Round the Skerries - 12/13 May 2018

[mick]

Aye good start to the Saturday going over the bar all ribs passing a stranded yacht with 2 kids on ,obviously the smaller ribs couldn’t take it in tow.
So TonyT and crew with the help of Miss isle got it back over the Bar into safe waters.

[Dan Gurney]

To be fair we didn’t just pass them by. Most boats stopped in response to the arm waving, and someone (can’t remember who) made an initial contact by voice. There was no VHF traffic to explain the situation though, so when people started to move off I think most felt that all was well and just went with the flow. I heard some traffic from Tony once we were moving but it wasn’t clear what was going on, partly due to wind/engine noise.

I’m not into apportioning blame but have thought about this at length since Tony filled us in on Sunday afternoon, and I do feel personally bad about my lack of action: we are all individually responsible for our actions even while travelling in company. For what it’s worth my ‘takeaways’ are:

1.I should have made sure I was personally satisfied that I knew what was going on and whether there was anything I could do to help before moving off; not just followed the flock.

2. I need to do something about being able to monitor VHF traffic more effectively at speed.

Another thought: is this a situation where the yachtsman could reasonably have issued a PanPan? I would have thought so? Or possibly just called up Holyhead CG to advise of his situation? Maybe this is a discussion for another thread?

Lastly, well done to Tony and Neil for making sure the yacht and occupants were safe!

[Pikey Dave]

For our part, we weren't even aware that there was a "situation". The first we saw was a load of boats heading towards the yacht way off on our starboard side. We stopped & observed from a distance & then saw the RIBS starting to move off. We assumed that whatever it was had been resolved. We had Ch16&8 on dual watch & heard no relevant traffic. We assumed all was good & moved on. If I had been on Caernarfon bar with engine failure I would have certainly been on the radio. The other question that springs to mind; it was a yacht, the wind was southerly the Menai lies roughly east west, couldn't he have hoisted his sails & sailed to safer water, or am I missing something?

[SteveHall]

I have to say, I also agree with Dan and Dave - The first we were aware was when Tom told us when we re-grouped. I did hear some chat on the VHF but again didn't hear that it was in distress at the time - I assumed Tony knew the WAFI's and thats how he knew of the issues and assisting.

[charliee]

I'm sorry to hear about the yacht, I'm afraid I was blissfully unaware of any issue, in fact I don't recall even seeing a yacht and certainly heard no radio traffic on the matter - well done to Tony & Neil.
Well what an amazing weekend with great company and fine weather. A huge thanks goes out to Nick for masterminding the plan and organising such an enjoyable weekend.
Many thanks also go out to those that safely guided us thru the "Swellies" (Nick & Dan) without incident and for our Sunday morning tour via the White House and the fish traps.
Please can our thanks be passed on to the crew of the RNLI lifeboat for there time in opening up and welcoming us on board, I hope we raised a few quid for them!
I had read much about Chris and his team at Ty Calch, they are indeed a fantastic bunch!
I now look forward to joining another event in the near future.
Hope everyone got home safely and many thanks again.
Charlie & jen

[Pikey Dave]

Wait your tern

[Dan Gurney]

Twas a pleasure to meet you and Jen Charlie. Thanks for making the trek north. We'll organise some more 'traditional' Welsh weather for you next time!

Originally Posted by charliee

Many thanks also go out to those that safely guided us thru the "Swellies" (Nick & Dan) without incident and for our Sunday morning tour via the White House and the fish traps.

N.b. Your guide for Sunday swirl round the swellies was Chris Caton, The Jedi of the Straits.

[SteveHall]

Originally Posted by Dan Gurney

We'll organise some more 'traditional' Welsh weather for you next time!

Shh Dan! I was telling everyone that Saturday was a 'typical' day weather wise for Wales - Always sunny, light winds, and never rains!

[charliee]

Thanks Dan, I must have met Steve, something about a micro climate and a rain shadow caused by Snowdon!
My Wife was rather concerned on Saturday morning when she realised that a high proportion of those gathered where dressed in dry suits. It had taken me a while to convince her to come, telling her that this would be a nice "sunday afternoon Drive" to the Skerries to look at a few birds with a few like minded soles, trying to convince her that the Irish Sea is sheltered, rather like the Solent (I think i might have dodged a bullet).
Chris many thanks for your guided tour on Sunday.

