...Tuesday 22nd of July and Glasson sailing club is stirring: something’s in the air,

Yes, it’s got to be the Annual Family Cruise!

Myself : ‘Yacht Phoenix’, ‘Rice Pudding 9’ and ‘Rolean’ launch and prepare to wait in the dock, others are already there, including ‘Nyoka’, Dennis Marsden’s new boat.

Also expected to join the cruise are ‘Moonshine’, ‘Pebbles’, ‘Riverdance’, ‘Two Shoes’, ‘Sea Otter’, ‘Salvador’, ‘Wyrewind’, ‘Strider’, ‘Esmerelda’, ‘Salty Fiddler’, ‘Toggenberg’, and ‘Suzi’.

It’s Friday, just after high water, and by chance we have seen various laws of physics being redemonstrated, for instance, Geoff in ‘Pebbles’ has experienced the law of ‘caoral symmetry breaking’ which was first tested by physicists in Serne, Geneva, using a muti-billion pound machine. In Geoff’s case he decided to connect his steering gear the wrong way round, thereby discovering that turning one way is not the same as turning the other and he narrowly missed colliding with the Jetty!

We have seen ‘Esmerelda’ involved in Newton’s third law which states that to every action there is a reaction – that is unless your launching trailer is not strong enough to take the reaction in which case it, er, collapses… as for ourselves on ‘Phoenix’ as more and more and more gear is loaded we thoroughly tested Archimedes’s principle which states that the mass of the floating object will displace its own weight in water, that is of course unless one of the glands can’t take the strain in which case the result is a severe leak!

It’s Friday night and we are all gathered, the various boat problems appear to have been fixed. We have been promised winds of 2’s-3’s (earlier in the week) with a nice high pressure over the Irish Sea for our voyage down to Conway but the predicted high pressure is slowly moving south and the actual forecast for tomorrow is 3’s-4’s… further to a chat with Dave on ‘Toggenberg’ it seems the forecast has got slightly worse and a 5 has now appeared…

So finally, I get the Family on board our boat (despite threats of mutiny and divorce) they are all in bed now and dreaming of tomorrow's voyage, I’m also dreaming of it but considering bolt-holes in case this force 5 does develop.

I get up at 3.30 a.m and decide that we are not going to go after all - what I had been looking for were ‘silk- like’ seas and a force 5 is almost certain to put the family off joining the cruise next year. Esmerelda is rafted up next to me, they are gung-ho and are certainly on their way, as are: ‘Moonshine’, ‘Pebbles’, ‘Rice Pudding’ and others. I go back to bed and later we enjoy a nice breakfast round at the club, though feeling a little unhappy at not actually going.

By Saturday lunchtime we hear the news that the predicted force 5 has become a 5-6 and boats have been scattered to Piel Island and the waiting Pontoon at Fleetwood. However, two boats have decided to carry on, they are ‘Riverdance’ at 42’and the much smaller boat the 22’ Esmerelda, a wooden Catamaran.

‘We hear later that ‘Riverdance’ has made it to Conway, though nothing was heard of ‘Esmerelda’ for a while, we later got news that there had been a mayday issued from her, the helicopter came out and dropped them a pump as they were taking on water, there were then problems with the pump so the lifeboat came out and towed them in towards Conway, ‘Esmerelda’ had to be dragged onto the beach which turned out to be rocks and ‘Esmerelda’ is now a wreck – fortunately her crew are safe and sound.

We learn on Sunday that the predicted force 5 turned out to be a 6-7, certainly gusts of force 7 were recorded at the Crosby weather station. The winds were so strong around Glasson that I couldn’t take ‘Phoenix’ back onto her trailer in order to check on my leak and had to leave her at the club jetty.

The weather forecast showing improvement (3-4’s on Monday, 2-3’s on Tuesday) we decide along with ‘Toggenberg’, ‘Nyoka’, and ‘Penny Diamond’ - John Broadhead’s new boat, to leave for Conway on Tuesday, (leaving us time for an impromptu barbecue, and a chance for John, crew of ‘Nyoka’ to show off his impression of the Naked Chef) we are tucked up in bed by 10.30p.m and ready for the real start to our family holiday.

Four boats in all are set for a 7.00a.m departure after being awoken by the promised 5.00a.m alarm call of Dave Crowther sounding his horn as he drives by the dock on his way to work!

Westerly 3, decreasing variable 2, has been delivered by mother nature and all arrive safely,

‘Toggenberg’ and ‘Nyoka’ going on to Penrhyn with ‘Nyoka’ under tow from ‘Toggenberg’ for the last stretch due to engine failure. We accompany ‘Penny Diamond’ to Conway, crossing the sandbanks on a direct line from Great Ormes Head to Conway number 8 buoy, in order to join the rest of the Glasson Sailing Club entourage, arriving at 6.00p.m to a warm reception with Jeff and Norman and one or two others there ready to take our lines and turn the boat around for us, so now it’s off to the Conway Sailing Club.

