Sunny week, May 24th
Booked a year in advance, what is the chance that you have sunshine during your holidays? Not very high in this country most would say, but nevertheless, we managed to enjoy a nearly dry week.
The new mooring location
The main thing was to get this rudder in place as most boats enjoy some kind of course control system. Ours had been lacking a direction control mechanism for at least 4 months.
Dropping the rudder bar & tiller down
Neil happened to be on holiday on the Welsh coast and came to see us. He was right in time to get on his knees during low water to dig a hole where the rudder was supposed to sit but where the tide had dropped accidentally a lot of thick clay. The rudder bar slid down from the top and the rudder blade was fixed to the bar with 2 clamps and some grub screws. The fact that the company who had managed to weld the tiller twice the wrong way round also managed to pre-drill the grub screw holes out of line is something I am seeing a psychiatrist for.
The rudder blade in place
Obviously, with rudder, Sea Ghost had to be tested and we went out with the tide into Conwy bay for a couple of hours.
Out in Conwy bay
May 25th
The next day was used to mount the push pit and the sea railing. The family rowed ashore and we walked to Conwy Marina where a mobile van spent 5 minutes to put 2 o-rings on one end of both starboard and port sea railing and charge us £35 for the works. I nearly forgot that the marine exchange rate isn't particularly good for the pound.
Storming the beaches
As the wind was close to F6 we sheltered out of the wind while Timo & Meryl were playing on the beach.
Life on the pontoon
Back on the pontoon, more crabs were caught and books were read while the sun was out. At the end of the day we went home for the night as the weather was about to change and some home work needed attention. We did return to Selattyn on the 26th of May and returned in the evening on the 29th.
May 30th
In glorious weather, we took Sea Ghost out to Great Ormes Head.
About to leave berth
Where did you want to go next?
We sailed for couple of hours and returned to the pontoon at 17:45.
Dinner is being server on the ... deck
Dinner was server on the multi functional door in the last of the evenings sunshine.
Who is going to tell daddy?
More time was spent on catching crabs from the pontoon.
May 31st
Early in the morning (09:00) we cast off and followed the channel, as it was -3h before LW. Around 10:00 we passed the Fairway buoy and sailed towards Puffin. The sea state was moderate as we passed Puffin and continued towards Red Wharf bay. At around 11:15 we turned around back towards Conwy.
No respect for the skipper
We arrived too early at Fairway to return through Conwy channel as the tide was still out. At 14:05 we dropped the sails and motored past C2 with Meryl on the helm. Sea Ghost was moored at the pontoon at 14:30.
Conwy sands
The A55 was extremely busy as we took the backroads back towards Llangollen. It gave a fantastic view back on Conwy bay.