With south-going tides again later in the day we jumped in the dinghy and found an old slipway on St Michael’s Island, saving a strenuous humphing of the dinghy up the beach. St Michael’s Island has an old Kirk built by the Scots in the 13th century while the fort was built by Henry VIII to repel French and Spanish invaders.
After a FaceTime call with Cal, in Birmingham, and Natalie, in Australia, we lifted the anchor and headed due south with a gentle north westerly wind which, with a favourable tidal stream, provided some assist to the engine pushing us along at 7 knots over ground.
The seas were relatively calm and as we approached the shipping lanes (TSS) off Anglesey the passing cargo vessels helpfully provided a gap to allow us through the front of the Traffic Separation Scheme. Once past the TSS, we hung a right and the strengthening tide, and with the wind beam on, we turned off the engine a made for clearing The Skerries at 8.8 knots. The pilot guide suggested not going inside The Skerries because of tidal overfalls but conditions were pretty benign and we probably could have done so.
As we entered Holyhead Harbour I called up the Holyhead Sailing Club launch and he guided us to a free mooring buoy where we picked up the mooring strops and secured Sùlaire for the night. The club launch took us ashore (all included in the fee) and we explored and had dinner in the clubhouse (nah) before the very friendly launch man carried us back to Sùlaire for the night…night!
No comments:
Post a Comment