The First Leg South

Dan and I are now down in Shropshire, visiting Dan’s family.

We arrived at Anglesey on the 8th of October after a very successful and promising trip down from Ullapool. We left Ullapool on the 3rd of October at 8am, waving to our dear well wishers on shore and sailed out of a very beautiful and autumnal Loch Broom. It was cold as we set sail , and wet, we soon had the stove light aboard, it was cosy and delightfull. We started to take in the fact that we were off! We turned up the music, put the kettle on and the sun came out after a while as we were approaching Rhue Reigh. It was very exciting to be off. That evening we reached Sandaig Bay south of the tidal narrows of Kyle Reigh.
The following day on to anchor the night north end of Eigg. Then the third day we set of from there and carried on for the following 46 hours to The Isle of Mann in the Irish Sea. We sailed out toward Coll, then down outside Mull, The Treshnish Islands, Colensay, Islay, and round Rathlin Island off the North Coast of Ireland, and down the North Channel to Port St Mary on the southern end of The Isle of Mann at 5.30 am on the 7th of Oct. We had been very lucky with the winds for the last few days with westerly and north westerlys. The weather was to change so we thought we would stop off of a day or two to explore the Isle of Mann. We had a great time there , we took the little steam train across the island and enjoyed being on land as it was the first time we had been off the boat since Ullapool.

The following day the winds were set east so we decided to leave for Anglesey. We were 13 hours to the start of the channel at north of Anglesey. we crept in in the darkness looking out for the light bouys and listening out for the ancient sound of the bell clanging every 30 seconds out of teh dark from the lighthouse on a rock at the start of the channel.

We anchored off Beaumaris that night. The following day we waited for the tide at 4.30pm under the bridges, to pick up a mooring of a friend, Denise Evans, and to meet her and Dans mother Ruth.

Ruth stayed a night aboard and the following day took us to Shropshire.

Menai Bridge

 

Advertisement