A muddy day
The forecast announced just one more day of nice weather before the arrival of a storm. We decided to go out for the day, stay for the night and to go back the next day to give Geoffrey, our Dutch guest, the chance to catch a plane home.
This meant, having checked the Western Almanac, leaving the boat at low tide on Sunday morning. Low tide means boat stuck on sand bank and some problems getting back to the car. But all in good time.
Geoffrey and Geke with Alltwen (252 msl) in the background
We arrived at HW-2.5, which means the tide is coming back in...at speed. It was up to Geoffrey and me to row the dinghy to Sea Ghost to pick her up from her mooring. This is about 300 meters cross stream. We left from Conwy jetty to quickly bridge the gap to the nearby pontoon. From there we would walk the lenght of the pontoon upstream to end up much higher than our target.
We set off from the top end of the pontoon, but I quickly realised that the current was was out-performing oar power at an alarming rate. Having crossed the main stream, there were few other boats moored to hold onto and have a rest, so we ended up 200 yards down stream of Sea Ghost. We held on to an empty mooring buoy to let the arm muscles rest for a while.
From the distance we were obviously spotted by a lone and worried widow who sent the over-priced harbour launch after us. The ferry we tried to avoid was so kind to tow us the last 200 yards to the boat, which saved my biceps and another 30 minutes struggle.
Sunset with a storm approaching
We brought Sea Ghost along side the Conwy dock and all supplies and gear was loaded on board. This was followed by scraping the bird excreta from the deck, and proves children can be useful.
Drying out in the evening
We set out at 13:10 (HW) on the motor. Out in Conwy bay the forecast of wind force 3 to 4 turned out to be fake. We were forced to motor the whole way to fairway, following the channnel.
Around 14:20 we arrived at fairway and tried some more sailing. The GPS indicated only 1.4 kts and gave no indication if that is measured forwards or backwards. I tried out the new hand compass for an EP, which would have given us a fairly accurate position if I had subtracted the variation to get from Compass to True bearings. At least I didn't draw a cocked hat on land.
We moored back in Conwy at around 16:00. Most of us relaxed while I did some maintenance work. Sea Ghost settled rather uneven with her nose in a pool and stern on a bank. Geke cooked tea and I took Meryl and Timo out on the sand banks which was a real adventure. We managed to wade to the Delganwy side of the water and checked some of the route we were planning to take early on Sunday morning at low tide. Meryl and I didn't test the last 50 yards to the Conwy bridge, which goes to show that in sailing you can't leave anything to chance.
That night a storm battled with the current which way the boat would be pointing. The next morning we found out the Dinghy had lost one of its oars. So much for rowing back then.
The next morning after breakfast the tide was slightly higher than the night before (1 ft) and we put most stuff in the Dinghy which I pulled up onto the sand back to unload. Another trip took all family members onto the bank. Geoffrey got slightly wet by walking into a pool instead following the shallow areas.
You've got mud on your shoes
Geoffrey and I managed to wade from the sand bank onto the Delganwy side of the river, with the family crossing in the Dinghy. Then still an adventure. About 50 yards from the Conwy bridge we discovered that the bit Meryl and I didn't check the evening before did in fact consists of knee deep mud.
Geke, who refused to take her shoes off, got stuck halfway, but as a real hero I managed to pull her out...sideways. Her shoes were sort of muddy when we reached the hard shore. Her socks as well. Her jeans too. As she got to the car she took her jeans off to the shock of some eldery people taking the dog for a quiet Sunday walk. "A real British person would use a towel& was the accurate comment.