Menai straights

A sea-kayakers quick calculation gave our departure from Beaumaris @ 12 noon, this allowed us a long sleep as we were both beginning to feel very weary. I suppose that not only are we unaccustomed to hard work but we are not getting any younger! The evening before listening to yet another poor forecast had raised the possibility of a few days rest in Cearnafon Marina. It's a town we both enjoy so the decision was pretty much made. It's a journey of a few hours through the straights but it has some notable hazards all of which can be avoided by precise timing. The most notable of these are the Swellies between Menai bridge and Britannia bridge, they are an assortment of rocks ledges and shallows that the tide can run through at up to 8 knots, in full flow it can resemble a river rapid.

The trick is to time your passage for slack water, this is a bit of a movable feast and involves timing with a bit of a guesstimate, for example strong south westerly winds can mean slack water being 10-20 mins early, a north easterly can have the reverse effect.

I calculated the we needed to be under Menai bridge at 1 o'clock.

The weather was typical Welsh drizzle and low cloud as we left Beaumaris and dropped the mooring buoy we had ' borrowed' the night before. We motored down towards Bangor and were admiring the many large houses that line the banks. If I ever win the lottery.........,As we approached Menai bridge I asked Lynne the time, " minute past one", close enough.......

We negotiated the Swellies easily ( it's all in the timing ) and Lynne still doesn't know what all the fuss is about, in fact she was more interested in the fact that Lord Nelson seemed to have been removed from his column and dropped by the riverbank.

Apparently you are supposed to salute him as you go by ( thanks to my mate Len for that bit of local knowledge )

We continued on past Port Dinorwic and Plas Menai, the Welsh national sailing centre and before long it was time to call up the Marina on the VHF, the marina is guarded by a sill so entry is limited to certain states of tide, sometimes as short as 30 mins.

It also has a very quick current flowing past at 90 degrees so it can be a tricky entrance to come in and  maintain your ' sang froid ' Mark in the control room initially said he would be wIling to help with our lines but later changed his mind because it was raining! He also directed us to a completely different berth. As it turned out it was a very easy berth to get into even though it needed us to do a 180 degree turn in the marina.

 Another day another castle..........if only all marina berths were as easy to manoeuvre into.

Here is our AIS track, don't  know what happened approaching Menai Bridge, well I do obviously I just can't explain the fact that Dark Tarn seemed to travel overground for a short while.

Short answer.........LOST SIGNAL.