While we were in Caernarfon we saw my brother and met a really nice guy who donated some money into our Ko-fi account. It was good to feel appreciated for the videos that we put out and the work that we put into them. Once we had sorted out a few more things it was time to continue on, so I took us out of the marina.
Leaving Caernarfon we had a fair tide because we were only going at 1,500 revs but we were going at 6.5knots. At one time, during the passage we had to go across the straits to go around a particular buoy and I didn't appreciate just how quickly we were being swept onto the buoy, which meant that we got really close to the buoy. Would of made great footage, but unfortunately we were not filming at the time. I then took us through the Swellies which is a tricky little passage with lots of twists and turns, but it was a really calm day and we had timed our passage so that we went through at high water slack, after that we continued up the Swellies and anchored at the pool just outside Beaumaris.
The next day we got up, just after midnight because we needed to get to Liverpool for 2o'clock pm which meant that we would be having to leave Beaumaris at 2o'clock am, so we were up as it always takes an hour to get Salty Lass prepared for sea and we also need to get going too. Beverley took us out of the anchorage with myself on the anchor. I tell you it was so quite at that time in the morning as we were the only people moving around.
We had navigated the top section of the Menai straits in the dark, reaching Puffin island just as the dawn was rising, then we tried to get to Liverpool, but it was a battle we had 22knots of wind on our nose and we were going far too slow, to make Liverpool in time, so by 5am we decided to go back down the Menai straits and decide what we were doing from there. The good thing about turning around was we were able to sail. The improvement that made to my mental state was huge as it allowed me to calm down and just think about sailing, rather than the hundreds of other things that were going through my head.
We sailed the whole way back down the Menai straits, eventually arriving at a mooring ball that one of our subscribers could lone us for the day. They would be returning the next day, so that we could decide what we wanted to do next. As we were moored and secured Beverley decided that after our passage failure that we should have a third breakfast. I have to say there is something appealing about a third breakfast, it just sounds so decadent.
We entertained ourselves that day playing scrabble and cards, but we were not in the right frame of mind for the games because I think we were both mentally and physically exhausted. Physically exhausted by the sailing and mentally exhausted by all the things that were going through our head. I really needed to get lots done, so we decided that we would break our trip in Menai and come back later after the funeral. So seeing as we needed a place to go that could take us for two weeks, we weighed up our options.
That night, we got very little sleep as the winds had risen and the tide was in full flow, so once again I was up in the middle of the night as were were being kicked around a lot due to the wind and tide. The next day we moored at the peir at Menai bridge and got stuff like washing sorted, we also organised a mooring ball for the time that we would be away, so with that all sorted we could leave Salty Lass and get stuff done.