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by Dan Gurney

N.b. Your guide for Sunday swirl round the swellies was Chris Caton, The Jedi of the Straits.

cool, does that I can apply for a light sabre now, I can think of a few on the dark side that need sorting out

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by charliee

Chris many thanks for your guided tour on Sunday.

no problem Charlie, good to meet you both, hope you had a safe trip home!! as for the drysuits, with the tropical climate around the Nth Wales coast shorts are the better option

[tony t]

I met the family yesterday and he explained what happened, he was about to put out a call then he noticed the fleet of ribs and waved to get attention,
He and his wife were asking for help. He had engine failure, the wind and tide were in the wrong direction he was having trouble turn and he was close to the sand banks

It’s Caenarfon Bar not a place you want to be stuck.

Some ribs went over to see what the problem was,they had a word then turned and carried on, like Dave said I also thought everything was ok and turned to leave but the guy was still waving for help so we went over to assess the situation for ourselves, he asked for a tow he had two small children on board and said please I’m in trouble I need help..!! There’s no way you leave anyone who’s asking for help no matter what.

His wife tells me that they were told “sorry were on a day out”
If that’s true then I’m sorry but that’s unforgivable if someone asks for help no matter what the situation is you stop and do what you can.

It maybe cost us an hour we still had a great day out and made some new friends

On another note on leaving Caenarfon last night I also had engine problems with my car,i had to call the AA out it ended up with me having to wait for a flat bed lorry,my 3 hour journey home turned out to be 7 hours.

I’m glad they didn’t say sorry were having a night off [emoji848]

[neil.mccrirrick]

Nothing to add tony other than this link http://solasv.mcga.gov.uk/regulations/regulation33.htm

[SteveHall]

Originally Posted by tony t

“sorry were on a day out”
[emoji848]

That's really bad and extremely shocking to hear! I really didnt think a fellow boater would say that! I have heard people say no to tow when other more suitable boats are near or on the way, or say no due to their personal experience level or the conditions were to rough, but have still stuck with the disabled craft to ensure the situation didn't get worse, but never "no because im having more fun than you!"

[HUMBER P4VWL]

That’s awful if anyone said that to them. You never leave anyone who is struggling even if you’re in a poor position to directly assist, with that many boats of various sizes clearly we could all have helped!!!! Well done Tony/Neil.

I saw a few ribs slow and speak with them, with nothing on 8 or 16 and the first ribs then moving on I assumed it was just a yacht that one boat knew and they said hello.

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by tony t

I met the family yesterday and he explained what happened, he was about to put out a call then he noticed the fleet of ribs and waved to get attention,
He and his wife were asking for help. He had engine failure, the wind and tide were in the wrong direction he was having trouble turn and he was close to the sand banks

It’s Caenarfon Bar not a place you want to be stuck.

Some ribs went over to see what the problem was,they had a word then turned and carried on, like Dave said I also thought everything was ok and turned to leave but the guy was still waving for help so we went over to assess the situation for ourselves, he asked for a tow he had two small children on board and said please I’m in trouble I need help..!! There’s no way you leave anyone who’s asking for help no matter what.

His wife tells me that they were told “sorry were on a day out”
If that’s true then I’m sorry but that’s unforgivable if someone asks for help no matter what the situation is you stop and do what you can.

It maybe cost us an hour we still had a great day out and made some new friends

On another note on leaving Caenarfon last night I also had engine problems with my car,i had to call the AA out it ended up with me having to wait for a flat bed lorry,my 3 hour journey home turned out to be 7 hours.

I’m glad they didn’t say sorry were having a night off [emoji848]

Originally Posted by neil.mccrirrick

Nothing to add tony other than this link Solas Chapter V - Regulation 33 - Distress Situations: Obligations and procedures

good job you stoped Tony, no excuse for not helping someone out, even if all you can do is stay with them till the lifeboat turns up, at least there's someone to help if things turn for the worse, as Neil has pointed out it's not an option!!

[pow2gran]

We had a great couple of days and it was good to catch up with friends old and new

In terms of the yacht Tern they have a mooring in Caernarfon Marina and we had a chat with them on Sunday morning and I gave then Tony's contact details. There were 3 ribs in the marina for the duration of the weekend having launched just after the rain on Friday evening.

In my view its all about communication and put simply there was a failure to communicate effectively. As a group we did not use the radios nor did the yacht!

