Good Mood #8/22 More firsts

On the evening of Thursday 6th July I attended the LaLa Rally Briefing, in the headquarters of the North Wales Cruising Club, Conwy.

The LaLa Rally is an annual ‘fun’ event. Members of the North Wales Cruising Club leave the Conwy, sail out into the bay, head south-west past Puffin Island, into and down the Menai Straits and, eventually, into the Royal Victoria Dock in Caernarfon, where they are the guests of the Royal Welsh Yacht Club. The Royal Welsh was established in 1847, so having been sailing for 175 years the club has a rich history, and has access to a tremendous amount of local knowledge.

The LaLa Rally got its name from the original start and end points: the Liverpool Arms (well yes, it would be a pub, wouldn’t it?) in Conwy, to the Liverpool Arms, Menai Bridge (Anglesey) – a distance of about 12 miles – with an overnight stay in Menai Bridge. These days the LaLa Rally takes place over three days/two nights and makes passage all the way down the Menai Strait, through the notorious Swellies, to Caernarfon, I was planning to face the challenge of negotiating the Swellies in the company of more experienced sailors. My reward was the legendary hospitality of the Royal Welsh at the Caernarfon end!

At 08.30 the morning after the LaLa Rally Briefing, on a heavily overcast but otherwise calm day, on a falling high water, and in the company of twenty seven(!) other boats, Good Mood motored down the Conwy, out into the bay, set sail and headed towards the Menai Straits.

Winds were not favourable. Shortly after passing Beaumaris I put the sails away and we became a motorboat. Near Ynys Gaint the fleet picked up individual mooring buoys to wait for the favourable slack high water at the Swellies. Slack high water or slack low water being the optimum times to go through the Swellies. The buoys on this eastern side of the Menai Bridge are attached to smaller buoys which are relatively easy to pick up and put on deck. Attached to each of the smaller buoy is a sturdy length of chain, so mooring is straightforward here.

Securely moored, I checked the boat over, made a couple of cheese cobs and a hot chocolate, picked up my book and promptly fell asleep.

A couple of hours later the fleet released their moorings and motored down river, into the challenging Swellies, and out beneath the magnificent Menai and Britannia Bridges.

By this time the weather had cheered up and the sun was doing its best to fry me. Notwithstanding the temperature, it was quite an experience to pass beneath these huge structures, but my concentration was 100% on passing safely through the Swellies; too many vessels have met their ends here. Rather than rely on the boat in front, I had written my own passage plan for transiting the Swellies. It was reassuring to note that all of the boats in front held to the same navigation marks that I’d put on my passage plan!

The fleet successfully made it through, and we travelled down the Straits to Caernarfon where we were put in a holding pattern by the Harbour Master. One by one we were called in over the VHF, and were assigned our rafting-up position. With help from the boat to our starboard, we successfully rafted up, switched everything off, checked the boat over, and headed to the shower block.

In the early evening some people opted to hang around on their boats for a while, some opted to go straight to the Royal Welsh. I joined the latter group. The hospitality was awesome. A terrific meal was laid on, and the Royal Welsh have a very well-stocked bar. I bought a couple of raffle tickets but haven’t received my top prize yet. Afterwards we walked around Caernarfon. If you’ve never been, it’s a tremendously pretty little town, with an interesting blend of ancient and newer architecture. The western side of the castle stands imposingly right on the waterfront.

The first thing that struck me was how lovely it was to hear Welsh being spoken by almost everyone. 150 years ago everyone would have spoken Welsh. 50 years ago hardly anyone would have. The resurgence in the Welsh language and culture brings me such tremendous joy.

About 08.00 the next morning five of us boarded the boat that was on the outside edge of our raft, and together with about a dozen other NWCC members, we motored down to Plas Menai where we anchored and took dinghies to the beach. And what a beach.

The idea was that we’d have a barbecue, play some beach games (Pétanque), and generally gossip about boats and boat-related stuff. It was blisteringly hot. Egg-fryingly hot. And the beach had precious little shade. I went for a couple of walks around the promontory, and found an even better beach in what I believe was called Smugglers Cove. The sandy beach here was about a mile long and there were a total of five people on it. And a dog.

Two of the people had beached their plastic cruiser ashore at high water, and were obviously set in for the day. I just walked around the place, about three miles in total. And ignored the naturists doing their thing.

When the tidal gate back at Caernarfon was open, we dinghied out to the boats and headed back to Port Victoria. After a shower and change of clothes the local Chinese Takeaway got some money off me. In exchange I had an ice-cold glass of coke whilst waiting, and some really nice food to take back to Good Mood. One of the highlights of the day (but not the highlight of the day, obviously) was constantly rubbing the ice-cold glass of coke against my frying forehead. No, seriously.

After food, Tom, a fellow LaLa-er came aboard and had a look around Good Mood. Tom also has a Sadler 32 (same as Good Mood), and it was interesting to compare notes. Later I went over to his boat (Marisol) and had a look around. I came away with a few ideas of things to have a look at doing in the future.

The next morning, Sunday, the rafted boats unpeeled themselves from their moorings and made their way out of the dock. We had a choice of either springing forwards and execute a tight turn and proceed out normally, or motor about 250m astern, then progress out forwards. For all her good points, Good Mood is not an easy boat to motor astern. she has a vicious prop walk (it’s a thing that makes going astern difficult), and helming her going astern is such a challenge that Arthur and I have decided we aren’t going to put her on her pontoon in Deganwy by going astern. So we sprang forwards and… No, we didn’t. Overcome with a wave of confidence from I don’t know where I eased the boat into a slow astern and motored the full distance backwards, slowed, stopped, said goodbye to the harbour master on the VHF and motored correctly out of the dock. Bit disappointed there was no applause, but I’ll live with that for now.

At Port Dinorwic/Y Felinheli, we picked up a buoy to wait for slack low water at the Swellies. My temporary crew (Galia) was brilliant at this somewhat more challenging task. After buoying up, I think we both slept whilst waiting for the time and tide to be right.

After the Swellies we headed up river and just enjoyed the absolutely stunning views.

Once we were out past Puffin Island we sailed, but we had to travel a long way out to find a decent breeze in what was a very changing day. Galia proved she was no slouch at setting and trimming sail, but helming in tide and current was a new set of challenges for her (there being no tide and/or current on the lakes in Switzerland). She is excellent at mooring and setting lines too.

We got back in to Deganwy about 18.10 on Sunday evening. I gave Galia a lift to the train station, went back to the marina, put the boat to bed and drove home – got home just before 22.00.

I found the members of the North Wales Cruising Club to be helpful, friendly, and super informed mariners. The members of the Royal Welsh Yacht Club were tremendously generous in their hospitality, and welcoming. It was a brilliant two days of sailing and one day on the beach (getting fried). I missed my family so much and would have loved to have them all with me. There was even a spaniel aboard one of the NWCC boats. I like to think our two spaniels would have enjoyed themselves as much as she did.

The list of firsts:

• First passage down the Menai Strait, and
• First westwards slack high water passage through the Swellies
• First eastwards slack low water passage through the Swellies
• First rafting up
• First transit by dinghy to a beach
• First beach barbecue
• First passage plans used in anger
• First extended sternwards motor
• First sailing club event

Time making passage on the water: 15 hours. Total distance covered 38nm. Skipper: me. Acting crew: Galia (definitely would recommend her to other skippers who may be looking for a crewhand)