Shelter from a storm

Have you ever wondered how storms get named?   Well, I will tell you!  Storms are named in alphabetical order from names suggested by the public.  Each year the UK, Ireland and The Netherlands agree on 21 names (they don’t use letters Q, U, X, Y, Z) and by the start of August, the storms were up to the letter E.  Considering the storm naming season runs from September to August, that’s not many storms over the last year.   With this in mind, you would think our chances were pretty good at avoiding the strong winds and bad weather….  No such luck, in fact we were heading into not just one storm, but two within a few days of each other.

As we arrived in Aberystwyth (or Aber for those, like Steve, who can’t pronounce all the consonants!) we prepared the boat for the forecast winds before enjoying an evening walk along one of the old harbour walls.  The wind had started to increase and waves were crashing over the wall while (fool) hardy fishermen were still casting their lines – although I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the hook being flung straight back at them!    Feeling thankful we had navigated the narrow entrance in calm weather we returned to the boat where we listened to the winds of storm Ellen increasing in strength and volume as it whistled through the field of masts and rigging around us.

Storm Ellen lasted for three days with strong winds creating large waves which crashed against the sea wall with dramatic walls of water spilling across the roads and pavements.   We went for a walk along the seafront and could hardly walk against the strength of the wind, returning to the boat drenched from the driving rain.  

Aberystwyth is an old fishing port and still has a small fleet of small boats which normally leave every day.   The town centre was bustling and we enjoyed walking around the streets and exploring.   There is not too much to see in town – a small ruined castle and a number of rundown old buildings which must have been magnificent in their day – and there is a definite need for some good cafes but I believe C-19 has caused a number of places to shut.   Cafes must provide distance between tables and where this was not possible, some side streets had been closed to allow cafes use of the roads to set up tables – not a great option in the howling wind and rain!

We enjoyed our time in Aber and as soon as the wind and seas had calmed down, we followed the fishing boats back out of the narrow channel and continued our journey north.   The weather forecast was not great and warned of more winds to come in the next 12 hours so, unable to find a protected anchorage, we called the marina in Pwllheli (pronounced Poo-thelli by English) and booked a space for two nights.   Once again we negotiated a very narrow passage into the marina and a neighbouring boatowner helped us get into a difficult berth between other boats.  With the winds now upgraded to Storm Francis, we removed our bimini (canvas cover over the cockpit) as our allocated berth was quite exposed and side on to the winds.  

Storm Francis arrived in force.  We spent the day shuttered in the boat being buffeted by the winds and watching the wind instruments as they recorded gusts of 40+knots as Cerulean was pushed over on her side.   A distant flapping sound very quickly turned into continuous flogging as the jib of the unattended boat behind us started to unravel.  We called the Harbour Master on the radio to let them know and they in turn called the owners who lived locally.  By the time the owners arrived the sail was in tatters and I’m confident that we would not have been able to prevent a different outcome if we had attempted to rescue the sail.

It was with huge relief when the winds finally stopped blowing and we were able to leave the boat to walk in to town.   Pwllheli is a very small holiday town with a lovely sandy beach and a backdrop of the Snowdonia National Park – Mt Snowdon is England and Wales’ highest mountain.  The town itself offers very little, but the countryside around the area is lovely.

After two nights in the marina we continued our journey along the Welsh coastline.   The wind was in a perfect direction for us and we timed our journey through Bardsey Sound perfectly to pick up the tidal stream and travel at over 9knts at times through the narrow channel.  Even though it poured with rain and I had to be prized off the wheel to go and change out of my soaked clothes, I loved every second of that sail.  We averaged 7knts which, for a 14 tonne boat, loaded with a full tank of fuel and water, is a pretty good effort!   

As we dropped the anchor in the lovely bay of Port Dinlaen – only 15 minutes drive from Pwllheli Marina – after a 6hr sail, we received a call on the VHF radio from our marina neighbour who had caught our lines for us on arrival, welcomed us again, this time from his house as he watched us anchor!   He offered us a safe place to store the dinghy if we planned to come ashore, which we would have loved to do, but with the winds increasing and changing direction, we decided to stay on board to ensure the anchor was well dug in before evening arrived.   The bay is beautiful with northern views over Caernarfon Bay towards Anglesey and a great pub, apparently (Andy!).    We were so disappointed we could not go ashore to explore more.  

We have reflected on our time in Wales which has been dominated by strong winds that have governed our choices and dictated our experiences.   While it has been disappointing we have not been able to explore more on land, we have seen the beautiful coastline of Wales that most others have not been able to experience and we would not have missed for the world.  We have gained a lot of experience in passage planning to make the most of tides, getting to know how to handle Cerulean, gaining confidence in night sailing, knowing our limits, understanding what skills we need to improve on over the winter and how our refit budget is best spent.  

We had talked about needing to test our anchor in a decent wind to see whether we dragged and, with the saying, “Be careful what you wish for” ringing in our ears, just as we climbed into bed the winds increased and swung round to an on-shore blow.  Steve, being the wonderful man he is, left me to sleep while he stayed on anchor watch until the wind died down around midnight when he crawled into bed and managed to get a few hours sleep before the alarm went off at 4am. 

The wind was on the nose as we raised the anchor and started the engine.  We needed to be at the entrance to Menai Strait by 6:00am to cross the shallow sand bar 3hrs before high tide and the entrance was 20NM from where we had anchored.   We turned on the autohelm and kept watch from the warmth and comfort of our saloon. 

The difficult and treacherous entrance is very narrow, shallow and has shifting sands so the marked channel is constantly changing.  This means GPS can not be relied on, so we had carefully input the updating bearings downloaded off the harbourmasters website onto our chartplotter.    Even though we had arrived before high tide, there was still a current against us as we passed the first buoy marking the entrance.  As we did so, our GPS started beeping and an error message appeared on the display stating the signal had been lost.  This was followed by our depth sounder also going blank. 

Confused, concerned and with a rising heartrate, we decided to continue across the bar as there were few alternative safe havens from another blow that was forecast for the next day.   We ventured on feeling nervous with no other boat in sight.