Day 10 - Aberdaron Bay to Pwllheli

 

I woke at 0630 with thoughts of how to raise the anchor. My hope was that as there appeared to be power to the solenoid I could bypass the solenoid and directly feed power to the windlass. However, there were two other thick red cables - one for retrieving the anchor and one for dropping it (but they aren’t labelled which is which). With so much current being drawn by the windlass I needed to securely bolt the bypass cable onto the correct terminals on the solenoid with the DC system powered down. Only by powering up the whole DC system would the anchor windlass switch on, hopefully retrieving the anchor and not dropping more chain down. Everything ready, and Lou at the bow to check proceedings, on went the system and “yes, yes its coming up” said Lou. After a bit of stop/starting we managed to fully retrieve the anchor and set off on our passage (but minus any instruments as everything had to be powered down to stop the windlass until the bypass cable was removed).

After exiting the bay, I managed to get through to Emma at Pwllheli Marina who was extremely helpful and sorted out a berth for us and told us that we would need to be in by 1250 otherwise there wouldn’t be enough depth to make it through with Sùlaire’s draft. With adverse tidal streams all the way, the engine used most of her horses and we clung to the coastline to avoid as much of the foul tide as possible. The sun beat down and the Cardigan Bay dolphins started to show themselves off some of the headlands as we progressed along the coast.

We made it into the narrow channel at the mouth of the marina with plenty of time to spare and quickly found our berth on the hammerhead of pontoon 5. A berthholder took our lines as we slid into the berth and safely tied-up. Once everything was secured and tidied away we got chatting with Paul, the guy who took our lines and he helpfully gave us the names of 3 local marine engineers to contact to assist with the anchor windlass. Calls made, a date with the electrician beckons for tomorrow. 

We set off along the huge beach adjacent to the marina in belting temperatures and felt grateful that serendipity and Lou’s suggestion took us to Pwllheli. Another day in port tomorrow to enjoy the beauty of the Lynn Peninsula! Night…night!