We had been away from Salty Lass for two weeks while we sorted out solicitors, the funeral and a few other things. The list of outstanding tasks is still quite large, so we decided to continue on our journey . So once back near Salty Lass we bought a few bits and bobs to keep us going, but unfortunately we failed to buy cereal so the next day I had to make pancakes. It has been so long since I had made pancakes that I had to look up the recipe. Once I had made breakfast, Beverley checked our mooring lines for chafe. Once she had done that then I went upstairs because we had managed to get on the only public mooring that is available in the Menai straights and it is useful for other people to know about these things.

While Beverley and I were upstairs Prudence decided to make a move so she scuttled about the boat and she found a tin of tuna. I have to say her antics make me laugh and that is just what I need at the moment.

Just so that you know the public mooring in the Menai straights at the moment is at

53°N 13.446' 004°W 09.564'

It is not in the best of shape, as it looks like a mooring that was returned to the council for some reason and they have not got a maintenance contract on it at the moment, however if you are waiting for the tide in the Menai straights it is good to know that it is there. If you want to stay on it overnight, then you need to talk to the harbour master as there is a charge for staying there.

Once of the other things that we did was take down the tourist chart of Ireland, it was a little bit sad taking it down, but hopefully next year we will finally do that little trip.

The next day we got up at the crack of dawn, but the kind of dawn that I like. It was 5am and the sun was coming up, I don't see the dawn that often but I do like it, it is a lovely part of the day and I have a tendency to do my best work at that time in the morning. Beverley is not a morning person, she needs at least a cup of tea, followed by a cup of coffee, before she can even face the day. She is also a lot better at working at night, while I like to do as little as possible once tea time has passed.

It was an incredible dull passage with the only excitement being at the top of the Menai straits where the tide that was coming out of the straights meets the tide in the bay which was going across the top of the straits, so where they met was very lumpy. As we were motoring all the way, but while we were sailing we shared some of our conversations that we have with our viewers.

The moon and its phases - As a first approximation on the tide then by looking at the moon you can determine the state of tide. So for a new moon or a full moon, the tide will be at springs, while at a quarter moon the tide will be at neaps. The tide always lags the moon so you will have a full moon for example and the Spring will be a few days later.

Tidal calculations - As the passage from the menai straights oner to Liverpool is just over 12 hours then you will start the passage with the foul tide against you, so say your boat speed is 4 knots, the foul tide in the initial section will reduce your boat speed to 3knots, while later on the tide will be in your favour and for the same amount of throttle then your boat speed will be 5knots and what you lost in the initial section of the passage you will make up later. Please note these tides are just an example and are not what you really get.

Wind - We were going through the wind farm and not a single windmill was turning, so we chatted about how much wind we needed and we need at least 10knots of apparent wind to get Salty Lass going. We had 3knots of apparent wind and that is far too little for us and it is far too little for the wind farms as well

I spy - Just a silly game that we play. I'm afraid that I am not very good at it, so when Beverley said that she could I spy something beginning with W, I said water and Wales before I finally got to the right answer