Round Britain day 90

[snorkmaiden]

Up at 5 to be ready to leave as soon as the Conway Marina flap dropped at 5.55. At 5.50 I started moving out of the berth, but it was slow progress as I was cutting through some mud. Reversed out to the channel between the pontoons and the depth increased to 0.3m below the keel and the main channel was showing 1.3m clearance. Perhaps some dredging might be in order. The sun was just starting to show over the hills across the water. The flap had dropped 2 minutes early, so I was able to immediately leave the marina. Finding the buoys to follow the channel out was much easier than entering on Saturday as there was hardly a whisper of breeze. The sails stayed stowed today.

It was such a peaceful morning, making it a shame to disturb the tranquility as I motored towards Puffin Island. Halfway there, a Fisheries Protection boat powered past, so I need not have worried. Puffin Island is a rocky outcrop that shows the fractures in the rock, but the puffins had already left. Swinging round to enter the start of the Menai Straits, the black and white lighthouse on Anglesey has an unusual sign painted on the side. There was a light tidal push of about a knot aiding my progress, so I decided to reduce the engine revs to keep the speed at a sensible level. There are plenty of buoys to ensure you stay in the channel. It was lovely to see lots of green fields and trees on both sides of the straits, plus the hills on the mainland side. The first place I passed was Beaumaris with its castle, closely followed by Bangor with its long Garth Pier.

Finally, Thomas Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge, which opened in 1826, came into view. It is a magnificent structure and for those with larger boats might like to know there is 21m clearance at highest astronomical tide. Now came the tricky part of the Swellies. The narrows had pushed the tide up to 3½ knots with plenty of swirling eddies that tried turning the boat. Then I was fast approaching Robert Stephenson's Britannia Bridge, which was completed in 1850 and combines a rail and road bridge. I passed under the mainland arch, but could only photograph it after passing under it as it is so close to the Swellies. Just past it on the Anglesey shore, is a statue of Horatio Nelson, which was a surprise. Ahead was an impressive mansion on the same shore, this is Plas Newydd House, which is maintained by the National Trust.

Then Port Dinorwic passed on the port side, which I have been told that one lock gate is currently inoperative and there is only 12ft of width to enter the lock. At last I approached Caernarfon and called up Victoria Marina on VHF for a berth. There was certainly quite a strong cross tide approaching the entrance, but watching how fast the sideway slide along the wall made it look tricky. In reality the tide eased the closer to the wall and it was easy to enter safely. I was told to berth alongside a catamaran, even though there were plenty of empty finger berths. This did make it slightly more difficult to connect to the mains electricity (over £5 a day!) and fill the water tank. The trip had taken only 4 hours and I could still have entered the marina an hour and a half later.

Still feeling peckish I had some brunch and looked at the forum. I had difficulty keeping my eyes open, so stretched out and slept for 3½ hours. Walking ashore, I started chatting to Dave and Carol on a Sadler 34, Liquid Asset. They were returning from having been down to the minor rivers and creeks of the southern coast of Cornwall. Off I toddled to the ASDA supermarket for some shopping, but once returned I realised I had forgotten some items. This time I went to Morrisons, which was a bigger store than ASDA, with a better range of products.

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Sun is just rising between the entrance markers of the marina.
An even more striking photo has been posted here. Just pictures #847

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Looking back at Great Orme Head. Oops, I have been told this is Little Orme, not Great Orme.

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Puffin Island

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Some idiots must have tried it in the past

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Telford's suspension bridge

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Britannia Bridge in the distance with the Swellies between

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Just about to get to the narrowest point of the Swellies

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Looking back at the Britannia Bridge

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Horatio Nelson statue

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Plas Newydd House

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Caernarfon Victoria Marina

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For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1

Great blog and pix. An area I know well from the land side. Thank you.

 

[creeks]

Thé National Film Archive of Wales (based at the National Library of Wales Aberystwyth), has some lovelyfootage of 1930’s yacht racing around the Swellies, and some sad footage of HMS Conway going aground whilst being towed.

Wonderful footage of the Fifes racing. Great link - thank you!
At least one of those in the film, No. 7 Siglen at about 1 minute in, is still racing today along with others of similar vintage.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Wonderful footage of the Fifes racing. Great link - thank you!
At least one of those in the film, No. 7 Siglen at about 1 minute in, is still racing today along with others of similar vintage.

So pleased to hear you found the footage, I did the restoration of those about 20 years ago. Retired now but still keep an interest.

 

[creeks]

So pleased to hear you found the footage, I did the restoration of those about 20 years ago. Retired now but still keep an interest.

