Major Catastrophe
New member
I missed most of the fun, but an incoming boat was met at the marina on Friday evening by armed police, numerous police cars, special branch and the good old customs and excise.
They cordoned off the village and shouted nasty things at anyone brave enough to stick their heads out of hatches or windows.
The overkill operation was mounted following an anonymous report that the boat was possibly carrying illegal 'stuff' and according to many reports was a Keystone Cops presentation. My informant, who was close to the person in charge of the op, tells me that basically no one had a clue what was happening and that the cops were more frightened than the 'targets' who were nonchalantly tying up their boat and continued to do so, only throwing up their hands and facing the MP5 wielding cops, once the boat was safe.
They were then dragged away. The boat was watched all night and the HM Customs spent a fruitless Saturday 'rummaging' the boat under the gaze of bemused locals, marina staff and boaters.
The arrested men were giving and full search, which involved the unpleasant snap of the latex glove and then released without charge.
It is alleged that one of the men, phoned his wife and asked her to buy fifteen alarm clocks. He wanted to present them to his captors as they would need them if they wanted to get up early enough to get one over on him.
It is said that the only dope identified was the commander of the operation.
Anyway, whilst HM’s finest continued their fruitless rummaging, I went off fishing and am happy to report that I didn’t catch as much as a cold. I did see baffled and Kawasaki practising some lock work, which seemed to be coming along nicely.
Sunday’s weather wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as forecast and the raft race got under way with some rain, which eventually cleared away.
The Reliant Robin had some sort of engine, so was only a fun entry and the escort van broke away from its rowing raft of plant hire drivers and almost became a hazard to shipping.
The marina staff did well, coming a respectable 5th but this is the winning entry entering the Swellies.
No more pictures as my camera ran out of electricity. We all got caught in an awful, but short lived squall, at Menai Bridge, and watched a rib rescue a girl who fell off a raft. We couldn’t help as we had two rafts in tow, but the combined efforts of four of her raft mates couldn’t get her back on board, but another rib went to help. Another salutary lesson on how difficult it is to get someone out of very cold water.
On Monday, mindful that the weather would be worse than Sunday, three of us took off for the pleasures of Anglesey.
I took this picture of the truly horrendous weather and also noted what a beautiful cruising are we have.
Later we went to the tip of Anglesey and took this picture of Puffin Island with the Orme in the distance and Conwy to the right.
Some of the waves were inches high.
They cordoned off the village and shouted nasty things at anyone brave enough to stick their heads out of hatches or windows.
The overkill operation was mounted following an anonymous report that the boat was possibly carrying illegal 'stuff' and according to many reports was a Keystone Cops presentation. My informant, who was close to the person in charge of the op, tells me that basically no one had a clue what was happening and that the cops were more frightened than the 'targets' who were nonchalantly tying up their boat and continued to do so, only throwing up their hands and facing the MP5 wielding cops, once the boat was safe.
They were then dragged away. The boat was watched all night and the HM Customs spent a fruitless Saturday 'rummaging' the boat under the gaze of bemused locals, marina staff and boaters.
The arrested men were giving and full search, which involved the unpleasant snap of the latex glove and then released without charge.
It is alleged that one of the men, phoned his wife and asked her to buy fifteen alarm clocks. He wanted to present them to his captors as they would need them if they wanted to get up early enough to get one over on him.
It is said that the only dope identified was the commander of the operation.
Anyway, whilst HM’s finest continued their fruitless rummaging, I went off fishing and am happy to report that I didn’t catch as much as a cold. I did see baffled and Kawasaki practising some lock work, which seemed to be coming along nicely.
Sunday’s weather wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as forecast and the raft race got under way with some rain, which eventually cleared away.
The Reliant Robin had some sort of engine, so was only a fun entry and the escort van broke away from its rowing raft of plant hire drivers and almost became a hazard to shipping.
The marina staff did well, coming a respectable 5th but this is the winning entry entering the Swellies.
No more pictures as my camera ran out of electricity. We all got caught in an awful, but short lived squall, at Menai Bridge, and watched a rib rescue a girl who fell off a raft. We couldn’t help as we had two rafts in tow, but the combined efforts of four of her raft mates couldn’t get her back on board, but another rib went to help. Another salutary lesson on how difficult it is to get someone out of very cold water.
On Monday, mindful that the weather would be worse than Sunday, three of us took off for the pleasures of Anglesey.
I took this picture of the truly horrendous weather and also noted what a beautiful cruising are we have.
Later we went to the tip of Anglesey and took this picture of Puffin Island with the Orme in the distance and Conwy to the right.
Some of the waves were inches high.
