We went around Conwy one last time and found a defibrillator in a phone box, which I thought was a great use for the old style telephone box.

The weather predictions were fine and everything seemed good for the short passage to the top of the Swellies. However, once we were outside of Conwy Bay past the fairway buoy, the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse, with winds gusting to Force 8 and high waves. We had planned to anchor at Puffin Island, but with the weather we had, it would of been just too dangerous. So we decided to scrap those plans and head for the Menai straights. I thought that we would still make our destination which is the pier just outside Menai Bride but Beverley said no, we were going for Beaumaris. I learned later that Beverley had read the map wrong and that she thought we had two more hours of sailing to do, while in reality we only had two more miles.

In Beaumaris, one of the local tour operators, loaned us one of his mooring buoys, as one of his boats was out of opperation for routine maintenance. He was really helpful and we gave him a box of chocolayes for his trouble.

That night, it was still gusty, so the next day we went ibt Beaumaris itself. On the pier, children and adults were crabbing, which is a great way to spend an hour or two. In the town itself, we found yet another castle and the casltle gardens which were down another little alley. There was a lovely little courtyard full of little shops. My favourite shop was the local butchers and deli, with lots of local and forign produce and some really big onoins.

In the butchers we bought local lamb chops which Beverley made into a really nice tea. Lamb chops, potatoes and carrots might be really simple food, but it was really tasty.