We arrived in Wales at the Menai Straits – a canal that runs between Wales and Anglesey. We were keen to visit the Straits for a few reasons – Felinheli is home to two OCC boats, Three Ships (Chris and Fi) and Ocean Hobo (Ian and Linda). I’d met Ian and Linda in Antigua, and then we met them all on the Azores Pursuit. Fi is also on the OCC committee – so we had lots to talk about! At the north east end of the straits lies the university town of Bangor – where I studied Agriculture for a misguided year. It also has the benefit of being located close to Snowdonia National Park and finally, I have two nieces (Cass and Alice) that live in the area with their families. Lots of reasons to visit!
It’s about 12 miles end to end…
Laurie, Chris, Linda, Ian, Fi, Bill
Fi and Chris were wonderful – arranging a mooring for us at Felinheli and then hosting us wonderfully with ferry to the grocery store, doing our laundry and feeding us! They are the Regional Rear Commodores for the UK and take the role very seriously. They have been seriously great hosts! Yesterday, Chris dropped us off in the middle of Snowdonia (maybe he’s trying to get rid of us?) allowing us to do a superb walk on a crystal clear day!
That’s Snowdon in the background
Mountains and Valleys
Moel Eilio to Llanberis
The mooring proved interesting – especially at the reversal of the tide when we had strong wind against tide setting up a very nasty chop – so much so that it was extremely challenging boarding from the dinghy. In the end we began to chafe through one of the mooring strops, and with heavier wind due in a couple of days (storm ‘Callum’), we decided to take advantage of the marina facilities and we’re now shoe-horned into the marina.
We rented a car for the weekend and stayed a night with Simon and Sally Currin in their beautiful house near Montgomery. Simon is OCC Vice Commodore, sally used to be treasurer and we had some interesting OCC debates (I lost) and followed it up with a lovely walk the following morning. On the way back, we stopped in for unexpected dinner at Cass and Graham’s mansion – they bought a massive fixer-upper in Bala and have done a magnificent restoration job on it. It’s a very comfy home.
We were certainly pleased to have moved into the marina – when Callum arrived, he did so with a bang – and 72 knot gusts! Fortunately the highest we saw in the Marina was just 37… Outside on the moorings the boats were heeling like crazy, 2 sank at their moorings, one looks like he’ll lose his mainsail another looks like the Genoa will take some serious repair.
Menai If you click the link, there’s a short video of the conditions below…
Blowing in the mooring field…
Well Heeled!
Today we have Alice and her throng (including newbie Agatha!) visit Toodle-oo! and then in a couple of days we’ll be off for our final passage of the year – across the dreaded Irish Sea to Whitehaven, our winter berth in Cumbria.