Penrhyn Harbour

It’s a misty morning with sunshine, Wednesday 28th July, we are under engine departing Conway in company of ‘Pebbles’, we are intending to go up towards Puffin Island and into the Menai Straits and then down to the Menai Bridge, where Jeff has promised us there is a nice floating jetty waiting for us. Others have decided on a sail around Puffin Island or to go fishing, some are remaining in Conway for another day, hopefully we will all meet up again soon in Caernarvon , after having gone through the ‘Swellies’.

The ‘Esmerelda’ story is unfolding and sadly we have heard that looters have been stealing from the wreck, which at the moment seems impossible to prevent.

Apparently the Lifeboat men who attended were at a small wedding when the call from ‘Esmerelda’ came, most of the congregation including the Groom were made up of the Lifeboat crew, fortunately the Groom remained behind to finish the ceremony!

‘Phoenix’, ‘Pebbles’ and ‘Moonshine’ were all at the end of Puffin Island, there were hundreds of Cormorants, and thousands of other seabirds, seals basking on the rocks and in the water, in the distance there is the disused Monastery. It is interesting that the Kids seem far less interested in seeing the real wildlife and the thousands of seabirds, perhaps since they see so much via the t.v. and the internet the real thing doesn’t seem so exciting.

Dennis calls us from Penrhyn to let us know that he’s still got engine trouble and is up to his armpits in Gas Oil.

We moor up to the ‘Fisheries Protection’ vessel ‘The Prince Maddock’ at Bangor Pier, rafted up with ‘Pebbles’ and ‘Moonshine’ (‘Moonshine’ is having a problem with his sail which is now being repaired) Other boats are still on Puffin Island catching plenty of fish and I have christened my ‘Asda’ ten pound fishing rod and caught my first Mackeral.

It’s Sunday 1st August, which happens to be my 23rd Wedding Anniversary!

Everyone is now back in Caernarfon apart from ‘Toggenberg’ who is still at Abermenai, Norman has just come back from Port Dinlaen, ‘Strider’s’ crew has gone off to hospital to have a suspected broken leg mended, Norman and Mick reckon she has now got plaster on it crutches and a parrot!

The high pressure system is still with us, hot, mediteranean weather continuing. We are looking forward to an expedition to ‘Wetherspoons’ followed by a visit to the Royal Welsh Yacht Club, hosted by Les, and we are off to Port Dinorwic tomorrow.

We all meet up with Tom and Irene in the Royal Welsh Y.C.

Everyone is going off to Port Dinorwic, Tom and Irene on ‘Salty Fiddler’ set off to go through the ‘Swellies’ and then on to Fleetwood in order to attend a funeral, but by reaching Puffin Island were beaten back by the weather and ended up in Beaumaris . The rest of us had a convivial evening at a restaurant and met up at the pub later in the evening.

Force 6’s are forecast for today – Tuesday, so Tom and Irene have decided to leave their boat in Beaumaris and go by land to the funeral. The rest of us are spending the day in Port Dinorwic, one or two are going off to Llandudno. We are in a very nice harbour, with good shower facilities and good restaurants. We all ended up port bound in Port Dinorwic, some people made reccies to Llandudno, ‘Moonshine’ went of to Phwelli (to check out the prices for Butlins) so the highlight of the day was a birthday card for Ian and an ensemble rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” Ian is a year older than he was last year, 54? Apparently Norman was married when Ian was born….

We are set for the final voyage home on Saturday, virtually everyone else has left and is headed for Glasson Sailing Club, that’s ‘Phoenix’, ‘Strider’, ‘Two Shoes’ and ‘Nyoka’. Unfortunately ‘Salty Fiddler’ is having engine problems and is still left in Beaumaris. Yesterday was very relaxing in preparation for today. We went over to see what was left of ‘Esmerelda’ on the beach near to Llandudno, there was just the mast and sails lying next to the boat, virtually everything else had been stripped out.

On the journey from Conway to Glasson we saw a dolphin by the boat which was a very nice sight. Yesterday ‘Toggenberg’ and ‘Moonshine’ sailed from Conway to Glasson, the previous day ‘Pebbles’ and ‘Rice Pudding 1X’ made the trip across. ‘Pebbles’ arrived in the dark and to a sizeable thunder and lightning storm with torrential rain that apparently was a little bit frightening and Linda was particularly not very happy but they arrived in one piece.

The rest of us arrived safely and are looking forward to next year's Family Cruise.

Colin Lambert, ‘Phoenix’.

P.S. Salty Fiddler also arrived safely at Glasson in the early hours of August 17 with Alex Wilson nursing the poor old boat for the last leg of her epic journey.