Porthmadog - Pwllheli - Barmouth

[Dave_Snelson]

Did any / all of you guys have the weather we had over the weekend? It was brilliant! 19C and sunny-ish with low wind speeds.

Motored out from Porthmadog and set off for Pwllheli (gas installation working brilliantly) past Criccieth Castle and the sky was looking a bit grey coming into Pwllheli. Looking behind us we saw an arc of sunshine over Harlech way, so we turned the boat round and motored to Shell Island and on to Barmouth.

If you've ever been to Barmouth by road, then I'm sure you would agree that it is an instantly forgettable place. Gray, dreary, seen better days. The approach from the sea, however, is a different kettle of fish altogether. As you approach from the Fairway, you see a Port Perch which you keep well to your left (obviously!) because of submerged rocks. Past all this and on your port side is the harbour. This place has a distinctly "Cornish" look and feel about it and in the sunshine, the drabness of Barmouth town just doesn't feature. A friendly harbourmaster, some friendly liveaboards that don't mind me, wife and 3 kids climbing over their boat, and some nice little brightly painted pubs, cafes, and restaurants.

To round it all off, we took a trip to Portmeirion on the high tide whilst on our way back.

Lift out for winter?? - Not yet!

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[jhr]

Similar weather in the Solent on Saturday - we went over to Newtown Creek, dropped the hook for lunch and sat in the sun for a couple of hours. There were lots of other people with the same idea but luckily we're small so we were able to squeeze in just below the Clamerkin oyster beds. The kids sat on the bathing platform and dangled their feet in the water and, most amazing of all, didn't argue! It was almost as busy as an August weekend but somehow, nothing can spoil the tranquillity of Newtown. A great day, at a time of year when you can't necessarily count on being out on the water, even in the balmy South.

It looked breezier and certainly greyer on Sunday but I can't speak authoritatively because I was chained to the lawnmower at home (

Sounds like you had a good day. I hope you didn't pay at Portmeirion? )

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[hlb]

For some reason we never went to Barmouth when we were down there. Seemed to complicated. Loads of trips to Aberdaron or the visitors buoy on Bardsey. Very interesting place to walk round, seeing the quite large houses there, the historys quite amasing. Also used to go round to that funny little place with the pub and a few houses on the beach. Close to Neffin? You could only get there by car at low water. But you could tie the dinghy to the pub front door at high water!!

<hr width=100% size=1> <font color=blue>No one can force me to come here.<font color=red> I'm a volunteer!!.<font color=blue>

Haydn

 

[BrendanS]

Sat in the Solent was certainly balmy, though it was just starting to blow up in the evening when 12 boats set off on a night exercise in the Solent.

Sunday morning, as they weren't serving breakfast at Mercury, we decided to head over to Cowes in search of a cholestrol laden feast. It was amazing going across at about 9:30 with huge rolling wind over tide conditions. It was blowing a bit of a hooley, so most of the boats went home after breakfast, but three boats decided to go east in what was now a F6. Basis for going East was it was into wind, and if it got uncomfortable we could return downwind in comfort. So, we ended up in Ryde for an afternoon cuppa, after a brilliant trip, where we had to 'drive' the whole way on throttle control. Much more fun than Sat.

Going home to Lymington from Ryde downwind was a real hoot, 30 knots the entire way, despite 2m swell/white horses. That was once I'd sorted out the minor problem that surfing down the waves pulled out my boarding ladder and broke the strap that holds it in, resulting in a fairly spectacular surface drive type spume, but not a lot of headway. The safety harness I carry on board was too short to allow me to pull ladder back in and secure it, and hanging over the back tied on with a length of rope, arm in the water up to my shoulder in those conditions wasn't a lot of fun!

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[jhr]

Sounds like fun - apart from the bit with the boarding ladder.

I am introducing SWMBO and the kids to the joys of boating gently, so this would have been a bit much I think. So far they reckon it's a blast, and that's the way I want it to stay! Kids are only 9 & 6, so I don't want to put them off for life........

The run back to Lymington sounds excellent - presumably by then you had wind with tide, which must have settled things a little.

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[BrendanS]

Definitely not 'family' boating weather, but good fun

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[Solitaire]

Spent the weekend in Poole on an RYA advanced powerboat course. Great time had by all. Saturday was spent on a mixture of classroom stuff and close quarter handling. The night exercise was interesting! Find a mark and start from there and then navigate using compass only to four unlit marks. Fortunately the sea was calm and with the full moon we were in danger of getting moon burnt (wink). Only one small drawback - the instuctors had decided that it would be too easy with the moon so we were sent to a buoy which had been removed earlier in the week - result two boats going round in circles taking handbearings to check positions and getting more and more frustrated. The instructor was going on about how bloody useless we were not being able to find a mark with such a moon - Any way after about 10 mins of going round in circles the instructor suggested that as we were such a bunch of clutz's that we would abandon that exercise. We headed back into Poole and the circumnavigated Brownsea Island - fine untill the lit marks go and it just stakes with single and double relectors on them. Having got back to Cobbs Quay at 23.30 we were finally told that the mark we should have found was in fact bogus - well the air was a little blue and added to the fact that the restaruant in the Marina was closed so no beer and no food - so it was off to the local Kebab take away - yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday morning was more time in the classroom and then off for heavy water handling practical - brilliant - Force 6/7 lotsof rollers and a big rib with a 300 hp Yanmar - oh boy was that fun! So the course ended and all the guys headed off - except me! The Easterly was still raging and there was no way I was going to head back to the Solent in those conditions. So I stayed another night and came back in the relative calm of this morning. Oh I do like being on the water/forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1>Boating is <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk>Serious</A> Fun