Nice.... The only thing that stopped us from making an offer for her then and there were the sore shoulders we had from polishing. A 55 has another couple of acres of GRP to maintain compared to our little craft.
By now, we were in danger of becoming resident in Bangor again and getting council tax bills. So, it was time to wander on. There were no real weather windows for a run all the way to South Wales - you need 36 hours realistically and the depressions kept coming over with monotonous regularity. Still, there was one window - daytime too and one which fitted with the tide times to get maximum help on a run to Holyhead. Hence, we decided to go for it.
The forecast was W 4 to 5 becoming S 4 to 5 and then force 6 pretty much as we would be tucked up in the harbour. The waves remaining from a couple of blowy days would be the most significant thing until later on, if we left at stupid o'clock (just before 6am) to maximise the tidal support. Lovely.
Up and out of the harbour by then was managed, navigation lights on but you could see the pot markers OK! The sunrise over Copeland Island was lovely - a shame that the pictures also show how grubby our pilothouse windows were:
Passing Donaghadee the harbour entrance was bathed in a nice yellow early morning light, unlike the grey view of it from our arrival in Bangor a few months ago:
It was a pretty uneventful trip after that. Not much commercial shipping about, a few fishing boats and almost no pleasure craft until we were just off Holyhead. The waves were around 1.5 metres high and on the port bow so the stabilisers sorted those out with no real effort. Passing around the southerly part of the Isle of Man (The Calf of Man) it was a little more chopped up as usual with about 2 metre waves and some confused stuff on top of those. Again, nothing that stopped lunch!
Our route:
shows what looks like a shallow S curve again - letting the tide carry us to the east and then back again to the west as it turned. For those who are into oceanographic currents, the deviation from a straight line course caused by the tide was 2.8 miles. Then it took us nicely back again and at just the right angle to cross the shipping traffic separation zone off Holyhead at the prescribed right angles. Mind you, a couple of local yachts who were heading to Holyhead from the Lake District area didn't bother, they just sailed over at funny angles. Wonder if the local coastguard ever takes any action when there is no commercial traffic about to be impeded.
Heading down to the harbour, you pass the Skerries rocks and lighthouse close by:
The ugly box in the left of the picture is the old Wylfa nuclear power station by the way. It was the last working Magnox station in the world and closed at the end of last year. Not attractive, modern, working or funded by the Chinese. A replacement is planned sometime soon on the site it seems. The new one would be setup and run by Hitachi - clearly we trust the Japanese more than the Chinese (funding for Hinckley Point). Guess that depends upon having no more Fukushima disasters before they seek approval though.......
On the way, we had been emailing John and Angela, a couple who own a yacht kept in Holyhead to see if they were on board. Luckily, they were and they kindly kept us updated on berthing availability as there was an old Gaffers rally taking place. Look at North Wales old gaffers Facebook page for some pictures. The harbour entrance looked inviting but dull - for some reason we both felt tired by the time we made it:
John and Angela had spotted an excellent gap for us and were a most animated welcoming crew when we berthed unwashed and in the case of the captain, in dire need of a shave. We really should try to uphold the Nordhavn brand image a little better.
Some numbers
We covered around 94 miles on our track. Less through the water as we had a balance of favourable tides (5.7% overall according to the prediction software but that is never so accurate on the parts of passages close to the shore where the tide runs very strongly). That took around 13 3/4 hours. On purpose we ran the engine a little harder than normal (1675 rpm) to maximise the tidal benefit and to get into Holyhead before the wind really picked up from the south. We even had an 1800 rpm run (what most folks would call their normal coastal cruising speed) for the last couple of hours. The fuel burn per nautical mile is much higher - from about 3.3 mpg at 1450 rpm to 2.2 mpg at 1800. Extravagance!
Other numbers? Well, the crew slept for around 2 hours of the trip - probably not terribly interesting for you though.
Maintenance
The captain went mad and gave the genset an oil and filter change the day before we departed as it was just over 6 months since the last one. Nothing too exciting really.
En route, during a routine engine room check, some oil was noticed in the area of the "turbo oil drain hose from hell" again. If you are sad enough to read this stuff regularly, you might recall the little battle with a piece of hose that eventually won and stayed in place albeit with more clips to effect a better seal:
Well, it looked like it was weeping again - nothing serious, just enough to leave a trace on the engine block underneath. Something to check and potentially use bad language about in Holyhead. If it has started its old trick again, replacement is the only real option. We hope that the nice new piece of hose, which has been "stretched" by leaving a couple of hose tail fittings in it, will be easier to fix into place this time. The easiest way of all would be to remove the starter motor to gain good access but that in itself is tricky - one bolt hidden away a little.
We will let you know how much bad language the oil smear causes when the engine is cold and the source can be properly checked!
