26th July : Holyhead

We had an interesting crossing from Dun Laoghaire, with cross tides of over 3Kts North and Southbound throughout the day. A bit of good old fashioned navigation the night before had concluded that the overall passage was essentially tide neutral, so we set a direct course for Holyhead, and held this ( with a few minor tweaks ) all day. A large vessel in the Traffic Separation Zone near Holyhead meant that we had to turn uptide for a while, but this helped on the final approach. The cliffs of Holyhead are quite imposing, rising to a height of 150m

The outer wall of Holyhead harbour extends 1.1miles out into the bay in a ENE direction, and provides significant shelter from any direction. The small craft channel runs adjacent to the wall, all the way to the marina itself, with the possibility to anchor inside the wall to gain refuge from bad weather.

The visitors pontoon provided a very easy 'alongside' berth, and we were moored securely by 18:20. The following day we had a short walk, and found some high ground with good views of Holy Head, and the harbour.

One of the larger 'inhabitants' of the commercial harbour was the Supercat ferry - quite an impressive sight as it guns all 115,000 horsepower !

Looking from the boat towards the town, we could see what looked like a fair in progress, a little later when we walked out in that direction it became clear that this was a competition for Majorette troups, with many groups of girls either practicing their routines or being judged on them - quite entertaining.

'NJ' on the visitors pontoon, looking towards the ferry terminal.

Our next destination was to be Conwy ( Conway ) via the Northern tip of Angelsey at Llanlleiana head, and Lynas point. This would take us through the tide race between Carmel head, and the islands of The Skerries, and West Mouse. We needed to catch the beginning of the fair tide through this area, so we set out from Holyhead at 08:45, crossing the bay, then keeping close to the shore to avoid the end of the foul tide.

The Skerries lighthouse.

The boat duly accelerated as we approached Carmel head, and soon we were sailing in a gentle breeze at 6.2Kts SOG. The speed increased steadily, and we recorded 8.6Kts over the ground as we passed Ynys Dulas on the East side of Angelsey. After another couple of miles in an increasing wind, we pulled into Moelfre bay, and anchored for lunch next to the all weather lifeboat.

Wylfa Nuclear Power Station.

After lunch we weighed anchor, and set out for Deganwy Marina ( the smaller of two marinas at Conway ), going outside Puffin Island, then directly for the Fairway Buoy. We arrived at the entrance to the marina at high water, and were moored safely 5 minutes later.