inbetween torrential downpoors the trip was impressive and around 18:00 we approached B5 with Beaumaris just around the corner. By the time we sailed between the moorings in Beaumaris, the wind had dropped and we picked up a mooring under sail.
A quiet evening
After drying out the waterproofs the tree of us took the dinghy and rowed ashore. We left the dinghy near the Beaumaris pier. After following some local advice we found a lovely restaurant "The Courts& to celibrate our 13th anniversary. An evening walk around the castle was followed by a quiet rowing back to Sea Ghost. By the time we got near her she was almost dried out.
July 23rd
Windy breakfast
The next morning at around 08:30 we picked up a new buoy near the pier to avoid drying out and having to wait for HW. The wind had changed to a NE F4 to F5 and with wind and tide fighting over control over the boat we had a rather bouncy breakfast.
At 10:00 we left under the jib with the outboard on standby. With the main raised we started beating against the wind. The waves were spectacular and worked ourselves towards Puffin island. With the tide out we rounded Puffin on the West and turned over the top towards Conwy.
Timo spent most time in the cabin and refused to sit with us in the cockpit. It turned out later that he was not too sure about the bouncy waves. Near Puffin he fell asleep on the floor in a sleeping bag and slept for the next 2 hours.
The young helms man
The wind was too far in the NE corner to sail the best part through Conwy channel and we attempted to take a short cut over Conwy Sands. Just before we joined the main channel the water started to turn yellow, which rhymes with shallow and I spotted some overfalls between us and the channel. Our helms woman turned the rudder quickly and we went back the way we came.
Following the channel this time we managed to sail all the way into Conwy habour where we dropped the sail with the outboard on standby and we motored the last few yards to pick up the mooring buoy at 16:00.
While Geke cooked us some tea, I spend time on some maintenance and took measurements for the pushpit design. Not a bad weekend after all.