The lady from the yacht has thanked Tony but felt the desire to express her opinion on fb about someone saying that they were on a day out and not prepared to help. If as she says that her and the family were in 'distress' then surely they could have used the radio and even put out a pan pan. I would also assume that they have a DSC radio with a distress button.

We can all make judgment(especially on social media) and have different views but it is also good to reflect on situations and consider what we could do better next time. In the end on Sunday morning the lady's kids were catching crabs in the marina which is the good news!

A gathering of 24 ribs is never uneventful. As many of you were blasting up the west coast we lost Darwin Mike just after Caernarfon bar with a suspected fuel pump problem on his avon. He returned to Chris's pumping his fuel bulb. I was conscious of not leaving anyone behind and trundled up the west coast at the rear.

It was great to see so many ribs eventually make it to the Skerries a total of 24 were counted. 10 ribs went to Holyhead whilst the remainder carried on round the island. 9 of us visited the Don Smit and the Lifeboat Christopher Pearce. A collection raised over £256.84 for Holyhead Lifeboat. Thanks to Holyhead lifeboat crew who were so accommodating and Festinghouse for making it happen.

Like the earlier group the latter group chose to run down the east coast with a stop off at the Brick Works/ Porth Wen. The sea was in total contrast compared to the earlier morning run.

We caught the first group up as we reached Menai Bridge where Yellow Rib Clive was waving as he had run out of 2 stroke oil. Even though Clive didn't use his radio the message was successful this time. Having heard a radio message from Humber Paul about his impending stop at Dylans we pointed Clive in Paul's direction who sorted him out.

Our final leg saw us pass through the Swellies where we saw Neil with Miss Isle providing support for the second time in the day.

The day ended for us with 27 at Fus having Banquet B all buzzing.

Sunday for us was not as eventful, a shorter run, a slower pace but just as equally enjoyable. 7 ribs left around 11.00 . Our guide and Menai guru Chris Caton joined us. Chris took us to the heart of the swellies where we took time out to absorb the water and surroundings.

We then ran up to Puffin for lunch before three of us stopped off at the Gazelle for a pint eventually being recovered by Chris mid afternoon.

A big thanks to Chris and the crew at Ty Calch who smoothly launched 19 ribs on Saturday in 45 minutes.

Finally thanks to you all for an enjoyable rib rally. Hope to see you all soon!

Nick

[SteveHall]

Thanks Nick for a brilliant day! Hopefully next year I will be back in my own RIB for the run...

[Trevor G]

As per the others - thanks for organising a great day on the water.
The beach at Newry has a nice brick wall to tie to, so for anyone in the Hollyhead area it makes a great option for somewhere to have a coffee and loo stop until they re-build the marina.
Trev

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by pow2gran

.......In my view its all about communication and put simply there was a failure to communicate effectively. As a group we did not use the radios nor did the yacht!

We can all make judgment(especially on social media) and have different views but it is also good to reflect on situations and consider what we could do better next time. In the end on Sunday morning the lady's kids were catching crabs in the marina which is the good news

The day ended for us with 27 at Fus having Banquet B all buzzing.

Sunday for us was not as eventful, a shorter run, a slower pace but just as equally enjoyable. 7 ribs left around 11.00 . Our guide and Menai guru Chris Caton joined us. Chris took us to the heart of the swellies where we took time out to absorb the water and surroundings

I guess it's one of the problems with big groups eh Nick, communications will never be straight forward with so many out together, but as you say all ended well and the kids were enjoying crabbing in the marina

we were running very late after our day in the Mid Wales forests marshalling on the Pirelli Rally, 2 big offs resulted in the local Air Ambulance based in Caernarfon being called to take a navigator to hospital in Stoke with a serious fracture to his left femur, thankfully he's well on the road to a full recovery following an operation to set the broken bone on Sunday! so we missed the banquet b at Fu's, but Tony came to our rescue with the best cheeseburgers I've tasted in a loooong time, top man

Sundays run through the Swirlies to Puffin was a great end to another busy weekend for us, always happy to show visitors the local attractions, I never tire of time between the bridges, there's so much to see especially when the tides are running, the whirlpools are amazing!!

thanks to both you and Helen for organising the weekend, especially the weather, you must have worn your prayer mats out on that score!! and as ever thanks to Chris & his team at Ty Calch, I think a cake might be in order