Don't wish to distract any more from Concerto's thread but do you happen to know if the RAYC are aware of this footage being available online?

 

[Praxinoscope]

Don't wish to distract any more from Concerto's thread but do you happen to know if the RAYC are aware of this footage being available online?

Possibly, but as far as I know no-one has ever contacted them directly, but if they contact the Archive at the NLW I am sure a copy could be made available,
Other sea related treasures include ‘The launch of the first motorised Barmouth Lifeboat (1936’ and an RNLI film from 1947 ‘Shipshape’.

 

[creeks]

Possibly, but as far as I know no-one has ever contacted them directly, but if they contact the Archive at the NLW I am sure a copy could be made available,

Sorry I thought you realised, it's here, freely available:
Watch Racing on the Menai Strait - BFI Player

 

[Praxinoscope]

Sorry I thought you realised, it's here, freely available:
Watch Racing on the Menai Strait - BFI Player

Yes I know I did the digital transfer of it as part of a project about 10 years ago, but since I retired a lot more titles have been added so am not completely up to date.
The BFi player is a great resource for anyone interested in the moving image, and the Wales Film Archive has a lot of footage on it, but the original material, in this particular case 16mm b/w is held in the vaults at the NLW.

 

[creeks]

Yes I know I did the digital transfer of it as part of a project about 10 years ago, but since I retired a lot more titles have been added so am not completely up to date.
The BFi player is a great resource for anyone interested in the moving image, and the Wales Film Archive has a lot of footage on it, but the original material, in this particular case 16mm b/w is held in the vaults at the NLW.

Thanks to your original post about the archive I've now found footage of the boating lake canoes that I first started boating on as a child in the early fifties and also footage of dinghy racing which I think includes me in my first boat! And much more of interest.
And thanks to Concerto for the thread that led to this discovery!!

 

[Praxinoscope]

Thanks to your original post about the archive I've now found footage of the boating lake canoes that I first started boating on as a child in the early fifties and also footage of dinghy racing which I think includes me in my first boat! And much more of interest.
And thanks to Concerto for the thread that led to this discovery!!

Fantastic, finding footage that people can relate to was one of the great things about being the Preservation Officer of the Archive for some 25 years.

 

[creeks]

This is worth a share - the lifeboat's got sails so qualifies for inclusion in a yachting thread:
Watch Return of the Llandudno Life-boat after going to the assistance of a schooner - BFI Player
and qualifies for this particular thread because when they come ashore in calmer water they're right in the lee of the Great Orme, featured earlier in this thread!

 

[Concerto]

The next report is here

Round Britain day 93

 

[Blueboatman]

The next report is here

Round Britain day 93

I have been enjoying catching up with your adventures immensely.

The drone brings in a third dimension. Quite handy for future navigation clarity to those who might follow , I would think?

A big thanks for the efforts , it’s really top draw standard Roger( imho !)

 

[Concerto]

I have been enjoying catching up with your adventures immensely.

The drone brings in a third dimension. Quite handy for future navigation clarity to those who might follow , I would think?

A big thanks for the efforts , it’s really top draw standard Roger( imho !)

Thank you.

The drone video of the Swellies is certainly going to be instructive, even I could have learnt a thing or two from it as I now realise I was close to several rocks.

There are a re few times I wanted to fly the drone but restrictions were in place. Kirkwall has an airport close by so not allowed there. Caernarfon was an unlikely placeI could not fly due to there being a army reserve training base close by.

Generally the drone takes great photos and videos, provided the operator knows what he should be doing. It was a stiff learning curve initially and a lot easier now. After a few poor photos I realised the drone camera must not point towards the sun as it causes the images to suffer bloom. A couple of times I have lost signal well within the normal range. Strong radar and possibly mobile phone masts may have been the cause. The Return to Base function failed to work in both instances, so I used the height and distance measurements to bring it back closer to restore full control. Once I very nearly lost it as the bottom of it brushed the top of a harbour wall. Then on several occassions I had strong wind warnings and had to descend from 100m high down to 40m to get it back. You would not believe but twice birds have tried to attack it, herring gulls in Lerwick and oystercatchers in Lunna.

Still not flown it off the boat whilst sailing as the weather has not been suitable. Yesterday was probably the first day it might have been possible, but I was too tired to risk it. Maybe in the next couple of weeks it might be possible.

I certainly have not used it as much as I thought I would. It is so small that I carry it in a back pack when out on the bike and have used in some unusual places. Overall it is a wonderful tool to have on board and I can see applications like finding a good anchoring spot, provided there is clear water.